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.
Dear Friends,
Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find
knock and the door will be opened to you…
Matthew 7: 7
I have turned the clock back to my teenage years and am doing what I did then: knocking on doors praying one will open with a welcome. I remember some doors remaining closed when I knocked, others opened but quickly closed when I said what I was doing and a few opened with a warm welcome. That was the opportunity to do what I needed to do!
Dear Friends,
Inspired by a favourite poem of many I hope we can be encouraged to know that the Lord does more than walk with us in these difficult times, but carries us through the challenges of Covid lockdown. As I walked through the snow yesterday I was reminded that we are not on our own and the footprints are not ours, but those of the Lord who will carry us through.
Dear Friends,
In our hurry to get things done
we can get them so badly wrong
that they will never be undone
without the help of the Holy One!
Not the best of rhyming, but forgive me, please, because it was inspired by an experience of frustration and despair when I thought I had got something done but it was quickly undone when I did something wrong!
Dear Friends,
If only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace…
Acts 20: 24
There is a race that will only be won when everyone has crossed the finishing line. There is nothing to shout about if you have a gold medal and everyone else is left behind!
Dear Friends,
I thought I would have some ‘down time’ one afternoon during the week with some tv viewing when a programme presenter looked at me and told me “not to change channels!”
I am sure there were others who, like me, had only just tuned in to TBNUK, on channel 65, but it was as if she was speaking directly to me. “Someone has just tuned in to the channel,” she said. “I want to encourage you not to change channels, but to stay with us!” How could I do anything else?