Sharing some thoughts

We ’ re now at the third Sunday in Lent and it seems a pretty good time to think about what we ’ ve done, what we ’ re doing and what we ’ re planning to do in this season as we lead up to Holy Week and to Easter. Many people will do something special for Lent  –  perhaps give something up, perhaps  take  something new up. Ultimately whatever we do should be designed to help us in some way to get closer to God.  It should be a time of renewal and refreshment.  In a conversation between her and the Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland asked, "Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the cat. "I don't much care where," said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the cat. Many of us as Christians have times when we lack direction I think, when we ’ re not quite sure where we ’ re going with our faith. It doesn ’ t mean that our fa...

From Helen Life is full of agreements and promises. From a promise to someone else to a promise to God  -  our lives are full of promises. There was once a little boy who was in trouble with his teacher. The teacher said, ‘Didn’t you promise to behave.’ ‘Yes’, said the little boy. ‘Well,’ said the teacher, ‘What did I promise to do if you misbehave d.’ ‘ you promised to punish me’ said the little boy. The teacher said, ‘ Well then you know what to expect.’ The little boy replied, ‘ well, as I broke my promise I don’t expect you to keep yours.’  Promises are great particula rly when they are kept. In our readings this morning we have heard about promises and we have also heard about what happens when we don’t trust someone to keep their promise. In the Old Testament reading  (Gen. 15:1-12,17,18)  we heard of the great promise from God to Abraham, a promise that God kept of Abraham having a huge number of descendants. It is often quite interesting to read...

One day a boy went out with his friends – before leaving the house his father had warned him not to go and swim in the canal. When the boy retu rned with a wet bathing suit his  father asked where he had been – the son confessed that he had been swimming in the canal - "Didn't I tell you not to swim there?" asked the father.   "Yes" answered the boy.  "Then w hy did you?" he asked.   "Well, Dad," he explained, "I had my bathing suit with me and I couldn't resist the temptation."   "Why did you take your bathing suit with you?" he questioned.   "So I'd be prepared to swim, in case I was tempted  !  " replied the boy. Many people, it seems, prepare to fail – they prepare to live life expecting something less than God would hope for from them… In fact, perhaps we all do that at times as we settle for less either in our own lives or in the lives of those in our community or the world as a whole tha...

From Helen  If you were asked to describe lent I wonder what you would say ? Maybe you would describe lent as a solemn time, a preparation time, a time of sacrifice, a time of doing something new. All of these would be great descriptions.  Tonight I want to think of lent as a time of perspective. In order to do this I want to tell you on old Russian story about a famer called Bo-ham. Bo-ham was a poor man and one day he was sat with his family saying that their life would  be better if they had more land,  after all he said ,  if a man has land he has everything. A couple of days later he happened upon someone who offered him land very cheaply. He was able to afford the land, the family moved and did really well. All was great for a few years until one day when he was sat with his family Bo-ham said, that life would be better if they had  more land. After all he said if a  man has land he has everything. A couple of days later he met someone who o...

From Helen  I n our readings this morning we have heard about the blinding glory of God. From Moses  (Ex. 34:29-35)  whose face would have been too bright for the Israelites to cope with unless his face was veiled to Peter  (Luke 9:28-36)  trying to contain the moment of glory ,  we have heard about the fact that God is full of glory, God reveals Himself to us in many ways and sometimes we can ’ t quite cope with what that means. We worship God, we know that He is almight y , we sing of His glory but we don’t always live as people who have been that affected by God. The disciples had walked with Jesus, they h a d seen amazing things happen but Peter  wanted to stay where he was and not move on. He wanted to contain the moment and keep it to himself. I can understand that, those type of moments when something incredible happens and you don’t want to move on.  The Israelites could not cope with Moses’ shining face and so Moses had to hide...