Making the Most of Ordinary Moments
Well, how are you enjoying Daniel? It’s a rollicking ride in which the sovereignty of God is put to the test isn’t it. We have had visions and dreams and the appearance of God, miraculous rescues and wondrous escapes; and that’s only in the first three chapters. There is so much more to come.
And of course, the special thing we would love you to be working on this term is talking faith with family and friends. This is our combined series where every age group across our whole church is studying the same book of the Bible at the same time, giving us opportunities to talk together, to encourage each other, and to challenge each other with what we are hearing and learning from the Word of God.
We do this every year because talking about our faith with our families or friends at home doesn’t always come easily and naturally to us. In a society that outsources and professionalises so many things, it is easy for us to assume that someone else is having those conversations; and particularly that someone else is handling the conversations with our kids about Jesus and how he transforms our lives.
Our hope in this combined series on Daniel is that by teaching the same material to adults, kids, and youth we might be able to take the ordinary moments of life and turn them into a conversation about something we have heard in church on Sundays.
These conversations or “faith chats” might be anything from a passing comment or two through to a long dinner table chat that takes twists and turns, diverging onto other topics that we might not even have all the answers for.
Whatever shape these conversations take, our hope is that the light of the good news from our good God transforms our loving homes into places of real warmth through the Word of God.
Jesse and Pete have put together a series of resources to help us do this. You can find them at https://www.christchurch.com.au/faith-chats.
You may also be helped by going back to Jesse and Pete’s excellent sermons on the ministry of the household and the ministry of the church from April. You can find their talks here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmUYlNs9muR_Y2ZbJ6GgJsedgOAIksWSA&si=lIldm5s05i9GnoAM
I particularly love the way that Jesse and Pete are not asking us to do more - time is a precious and limited commodity in our busy lives - but rather to transform the ordinary moments you already have into extraordinary moments. How might you introduce Daniel or Jesus into your dinner time conversation? How might you include prayer in your nighttime routine? How might you help your children prepare spiritually for their day in the car on the way to school?
For those without children at home but with children in their life, how might you include some conversation about Daniel or Jesus in your next FaceTime or during your next visit?
For those living with friends, where can you include a faith chat in your day? Prayer over dinner? An encouraging text? A voice recorded prayer that you send to friends to encourage them?
We have so many ordinary moments each day filled with ordinary but important habits. What is the one thing you could do to make the most of one of those ordinary moments and make it extraordinary?
