Prayer: Let us desire what you desire. *** After the sermon ended, my spirit didn't quite feel at ease. I had made a point of focusing on how important it was to keep looking to God and how God doesn't want half loyalty, which is something that we can and perhaps should understand in the passage, but I felt that I gave emphasis to it at the expense of another aspect of God's character: His love and patience. He is not content to leave us turned away from Him (2 Pet. 3:9), and He rejoices when anyone turns to Him, whether for the first time or again after having been turned away for a long time. His love is not dependent on us being turned toward Him (Rom. 5:6, 1 John 4:19), nor indeed His grace and His gifts (Matthew 5:45). I made a statement following service to this effect; unfortunately it did not make it into the recording, so I write this here. Stephen Dickinson ***