Sharing some thoughts

The great American evangelist Billy Graham is quoted as saying, “I've read the last page of the Bible, it's all going to turn out all right.” I think there are some days and some times when we need to hear that a little more than at others… Perhaps for some of you, that time may be now !  And the readings from today point us, not to the last page of the bible, but certainly to some words of hope and inspiration.  In the gospel according to John (14:1-14) we’re told by Jesus, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me’. These are powerful words, and words which can be trusted because they come from Jesus, but it’s not always as easy as it sounds is it ?  Sometimes, although we want to trust,  and we want to be sure,  and we want to know that everything will be ok in the end,  it just doesn’t feel like it !  But Jesus didn’t leave it there. He had more to say, ‘In my Father’s house, there are many dwel...

We’ve had 2 wonderful readings today and both of them have so much guidance and help to offer us and I just want to think of 3 things, 2 from the reading from Acts (2:42-47) and then one from the gospel according to John (10:1-10).  The reading from Acts gives us a description of the early church. We’re told how the followers of Jesus devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers. We were told how they lived together sharing everything. We are also told that they had the ‘goodwill of all the people’ and that, ‘day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.’   When I was thinking about what to say today, two things came up from this reading for me. The first is the fellowship that the followers of Jesus enjoyed together. Now I’m pretty sure they would have had a few quarrels too because that’s often what happens when people are together a lot, but they were bound together as a family, doing th...