In July, we have restarted the 6 pm service. Many Bible study groups are back face-to-face – although some work even better on Zoom! Next term SRE classes will resume. We may see further developments in August. It has been a busy time but now it is going to be busier … it is good to be restarting!

Restarting feels like starting all over again. Many Australians could be thinking “we can’t pick up from where we left off months ago” and we too, at CCM, could be thinking that too … spare a thought for the Jews in Ezra’s time, coming back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple destroyed 50 years previously. While there is frustration in many of the things we need to put in place, a new start and maybe new ways can also bring an opportunity of great freedom.

Jesus said that following Him would take giving up everything. Whatever comes first in our lives, He sees it as a rival to Him and He won’t have it. For many of us, that cost is the big problem with following Jesus. But we are in a strange moment in our lives when we are free to start again. So much has stopped – we can choose what we will restart.

You and I have freedom to repent!
We may have
… invested time and effort in a relationship
… been depending on a contract for our bread and butter
… got stuck with an unfinished building project or

…facing fearful odds over our honour and our treasure
(Those last two examples were from Jesus, by the way – Luke 14:25-33)
We have already stopped what we were doing.
We can
… run back to God
… do the right thing
… look foolish.
We can repent!!!!! … when it seemed impossible before.

The pandemic has been costly – but has it freed you to pay the cost of following Jesus?

Alan Wood