Slices
Prepare
Pray: ‘Lord, on this special day, I remember that your love holds me. In you I live and move and have my being.* Your holy presence is within me.’ Pause to reflect on this staggering truth.
Bible passage
Jesus promises the Holy Spirit
15 ‘If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.’
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, ‘But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?’
23 Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 ‘All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Explore
One Sunday evening, many moons ago, I was preaching on a verse in Paul’s letter to the Galatians where he speaks about the presence of the Holy Spirit, saying he is within us, crying out, Abba, or Daddy (Galatians 4:6). The penny dropped for me as I read these words. For the first time, I realised that worship is something in which I participate with God. There is an infinite flow of love going on within God and, through Christ, I am drawn into this circle of praise.
Jesus’ words here are similarly mind- boggling. His friends will soon realise they are intimately attached with the life of God. Henry Scougal (1650– 78), a young Scottish theologian who died in his twenties, wrote a short book with an arresting title: The Life of God in the Soul of Man. At one point, he writes, ‘Christians know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation in the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul…’
Respond
Pause to be still. Become mindful of your own presence but also of another within. Pray: ‘Lord, help me know your intimacy in the depth of my being.’
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 1 Kings 6,7; 1 Corinthians 12
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray that the children, teenagers and families who are participating in the trauma healing groups led by a member of the SU Chile team who is a psychologist will experience deep healing and find the love of Jesus.
