Dear Friends,
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!
The cover illustration depicts my favourite N.T. story. You can read it in Mark Chapter 2.
I like it because it demonstrates the faith the friends of the paralysed man had in wanting to get their friend to Jesus for healing. They believed that encounter would mean new life for one who had been limited by severe physical disability. They weren’t to be disappointed at the outcome were they?
i am sure we all have various passages of the Bible that speak to us and mean something to us. This can be for many reasons. Some are very keen on the Psalms, others on the stories of those O.T. characters that we perhaps learnt of in day school or Sunday School. Joseph is my number one. The guy who was dumped by his jealous brothers and went on to become what we may well say today, was prime minister. It wasn’t an easy journey but a challenging one. Let’ s not forget David and Goliath as Well, that‘s an exciting one to act out!
We can move through the prophets each with their own eventful lives. I think Jonah is one that i like quite a lot. Swallowed by a large fish, not all that pleasant but part of God‘s plan!
The N.T. parables leave us with some amazing tales. We can still apply them to daily living now, although some are easier to understand than others. Then we have the informative letters, many written by Paul. Yes, for a people in very different circumstances and culture some two thousand years ago to what we have in Western society in the twenty first century, but still a message there.
The Bible is very much a guidebook for life. Lots of it we will never encounter or understand. I would suggest that in the bigger picture there are large parts that don’t hold much relevance for us today. But it does have a word for every eventuality of life.
Sunday by Sunday various passages become the focus for attention and are usually explained in what we know as the sermon.
Sadly many today never read any part of scripture and thus the challenge remains for us to share it with others.
As we continue to explore and be more open to being a Jesus shaped church may we all minister to one another and keep the passages and stories that have challenged, comforted and enthralled us alive, so that future generations may also marvel at the wonder of God’s love for all His people. The very same God that entered into our experience and lived on earth as Jesus from a humble birth in Bethlehem’s stable to a cruel death on Calvary’s Cross,
but who rose again and lives on in union with God as Father and in and through the Holy Spirit as Comforter.
May God be praised for His word.
Alan