James Duff October 5th 2014 ~ change in the season

Has anything changed for you this year or are things pretty much the same?  At first glance, things seem pretty unchanged:  Hawthorn wins again, Lizzy’s rule of Scotland continues and the chance of daylight saving happening again in WA seems further and further away.  But, for some of us, much has changed in 2014: a new job, new house, a new relationship, or a lost one, might all have been part of change for you in 2014.Whenever October begins, I feel we are in the home straight, a change has occurred, we start to prepare for the end of another year.  I’ve noticed conversations about Christmas carols, Synod, hot weather and holidays becoming more and more frequent around St Philips.  I have the urge to play more golf, buy cheap sunglasses from the petrol station and promise myself that I will begin my diet on Monday.  All these things remind me that there is a change in the season, in the year, in my mindset - but these changes have happened before and I do or am involved in these things every year.In past years I have got to this stage and survived to the end of the year by telling myself that in the new year my relationship with God is going to be different: it will be dynamic, I will get close with Jesus, my family will prioritise worship (UP), fellowship (IN) and mission (OUT) like never before.  I live with the hope that my life, although far from being bad, will be even better next year but it seems that generally most things stay the same. There are numerous reason why things stay the same or change but one reason why I think things on one level often stay basically the same for me is that, mostly unintentionally, I set, goals of change that are just way too big or unrealistic.On our walk back home from the Palmyra Farmers’ Market on Sunday, we ended up with a few more children from the surrounding neighbourhood.  As we dished out sausages in bread to about eight hungry kids, I took a pepper grinder and proceeded to grind some pepper onto a piece of bread. I taught the children that Jesus had something to say about what we had just done as an Oikos at the markets.  The small pieces of cracked pepper were like a small mustard seed, which might look small and powerless but really are packed with power.  God takes little things, like being good news together at a market, and makes them powerful for His glory.  The challenge for us is to concentrate on the little things.  Let God do the work and he will make the change in us, for His glory.  He predictably makes big changes . Although some changes may seem very small and insignificant, God is at work and big change has actually occurred.  Visible change may take way longer than we think, or sometimes it can happen rapidly - but, friends, it is a lay-down misère with God that change will happen.It seemed small and insignificant, not even a blimp on the radar of time, when a Jewish peasant carpenter was crucified nearly 2000 years ago. That tiny mustard seed changed everything for all time.  There has never been a more significant event in the history of the world than when God died in our place.  My prayer and challenge for us is that, although things seem the same at one level, the first change we need to do is to come close to God. We all need to ask Him to change us, to mould and shape us to be more like Jesus.  We need to concentrate on the small thing of asking Him to fill us with His Spirit and to completely rule our lives for, from what seems a little change, a big predictable change occurs.BlessingsJames