Thought for the week

‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.’ (Galatians 5:25)

‘THE BEST things in life are not things.’

This realisation has caused many Oban Times readers to come to Argyll or to stay in Argyll. Like people everywhere we have to make a living but many have also discovered that there is more to life than material well-being.

The natural environment, human relationships and opportunities for adventure are dimensions of life in which many of us find fulfilment. There is also the realm of the spirit.

There has been a strong drive in modernity to minimize the spiritual dimension of life. Even Christian faith, if it survives at all, seems to be more about the rational and the ritual than about the spiritual.

When we listen, for ex- ample, to African Christians they are baffled that in the West today we seem to make so little of the spiritual dimension of the faith.

It has been observed that Argyll is a part of the world where many have felt their spirit stirred. There is much both in the natural environment and in the built heritage that speaks to our spiritual yearning.

Might this prompt us to look again at the Bible’s account of how the Holy Spirit came to breathe new life into the early church?

Might we discover that God, through the Spirit, brings transformation to people’s lives today, just as Jesus did during his days in Galilee?

Kenneth Ross Parish Minister, Netherlorn