​Winter is setting in. I hope you are keeping warm.

I’ve really loved spending time in the book of Ephesians over the last month. This Sunday will be more challenging though! We have come to one of the most difficult, misinterpreted, and abused passages in all of the New Testament: Ephesians 5.21-6.9, which includes instructions for wives to submit to their husbands and for slaves to serve their masters.

To make matters even harder, Paul grounds these instructions within the metaphor of Christ-and-his-body, giving them a theological weight. Thus, it can be hard for us in the twenty-first century to look at these instructions. We know they can perpetuate violence and abuse. They have done over many years of misunderstanding and misuse.

So, we will need to take a fresh look and consider the culture and setting they were originally given in, before we can discern how best to interpret and apply them today.

As we look at these commands, we will see that Paul (the writer) is a spiritual revolutionary, not a political or social one. He grounds his household code here not in social norms (as he does in Titus and 1 Timothy), but in his understanding of the relationship between Christ and the Church.

So, let me here remind you of who you/we/the church are in relation to Christ, in accordance with God’s plan:

God has ‘blessed’, ‘chosen’, ‘adopted’, ‘redeemed,’ ‘forgiven,’ and ‘lavished grace upon’ us (1.3-8)
God has placed all spiritual powers that threaten the Church ‘under Christ’s feet’ (1.20-22)
Christ is the head of the Church, which is his body (1.22-23)
God has raised and glorified the faithful with Christ (2.4-6)
God calls everyone in the Church to grow up into the fullness of Christ (4.13-16)
Each person in the Church has a role to play in its health and wellbeing (4.16)
God renews the minds of the faithful, enabling them to see the world clearly (4.23)
The faithful are exhorted to imitate God’s love as manifested in Christ’s life and death (5.1-2), to live as ‘children of the light’ (5.8), and to be filled with the Spirit (2.18), which involves submitting to one another (5.21).

Adding to this list, the description of Christ and the Church in the Household Code says that:

The Church is the body of Christ, and his ‘flesh and bones’ (5.23, 30, cf. 1.22-23)
The Church is loved by Christ (5.24, cf. 5.29)
Christ gave himself for the Church, which is ‘sanctified’ and ‘cleansed’ through baptism into Christ, and is therefore ‘honoured,’ ‘holy’, and ‘spotless (5.25-27)
Christ’s whole goal and purpose is for us to grow into everything that he was and is, irrespective of our gender, age, ethnicity, class or citizenship status. We are all called to be ‘Christs’ to one another; we are all also called to ‘submit’ to one another, as the Church submits to Christ. We are all commanded to love one another (not just wives and husbands). This is the ideal to work towards in a broken fallen world.

May God help us all to live faithful lives toward Him and one another.

In Christ,

Reverend Tanya Cummings

​As a young person I didn’t know what love was. After my divorce, I wanted to know! I went on a quest to find out. I interviewed many pastors and asked them, “What is love?”. The response I liked most was: “Love is doing what is best for the other person”. It stuck with me.

Now, when I wake up each morning, before getting out of bed and into my day, I remind myself that the most important thing I can do today is love the people God places before me. Without love, everything else I do is just like a clanging (empty) symbol (See 1 Corinthians 13).  

Jesus emphasised that all the Laws given by God and the teachings of the prophets can be summarised into; Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbour as yourself. When we do these things, we naturally turn away from selfish living, greed, impurity, drunkenness, and foolishness, because these things aren’t what is best for God or others, or ourselves. These are the things that will be stripped away from believers lives as we walk in the way of love.

Our calling, as Ephesians chapter 5 reminds us, is to walk “in love,” be imitators of God and of Christ, who loved with a love beyond compare. Having Jesus Christ as both the ground and model of love (Eph 5:2), such self-sacrificial love is to be the mark of each of us; the “beloved” children of God (5:1).

Ephesians 5 reminds us that we are called to live holy, wise lives, full of the spirit, motivated by God’s love, as children of light (displaying goodness, righteousness and truth), while continually expressing gratefulness to God.

Is this the way you are living each day? Are you fulfilling your calling?
If not, please ask for the spirit’s enabling today, and speak to your pastors or the prayer team if you’d like extra prayer and support. We love you.

In Christ,

Reverend Tanya Cummings

​Are you enjoying the book of Ephesians? 

I'm delighted that each week, as we go through another chapter, we are being reminded of what Christ has done for us. This week in chapter 4 we are also reminded of how we ought to live in response to what Christ has done on our behalf. Paul urges us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. He says we are to be completely humble, gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love, keeping the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. Together we are one body in Christ and yet we have all been given different gifts to help us all grow up together into maturity in Christ Jesus.

Some of us he has appointed to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. In my experience, I have received greater gifting in one of these areas for a period of time to accomplish certain ministries. It is the same spirit who enables all the giftings so that make sense. I wonder what your gifting is and how you are using it for God's kingdom purposes? I encourage you to take this questionnaire (link below) and discover which of the 5-fold ministry gifts you are most naturally suited to. There's a quick questionnaire and a more comprehensive one if you have time. I look forward to hearing what your gifts are and how you would like to use them to equip God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. This is God's plan and my desire for us all.

Please follow this link to the questionnaire:  https://fivefoldministry.com/

Take the Five Fold Ministry Test Now (Free)
Discover your kingdom strengths and see if your giftings are apostolic, pastoral, prophetic, evangelistic or teaching. It's fast, effective and free
fivefoldministry.com

Feel free to share your results on Sunday.

Peace be with you, 

Reverend Tanya Cummings

​There's a kids' song that I love called 'Great Big God'. The lyrics go:
Our God is a great big God... (repeatx3)
And he holds us in his hands

He's higher than a skyscraper
deeper than a submarine
He's wider than the universe
and beyond my wildest dreams
He's known me
and he's loved me
Since before the world began
How wonderful 
to be a part of
God's amazing plan! 

Our God is a great big God... (repeatx3)
And he holds us in his hands
https://youtu.be/0K3TUFFpmhA HERE

This is SUCH a good song to sum up Ephesians 3 for us! 
God's amazing plan is that we - the gentiles, have been included in God's family all because of God's kindness (his grace) to us in Jesus (Eph. 3:6). 
So now, we are heirs and sharers of the promises from Eph 1! How great is our God?! 
This amazing plan has been mapped out from the beginning of time as we know it (Eph 1:4-5). 
That's because God's plan is bigger than we can imagine!
Because God is bigger than we can imagine. 
Because God's LOVE is bigger than we can even measure!
Paul prays that the Ephesian church would be 'rooted and established in love' - in God's love - and that they would 'grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ' (Eph. 3:17-19).

May that prayer be for us too. 
May we see God's great, immeasurable love for us - beyond our wildest dreams! His plan for us - bigger than we can fully comprehend. The lengths he goes to save us and bring us into his family through Jesus - unfathomable. 
Why? Because our God is a Great Big God. 
And he holds us in his hands. 
Praise God! 

Reverend Amy Brown