CHRIS Mann led the service at Crediton Methodist Church on Sunday, July 20. His theme was “How do we hear the voice of God?”

The call to worship was from Colossians 3 – “may the word of God dwell in you richly”.

Pam Murphy spoke about choices and decisions that we all have to make. Sometimes we have a lot of time to ponder and consider what to do, other times we have to make spur-of-the-moment decisions.

She gave five scenarios and asked what decisions we would make in each case. It was difficult to make snap decisions as it depended on circumstances.

In the reading from Luke 10, we heard about Martha complaining that her sister Mary was sitting at Jesus’s feet and not helping with the chores.

Chris asked with which of the characters, Martha or Mary, did we have the most in common. He admitted that he identified more with Martha. He said this could be because he was a Methodist.

From its beginnings, Methodism was founded on getting things done – getting near to God through actions. We need to be busy doing.

However, we need to spend time with God and the Mary and Martha passage highlights this perfectly. Chris finds this uncomfortable as he can identify himself in the story. If he had to choose which character to be in the story of the Prodigal Son, he would be the older son who stayed at home and did the work.

When people came to Jesus and asked what they must do in order to inherit the Kingdom of God, He said simply leave your past behind and follow me. Someone said they would follow Jesus but had to attend their father’s funeral first.

Jesus had come into town and was talking to people about very important things and there were a lot of people in the house and courtyard. Martha was ensuring there was plenty of food and drink and being a good hostess. She expected her sister to help. When she asked Jesus to tell Mary to help, He said that “Mary had chosen the right course”.

How often do we substitute what we consider to be the right thing – being busy over actually listening to the voice of God? How often do we become Martha rather than Mary and could we spend a little less time doing and a little more time being and showing the love of Christ?

We know because we read it in our Bible, that the voice of God will get through. It is a quiet but insistent voice and just creating clamour can actually not silence it.

We started with the call to worship – “may the word of God dwell in you richly”. First we have to hear it and then, to hear it effectively, we need to put down what we are doing and sit and listen.

Help us to be still and hear your voice so that we know what it is we should do to build your Kingdom.

Bronwyn Nott