Jesus' earliest followers waited with expectancy for the Holy Spirit, holding on to see what God will do. The history of the Church is littered with people who were similarly hungry and expectant, and its future will be shaped by people with a similar attitude. The challenge is to not become cynical or complacent, but to enter into the work God is doing through faith.

In a world divided upon so many lines, Jesus' prayer for the Church is that we would be united as one. We see in the creeds and traditions of the Church a reflection of the meaning of what it truly means to be 'one,holy, catholic and apostolic Church'.

We can allow ourselves to find comfort and identity in our circumstances, and can lose our motivation to change our situation. Whether it is age, finances, mental illness or something else, we can change our attitude towards our problems.

Jesus' command to his followers is to extend love to each other - that is the mark of true discipleship. It is the fullest outworking of walking in the footsteps of Christ.

Jesus didn't need to be anything other than authentic as a witness to who He is. As we walk with Him, we learn to be like Him and show this authentic love and power to others.

Nothing is more ordinary that eating - we do it multiple times a day, often without thinking about it. Yet it's here, in a meal, where Jesus reveals Himself again to the apostles. And he wants to meet us too in our ordinary day-to-day realities.

The mix of emotions the disciples must have felt that first Easter Day, when stories were just starting to drift in that Jesus had been raised, must have been overwhelming. However when Jesus appears to them, He brings an overriding and lasting sense of peace.

Hallelujah, Christ is risen! Easter Sunday reveals anew the promise that the Resurrection brings; the promise of eternal life in all its fullness.

The night before he died, Jesus spent one last evening with his friends, sharing a meal and celebrating Passover. In the act of washing their feed he displays the intimacy of that friendship and invites us to deepen our relationship with Him too.

While Jesus’ teaching of ‘love your enemy’ may well be his most challenging, it has the capacity to radically reshape the way we view the world around us. Breaking down the divides between neighbour and enemy, good and bad, enables us to seek - and maybe even find - reconciliation and peace.

Our lives involve hundreds of decisions every day; some are insignificant, others life defining. The decision to put God at the center of our lives and to follow the call He has on our lives has the power to impact eternity.

At first glance it looks like Jesus is offering us a blank cheque for anything we want. However when, we frame this teaching in the way intended - by the kingdom and the narrow path we see the truth of what the promise is.