LIGHT FOR THE PATH

Light

for the path LIZZIE MOORE | Youth Consultant—Otago Southland

This year, God has been challenging me to meditate on his love. I have been using Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus found in Ephesians 3:14-21 and praying it for myself and for those around me—it’s a powerful prayer! Here’s a few thoughts I’ve had as I’ve been pondering God’s love: God is love (1 John 4:8), it is WHO HE IS. With all the definitions of love the world bombards us with, I have learnt it’s important to go to the Bible for a true definition of what love actually is, because if God is love, then our understanding of what love is impacts who we understand God to be. Praise God for so many pictures of what His love is and isn’t in his Word. God reveals His love to us in many ways. Here is a few: throughout the whole Bible, in Jesus, through creation, through others, through His provision. God can pretty much use anything to reveal His love to us. How do you encounter God’s love for you? What can hinder us from grasping God’s love? • Our understanding of what love is, and our broken human experiences of love. • The words “I love you” being empty by not being followed up with loving actions. • The misconception of having to earn

God’s love—God loves us completely and fully, it is not dependant on what we do or don’t do. This is hard for our human minds to fathom. • Self-righteousness hinders us from knowing God’s love. To comprehend the height, depth, width, and length of Christ’s love, we need to realise our own wretchedness. God’s love is ultimately revealed through the work of Christ. He paid the price for our sin on the cross, so that you and I can have a relationship with God again. Lord, for each person reading this magazine, I pray that they may be rooted and established in your love, that they may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is. May they know this love that surpasses knowledge—that they may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Meet LIZZIE

Lizzie, our writer for ‘Light for the Path’, is the SUNZ Youth Consultant for Otago Southland. We asked her to introduce herself to you. Here’s what she had to say: Kia ora e te whānau, My name is Lizzie Moore and I have been serving as the Otago Southland Youth Consultant for SUNZ since April 2018. This means visiting churches and youth leaders around the region, supporting, equipping and resourcing them in the work they do with young people. This year, I have also stepped into an Associate Pastor role at Central Baptist Church Invercargill two days a week. I love both roles, but I have noticed that the weeks seem to fly by at hyper-speed now! I grew up on a farm in Dipton, Mirihiku with Mum, Dad and my four siblings. It was a pretty incredible place to grow up! I’m thankful for the legacy of faith that has gone before me, it’s a faith that I can continue. When I was 14, Camp Columba—a Christian camp in Pukerau—became my second home and the place that helped my faith in Jesus thrive and become my own. After high school, I was asked to take a gap year and be a youth intern for RiversdaleWaikaia Presbyterian church. Long story short, I stayed for five years completing a Bachelor of Ministry through Laidlaw College and the PYM internship programme in the process. During my time in Riversdale, I met my wonderful husband, Ray, and, in 2017, we made Invercargill/ Waihopai our new home. I am passionate about helping people of all ages encounter Christ, and I want to journey with them as they work out what it looks like to follow Him through the ups and downs of life. I count it a privilege that I get to do exactly that for my job.