Many Rooms
Over the next three weeks we will be looking at John 14:1-4 where Jesus tells His disciples, and us, not to be trouble but to trust Him. We are in a new home. What can we learn from this passage where Jesus talks about the place that is being prepared for us?
Over the next three weeks we will be looking at John 14:1-4 where Jesus tells His disciples, and us, not to be troubled but to trust Him.
The image of a house with many rooms can be used in various ways. One is obviously a description of heaven, but probably not as literally as we sometimes think, but another is a description of God’s kingdom right now, here on earth. There are many rooms in God’s family home where He wants us to live and the great thing is that He wants us to ‘decorate’ them in different ways and have some individuality. Just like in your house there are some areas that are more communal, where family members, and sometimes visitors, spend time together and these spaces are more accessible and open to different people’s needs. But there are also more private rooms, like bedrooms for example, that are only really used by one or two people and these rooms are more tailored to their needs and tastes. A teenager’s bedroom generally looks quite different from mum or dads, it certainly sounds different (and if it’s a lads room then may even have a, how can we say it, distinctive smell!)
Well we’re looking at the kingdom of God in the same way, some areas of church life are supposed to be more open, accessible and public but there are other areas where worship and prayer become more private, intimate affairs, between you and God. This is the way it is supposed to be, the way God designed it to be.
This year at Pathway is going to be a time where we focus our outreach into three very specific events, and culminate in a fantastic Christmas celebration where we are hoping, praying for and expecting to see both main rooms of the building full. Although the events through the year will be quite different, they will be similarities in terms of who we are hoping will attend. The aim is to build relationships up over the year through contact at various points and ‘build a fringe’ in terms of membership of Pathway. One of the most successful methods of sharing the gospel in our society and in this age is to keep aiming to ‘build the fringe and move the fringe’.
Recorded by Kev Clark
Kev is the lay leader of the Pathway fellowship. Married to Binky, and has 3 children - and is a dab hand at DIY and has interesting views on fancy goldfish
