God in the ordinary
Charlotte Featherby 18th June 2006
God speaking in the ordinary is part of Charlotte's daily walk, her coming and going, her private space and her public space. She loves the ordinary and wants God to speak to her through it every day, not necessarily through special places but in the ordinary things of life.
We have so many physical needs - to eat, sleep etc - which keep us grounded and it seems there must be a purpose in that.
We are blessed with peace in this country, people in other places long for a day of peace.
The people who sit on the hill and listen to Jesus and take the word back to their village. And the people who work in the village, listening to God during their day.
Jesus steps into the ordinary with the extra-ordinary, yet his words are simple, and leave room for us to work out what he means.
We work out what it means to love ourselves, our neighbours and God.
Jacob wrestled with the angel, Jacob was physically damaged by that. Walking into wholeness in Christ means walking into weakness. In our weakness is God's strength. Helps us to walk alongside other people better.
Charlotte was drawn to the psalm about the Lord is my shepherd, and has found out all about shepherds and sheep. And also gardens, which crop up in the Bible quite a lot. She encouraged us to find out about God and who he says we are through all our senses not just reading the Bible.
If we love with our hands and bodies then our minds learn a lot about love.
Bread of life – walk around bread shops, make bread.
The psalms are so real, the power is for us to be real with our friends. We don't have to have all the answers, sometimes we have to pose questions.
Zaccheus had gone along with his culture, had done what tax collectors did, but he had a conscience and went against the culture by seeking Jesus. The challenge to us is to be counter cultural.
Like a tent has lots of poles and guy ropes, so our thoughts and experiences have lots of angles and things to get hold of, makes it easier to share our story with friends. God in the every day.
Be part of God's kiss to the world, part of his embrace, walk in paths of righteousness for his name's sake, be like a child with a child's faith. Children play for play's sake but they are unwittingly practising skils they will need later.
There should be no religeous/secular divide in our lives.
Take the Lords prayer, each word is a pearl, meditate on each individual word, this gives us something to share with people about what God's doing in our lives each day. | 
