“Our failure is not inevitable, but if we do sin then we have no fear of being rejected by God but only joy at being forgiven. God is faithful to His promise. He forgives our sins and He purifies us from unrighteousness.”

“Right at the heart of this gendered conception of God then, is the assumption that just as men and women were taken from the same whole, so God and Christ are not complete without us, and we are not complete without them.”

And as far as other people’s deaths and opinions are concerned, we should try to have open minds and listening ears, and a readiness to admit we don’t have all the answers. We won’t always know what the right thing to do is. Our personal history, beliefs, attitudes, circumstances, might well influence us. We need to have the humility to accept that others may reach a different conclusion. And that’s OK.

When your religion prevents you from loving your neighbour, you need to change your religion. When holiness separates us from our neighbour, we need to change our holiness from one that is only ‘separate from’, to also include ‘dedication to’ the Lord's new commandment to love one another. This is our full — our complete — mission.

I believe that when God created the universe he wrote a message in the stars for all the people on Earth to see, so that all mankind could understand his purpose. Just as God’s message ends with the pictorial book of Revelation, I believe it began with the story in the heavens.

Jacob’s turning point is for you and I. Your relationship with your God cannot be through people or place. Your discipleship doesn’t have its ultimate foundations in Christadelphia. Nor being a member of your ecclesia. Nor in attendance at church activities. Nor even in being engaged in church talk about church things.

These thoughts encourage me to practice conscious, present-focused living, being mindful of God each day and communicating with Him and with His Son. Focussing on the breath helps me to stay in the present moment, rather than ruminating about the past and becoming depressed, or starting to worry about the future and increasing anxiety.