Dear Friends,
You are the light on the Road…
The world will often complain that there are “too many chiefs and not enough Indians” or “too many cooks spoiling the broth,” but in the Church we can have some variations on those sayings: Too many “planters and not enough workers to gather in the harvest” is one that comes to mind. (Luke 10: 2)
Raise your voices!
Isaiah 40: 1-11
I imagined a mass protest from environmentalists at the plan for Jesus to return because it is going to make a real mess of the countryside! The HO2 rail link, an additional runway at Heathrow or a tunnel under Stone Henge are nothing compared to God’s great plan.
Dear Friends,
The Spirit will fill the Prophets
with the Word of Hope!
Acts 2: 17-21
The postman delivered a message this week for me to pass on as a gift of encouragement. It said “welcome to your 2021 calendar of Hope!”
Traditionally, the first candle for Advent is for HOPE so as we light it this week we have something positive to look forward to: There is HOPE.
Dear Friends,
My Advent giving Box
Yesterday churches lit the first candle for Advent and tomorrow the first window of Advent calendars will be opened to reveal little — or, in some cases, BIB — treats to start the day.
Children will rush downstairs in the morning to open a window and find a chocolate or sweet with a parental warning that it can’t be eaten until after school. Or they might find a note with a clue to where a hidden treasure can be found. It might seem great fun, but I imagine houses full of lost tempers as parents try to insist that children get ready for school BEFORE the treasure has been found. Good luck with that one!
Dear Friends,
The Advent Challenge: Who can come in?
As we started Advent I was imagining what a guilty innkeeper might feel like in the Christmas story: “I told them there were no rooms available because of the Government decree that we are in ‘lockdown’”!
A mother, three wise daughters and a brother
1 Corinthians 1: 3-9 and Mark 13: 24-37
“Where is the child?”
Cried a woman.
“Where is our Hope?”
the woman cried.
As we head out of the second lockdown and into new tiered restrictions a lot of people are losing sight of Hope. She is like the missing child everyone wants to find.
Dear Friends,
Don’t ignore the cracks
but fix them quick
to build a house where love can dwell!
I confess that I have indulged myself in watching more daytime television with a cup of tea during lockdown and I got a timely reminder from the BBC programme, Homes Under the Hammer, during the week of a lesson I learned many years ago: Don’t ignore the cracks, but fix ‘em while you can!
Dear Friends,
There are stars behind the clouds
Philippians 2: 3-17
The telephone calls you make this week can be like the wind that blows away the clouds to reveal stars shining in the dark sky above…
You will probably telephone someone because you know there are clouds hanging over their lives and you want them to know you are thinking of them in these stormy times. I have done it many times and more often than not I find a star bringing some light into my life!