Loving grace

At Aston yesterday we'd a fun start to the Pure course with Pure Perfection, accompanied by multicoloured post-it notes on a whiteboard, multicoloured acetate pens & acetates circling round, and multicoloured highlighter pens for a bit of Gen 1 & 2 study. My Mother (who most marvellously visited me for the weekend) is sure there'll be something like a stationery shop in heaven; having got all this together for 'Pure Perfection' I think the lovely Linda Marshall must agree with her. It must be a primary school teacher thing. Anyway, it was great to be reminded of God's perfect creation plan.

Local uni. chaplain to CU leader: "Why do the CU go on about sex?" Baffled because we've not done any meetings, talks or studies on sex or relationships this year up to this point, CU leader wasn't quite sure what to answer other than pointing out that we were only getting round to it in February; but in Pure Perfection we did discover a possible answer as we looked at Genesis 1 & 2: the very first command that God gave human beings was to be fruitful, multiply & fill the earth!

Wolverhampton CU this evening had the lovely Linda Marshall in person as we had a tip-of-the-hat-to-Valentine's-Day meeting on Sex, relationships, love & being a Christian. That is, we hadn't got a very specific title, but Linda led us in looking at Titus 2.11-14: our motivation for living godly lives in the area of sex & relationships (and all other areas for that matter). It's grace! Grace that appeared in the person of Jesus, who gave himself for us to buy us back from all wickedness, grace that sustains us as we live in this inbetween age until he appears again. Not rules - which like Bridget Jones-style big pants may suck in some bits to make us seem more in shape, but actually just shift the fat to bulge out in other places - not rules but the grace of the cross and its hope for the future. The grace of knowing that we are already bought back, that we're loved by the King of the universe, the grace which gives us zeal to do what he likes for the glory of the One who bought us with his own blood. Staying in the grace of the cross and not moving away as if we could grow out of it -

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.