Thought for the Day
A one-minute read to inspire or challenge. Written by members of the church and updated every few days.
15th March 2024
In a recent series of the Guidelines Bible study notes, C. L. Crouch wrote about the Old Testament being a story of migrants. It was not a perspective that I had considered before, but upon reading her reflections it seemed so obvious!
“Adam and Eve are evicted by their landlord (Genesis 3); Cain wanders the earth in search of asylum (Genesis 4); and Noah and his family flee climate change (Genesis 6–9).” Perhaps that last example requires a little artistic licence, but the theme leaps out at you – and that was only the first few pages of scripture. As the biblical story progresses, Abraham leaves his homeland to journey to a different country, Joseph is trafficked into slavery in Egypt, Joseph’s brothers flee famine and take refuge in Egypt. Still we are only in Genesis. The book of Exodus follows the story of the Hebrew people being driven out of Egypt and wandering through the wilderness for forty years. Even after entering Canaan (modern-day Palestine) the people struggled to live alongside the indigenous population, cultural differences being a continuous source of conflict.
What a contrast with the sedentary Western lifestyle most of us experience. We place a huge value (emotionally and financially) on having a fixed place to live, to call our own. We accumulate a never-ending list of belongings. We like to do things the same way that we have always done them.
And I wonder if we have lost something of our spiritual heritage? Are we too content with having things just right? Or are we prepared to wander into the unknown, following a glimpse of something new that God is leading us towards?
Ian Waddington
13th March 2024
If you were asked to talk about “movers and shakers” you know personally, or have known, who would you choose? Following on from International Women’s Day last week, I was drawn back to a piece written by my mother about her friend Clarice Morgan. Clarice, born in 1919, grew up attending Kensington Baptist Tabernacle in […]
8th March 2024
At Ashburton Baptist Church, Melbourne, where Margaret and I worshipped and where I preached five Sundays ago, the worship leader announced: “We acknowledge the Wurundjeri and Bunurong people as the traditional custodians of the land on which we gather.” This happens in many Australian churches. Australians are still coming to terms with how European settlers […]
4th March 2024
The conflict in Gaza shows no sign of ending, although there may be a ceasefire to enable food and other necessities to be brought in. I am sure we are all remembering the people there in our prayers. It helps our prayers if we can be better informed of the situation. This is extracted from […]
28th February 2024
LEAP YEAR THOUGHTS Tomorrow will be February 29th as this year will contain 366 not 365 days – this is an adjustment which is needed because the calendar year we use for everyday life is slightly shorter than the astronomical year governed by how many times the earth orbits the sun. If we did not […]
23rd February 2024
We are now well into Lent: time to picture Jesus after the commissioning of His baptism being driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. That meant climbing up from the lush green Jordan valley to the dusty dry heights of the Judaean wilderness. This place and history were significant for the Jews, reminding them […]
19th February 2024
There has been a lot of talk recently about British Baptists adopting a statement of faith as a denomination, an association of churches and as individual church congregations. All this has made me feel uneasy but I have struggled to say quite why. This morning a tweet landed (how do we say that now it’s […]
14th February 2024
Valentine’s Day and the promise of Spring! For years I have recorded British wild flowers and by now have seen most of the common ones. I can usually guess the family to which European wild flowers belong but Australian flowers are so different. Most do not belong to a family with any members in Europe […]
12th February 2024
The other weekend I was leading worship at Wells United Church, a joint Baptist/URC congregation in that lovely cathedral city. They’d provided an outline running order to guide me, and the service was to include Communion. For that part I used a Baptist/Ken Stewart/URC hybrid form drawing on themes I’d introduced earlier in my sermon. […]
7th February 2024
A friend has just asked me if I’d like to see the window wanderland with her (Chandos, Bristol – Window Wanderland). Individual households light up their windows or gardens with colourful displays, bringing a sense of cheerfulness and fun to otherwise largely deserted cold, dark winter streets! There’s a bit of a buzz as people […]