This week’s promotional discount is on my 2003 book Daily Prayer, the most popular of my many publications, slightly ahead of No Ordinary Man and Prayers for All Seasons. Normally retailing at £14.99 (or £12.99 for the pocket edition), this week, until 20 September, you can purchase it at a 10 per cent discount – a saving of £1.50 – using the code DAILY10 when ordering the book from the Kevin Mayhew website. Just type the code into the relevant box at the checkout between the dates given.
Meanwhile, here’s the third of seven sessions I’ll be posting this week from the book, to run alongside this promotion. This one urges us to focus on the positive rather than negative side of faith – something some Christians are too often guilty of forgetting:
You shall!
Read
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. I have come so that you shall have life, and have it to the full. Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and the door shall be opened to you. John 8:32; 10:10; Matthew 7:7
Ponder
‘Don’t do that!’ ‘Stop it!’ ‘Leave it alone!’ There are times when being a parent feels like constantly nagging, forever saying no. The same, sadly, is the impression some people have of the Church; a view reinforced by those old Wayside Pulpit posters you still sometimes see, starkly proclaiming such cheery tidings as ‘The wages of sin is death’ or some other equally grim message! Undeniably, there is a negative element in the Bible, epitomised by the majority of the Ten Commandments with their stern preface: ‘Thou shalt not . . .’
This, however, is by no means the whole story, for in the teaching of Jesus the message is reversed. Instead of ‘You shall not’ it becomes ‘You shall’, all the negative commandments being summed up in one positive: ‘A new commandment I give you: Love one another’ (John 13:14). Repeatedly it is the same story: you shall have, you shall know, you shall find – the blind shall see, the lame walk, the imprisoned be set free, the pure in heart see God, the hungry and thirsty be satisfied, and so on and so on. Never think that being a Christian is about what you can’t do, still less give that impression to others. Above all, it is about what you can do; about the possibilities the love of Christ opens up; about the sheer potential of life!
Ask yourself
Do we see Christianity as the imposition of boundaries or the offering of possibilities?
Pray
Sovereign God, I thank you that you came in Christ not to exact punishment but to show mercy; not to restrict but to liberate, not to deny but to affirm. Forgive me for sometimes turning joyful faith into sombre religion, the living gospel into lifeless dogma, a message of hope into a foretelling of doom. Teach me to receive the gifts you want me to enjoy and to turn life into a celebration of your goodness. So may the person I am, as well as the words I say, truly proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. In his name I pray. Amen.
Remember
Anyone who follows me shall never walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. John 8:12
Close
Lord Jesus Christ, as you have affirmed life for me, so may I affirm it for others, in word and deed, to the glory of your name. Amen.
This was the first book written by Nick that I purchased. Well worth, it as are all the others that I have. Thanks, Nick.
Many thanks for the valued endorsement, Val