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Welcome!

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Above All Love: A Foundation of Faith Dear friends in Christ, Welcome. This space exists for one reason: love — the love of God poured out in Jesus Christ, the love we are called to extend to one another, and to the world. There are many voices clamouring for our attention. Here, you will find the rhythm of one heart seeking to follow the way of Love — a faith rooted not in tradition for its own sake, but in the living, active, self-giving love at the heart of the Gospel. Three truths have become my anchors. The first is the Living Word. Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. Apart from Him, the true God cannot be fully known. In Jesus, we see the face of a God who is Love, and whose Gospel is the path of Peace. The second is the Gift of Grace. Salvation is found by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. Grace is a gift — unearned, freely given, and life-changing. The third is the Way of Love. It is our joy and our calling to follow Him. Thou...
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Bible Verses for Lent

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Used with kind permission from Included by Grace
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Week 7 — Weekly Mencap Gateway Post

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  Mencap Gateway Week 7 Evidence Checklist Sunday check-in · approx. 5 minutes   Sunday reflection on advocacy, faith, community, and daily life Here's this week's evidence checklist and reflection. It's been a full, tender week — plans changed, ideas grew quieter and warmer, and small acts of advocacy continued behind the scenes. As always, progress isn't always loud. Section 1 🚶 Volunteering — Walk for Autism Evidence:   This week's advocacy and visibility work for Walk for Autism: Fundraising link posted on the   No. 6 One Stop Shop Facebook group   to reach a wider local audience. Used the   @highlight   feature to boost the post's reach and engagement. Section 2 🌿 Fitness — Nature Walk Evidence: Pictures of walk around the Scottish Bird Gardens in Lauder. Section 3 📖 Hobby — The Digital Parish & Daily Office Activity Daily prayer using the   Northumbria Community Office , with reflections on faith and life on this blog. This week also ...
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A Cry for Justice

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Lord God, Judge of all the earth — We come before You with heavy hearts. We grieve. We are angry. And yet we hold fast to hope, because Your justice is certain. You have spoken plainly through Your word. Your heart breaks for those whose lives are crushed by the powerful. You see what we see: We see these things today, Lord. We see systems that protect the powerful and leave the poor behind. We see the cost of war borne by those who never chose it. And we hear Your word grieve alongside us: So with Amos, we long for something better: All scripture quotations are taken from the  EasyEnglish Bible (EASY) , © MissionAssist. Available freely at  easyenglish.bible . Used under their open licence for non-commercial use.
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Following the Prince of Peace

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  A Christian Witness Against War What Christians through the centuries have said about violence, the sword, and the way of Jesus — from the Early Church Fathers to Spurgeon, Moody, Bonhoeffer, and beyond. Resource compiled from christian pacifism blog This post gathers the Christian witness against war from across two thousand years of church history. It is not primarily a political argument. It is a spiritual one. The question it asks is simply this: what does faithfulness to Jesus look like when the drums of war begin to beat? What have faithful men and women said — not just in our time, but throughout the centuries? Their answers are worth hearing. ✦ ✦ ✦ The Early Church: "A Christian Must Not Kill, Ever" Before Constantine, before the church was entangled with empire, Christians held a remarkably consistent position on violence. The earliest believers understood, from the teaching of Jesus himself, that their warfare was not of this world. Their testimony is striking in ...
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"Sell Your Cloak and Buy a Gun?"

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  ✦ Reading Scripture as it was written — not as we wish it to be Scripture & Interpretation Why context still matters when Christians reach for Luke 22:36 Every few months, the debate flares up again about guns and weapons. Even in countries that generally don't have a high level gun issue. Someone, almost always identifying as a Christian, drops Luke 22:36 like a trump card:   "Jesus told his disciples to buy swords. He would want you armed today." It's a compelling sound bite. It's also a textbook case of reading a verse while ignoring everything around it. Don't get me wrong we all do it sometimes. But, in cases like this it is profoundly dangerous. The Scene Jesus and his disciples are on their way to the Mount of Olives — just hours before his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. The atmosphere is charged with foreboding. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus tells them that Scripture is about to be fulfilled in him: he will be numbered among the transgressor...
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Charles Spurgeon: On War and Christians

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  ✦ ✦ ✦ "Long Have I Held That War Is an Enormous Crime " The Forgotten Voice of Spurgeon Against the Unrighteousness of War Compiled from the Sermons & Addresses of C. H. Spurgeon · Charles Haddon Spurgeon — the "Prince of Preachers," whose sermons filled the Metropolitan Tabernacle week after week with thousands of listeners and whose printed words reached millions across the Victorian world — held a view on war and Christians that modern conservative, fundamentalist, and evangelical readers would find startling. He was, in the most direct and unambiguous terms, opposed to war. Not cautiously skeptical of it. Not quietly troubled by it. Opposed to it — on Christian grounds, from the pulpit, in print, again and again across the breadth of his ministry. Laurence M. Vance, who has studied Spurgeon's writings on the subject at length, has noted that "Spurgeon considered the spirit of war to be absolutely foreign to the spirit of Christianity" and tha...
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