Dear Friends,
When the Word is silent
I know there is a God somewhere!
The verse of an African American spiritual came into my head as I was walking yesterday afternoon as a timely reminder that when the Word is silent I hear music in the air and I know that there must be a God somewhere!
Dear Friends,
Is the Church falling apart or still being put together….? That’s a question I want to ask after speaking to Shellie last week and then seeing her article in the Broadway Newson Friday, “Save our Churches!”
I believe God is still putting us together as Church, but I invite you to help us reflect on this on Friday evening from 6pm. It would be great if some friends who don’t normally join us could do so this week
Dear Friends,
The Kingdom of God is so near
it is almost here…
Matthew 4: 17
We start Lent in the wilderness, but the good news, if we dare to believe it, is that the kingdom of God is near and if we repent it could soon be HERE!
Yes, it is near, but so far because so many of us must repent before it can be seen here through the will of God being done on earth as in heaven. YOU, and me, are just the beginning, but change will start from the grass roots growing up so our voices produce the words that can be scattered like seeds that find fertile soil and produce the harvest of hope for the future. That’s one of the parables that Jesus tells to describe the Kingdom of God so if your faith has been trampled into the ground, choked by the worries of life or withered in the heat of the challenging days if we repent we will find the Kingdom is near. That’s good news, isn’t it! It is near and will be here if we repent!
Dear Friends,
The Truth is written in stone!
Matthew 4: 1-4
One day, sometime in the future, a space ship will land on Planet Earth and scientists in a far away world will be excited at the possibility of finding out whether there was ever life on this dot of light in the wilderness of space.
Dear Friends,
YOUR little makes miracles happen
John 6: 5-13
I was about seven years old when I was given a clip round the ear and sent to my bedroom when I came home from the corner shop without the bread and milk I had been sent to buy. I would like to say I had given the shopping to someone in need, but I had lost the money I had been given and as a family we couldn’t afford to lose it!
Dear Friends,
“Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near”
Matthew 4: 17
The best stories are those that keep you gripped until the last paragraph when it is finally revealed ‘who did it!’ I read a long story last week and at the end found out that I DID IT!
Dear Friends,
Many boats, one storm on the same sea!
Mark 4: 35-41
I am a little uncomfortable with the thought of us all being in the same boat. It has become a much heard phrase during the pandemic, but I think there are too many of us to be in one boat. It will sink and I can’t swim!
Dear Friends,
Welcome the Chinese New Year
in the right spirit…!
It’s the 40th anniversary of my first and last taste of whiskey! I remember because it was Chinese New Year and it was offered to me with a warm smile from a Vietnamese woman in a joyful songful voice:
Dear Friends,
All we need is a rucksack!
Mark 6: 6-13
We almost always reminisce on the time we shared a flat many years ago when I talk with my best friend. He recalls leaving home with all his belongings in a rucksack, but when he moved home recently he filled three furniture vans!
Dear Friends,
If I asked to lean on you many of you might say I’m too old and fragile or I don’t have the strength to take your weight. I’ve got news for you because you are stronger than you thought: I’m already leaning on you!
When we were younger we used to play a game of trust in which we would fall backwards to be caught by someone behind us and that’s the real life situation we are in right now, however old or fragile you might feel. We are called to trust each other to catch us as we fall. (Please, don’t try it for real now because I don’t want anyone doing themselves serious harm!) What we have is a spiritual trust in each other that when we fall someone will be there to catch us or pick us up.