Evening service sermon series – Streams of Living water

New year is often a time to think about diet, and our eating habits. People talk about how important it is to have a “balanced diet”, comprising of vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy, healthy fats etc. And chocolate?

The writer Richard Foster says that it is the same in our spiritual life, if we are to “live life to the full” as Jesus promised. If we are to be spiritually fit and healthy, and if we are to keep growing as disciples of Christ, we need to find our sustenance from a balanced diet. He writes about six spiritual disciplines and practices from each of the great traditions of the Christian faith:

• The contemplative tradition, embracing silence and prayer
• The incarnational tradition, living faith and encountering God in everyday life
•  The charismatic tradition, where we are open to the renewing work of the Spirit in all we do
• The evangelical tradition, where we live a word-centred life and feed consistently on scripture
• The holiness tradition, where we live with integrity and authenticity
• The social justice tradition, where we live with a heart of compassion and a desire to see justice

We’re going to be reflecting on these six great “streams” of the Christian life over the spring of 2016. Each evening we’ll be opening up scripture to see people who lived in this way, reflecting for ourselves how we might go deeper in the streams of God’s grace, and encountering Jesus, who lived these great traditions out in their fullest forms.

We’ll also be drawing on some resources from the Bible Society called “LYFE”, developed with small groups and individuals in mind. You can find out more from www.biblesociety.org.uk/lyfe