Thought for the Day
27th June 2022
Recently in Church we were asked to think about what had influenced us into deciding that we would try to follow Christ.
As I write, we are approaching the longest day and I was reminded of a big influence in my decision to be baptised.
As a student I went with friends to Norway on a youth hostelling holiday for nearly three weeks. There was little room in a rucksack for books. I probably took one of those fat classics that you are ‘supposed’ to read. (Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ went to Austria two years later!)
I also took a very small diary-sized copy of John’s gospel (New English Bible version).
I read it over three or four evenings lying in a hostel bunk in dormitories with no curtains and the light still good enough to read at 11.30 in midsummer Norway.
I read it as you would read any ordinary book, straight through wanting to know what came next. Of course, I had heard readings from John in church. I had gone to church most Sundays most of my life but this was different. As a narrative of someone’s experience did it make sense? And yes, it did.
My course to eventual baptism after this was not straightforward but I still recall finishing the gospel at Skjolden on the Sognefjord in late golden sunset. (I still have that copy of John’s Gospel.)
If you have never read one of the gospels straight through you might like to try it.
Margaret Clements
24th June 2022
The Old Testament reading last Sunday was from Isaiah chapter 65. These final chapters of Isaiah are God’s words of hope to a refugee nation looking forward to a return to their own land. The chapter continues, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered […]
22nd June 2022
LESSONS FROM NATURE? When the sun shines it is easy to see the natural world as a palpable manifestation of God’s good creation – so the poet’s confession of being ‘nearer God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth’. In like manner the Psalmist reflecting on the wonders of the human body offers […]
20th June 2022
A joy of studying family history is finding how interesting was the life of a distant relative who had just been a name. I discovered that a great aunt had been awarded a medal by the Queen of Belgium in 1919 for her work among Belgian refugees. Of course, Tyndale too welcomed these people. Now […]
17th June 2022
It’s Father’s Day this Sunday, and while some may think of this occasion as one of those made-up events designed to earn money for Hallmark and the like, I for one will be enjoying the opportunity to spend some quality time with my dad. Dad remains the rock on which the family stands: one of […]
15th June 2022
Over the years, to find a theme for a young people’s address, church service or school assembly, I’ve often turned to what that day holds in terms of anniversaries or saints’ feast days. Today, fifteenth of June, is the feast day of St Edburga, grand-daughter of King Alfred the Great, whose widow founded a nunnery […]
13th June 2022
Thank you, Lord, for families and friends! I know I am very blessed to be part of a close-knit, caring family. Recently they have rallied round our cousin to help him give up his London home and move to a Care Home near my brother in Devon. Since arriving he is already more in touch […]
10th June 2022
Are we ready for change? A pastoral vacancy brings many blessings! One of these is the variety of preachers who lead our worship Sunday by Sunday, each often ignorant of what has gone on the week before and so, if not carefully guided, quite capable of choosing the same hymns and delivering a very similar […]
8th June 2022
My sister-in-law May died last week, on Jubilee Day actually: devoted, houseproud mother – not a speck of dust in sight anywhere, not a cushion out of place – and for many years an elder in the United Reformed Church in Chorley. Sixty-five years of memories, from right back to our teenage years, have come […]
6th June 2022
I stumbled across Becky Hall and her book “The art of enough” on the Greenbelt Festival website. “Enough” doesn’t sound very appealing. Don’t we want better than that – abundance, generosity, good things overflowing perhaps? Then I read the back cover of the book: “Ever feel like you aren’t enough? Overwhelmed by too many demands? […]