Sharing some thoughts

From Helen I am an avid reader. I love books. My parents encouraged a love of reading in me. The problem for my Mum was that if I had been naughty- I know it’s hard to believe-she couldn’t send me to my room as that would be a treat, as I could read in quiet to my hearts content. It was often thought that I would prefer to read about something than to do it. I thought about this as I prepared for this morning. Today is Bible Sunday the day when we give thanks for our Bibles. We will all have different favourite stories from the Bible. We all have favourite passages. We know the Bible but how often would we rather read the Bible than act on its message? I have to say that I have quite a collection of Bibles and when I was younger I liked buying Bibles and handbags to match. The fact that I could do this shows how easy it is for us to get hold of a Bible, when it’s that easy it can make us forget how important it is.  On the back of one translation of the Bible it reads, “...

Today is Bible Sunday – the day when we are especially called to give thanks for the word of God  and the day perhaps to ask ourselves whether we know it well enough and whether we really try to know it…  As you will probably know the bible remains the  best selling book in the world, also the most stolen book in the world strangely  !  An incredible 100 million copies are sold each year in all kinds of forms, including now of course ‘Apps’ for telephones so that it can be carried around even more easily than ever before. I don’t even know how many languages I could name, but it would certainly be nowhere near 500 but the bible has been translated into over 500 languages…  There is an incredible passion for this book –  u p until recently I was the Chaplain to the Ospreys Rugby Region and was able to give out copies of the New Testament and Psalms made available by the  Gideons .  Logo ’ s  of the team were put on the front as t...

One  Sunday morning  in a large church just before the services were to begin, it was discovered that the organ wasn’t working.  A member of the congregation happened to be rather handy and he immediately went to see what the problem might be and he found it was a simple electrical problem.  When he finally got it fixed it was just about the middle of the prayers. He quietly passed a note to the organist which read: "After finishing prayer - the organ will work !”  I heard another story, apparently true, of a woman who lived in a remote valley. She went to a great deal of trouble and expense to have electrical power installed in her home. However, after a couple of months, the electric company noticed she didn’t seem to use very much electricity at all.  Thinking there might be a problem, they sent an engineer to check on the matter. The man came to the door and said, "We’ve just checked your metre and it doesn’t seem that you’re using much ele...

The work of Martin Luther King has always interested me and on holiday one year we had the chance to visit the very spot from where he delivered his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech. I’m not about to talk at length about my holiday or even threaten to show you some of the many photos but I do want to think this morning about that speech.  The speech revolves around the dream of a better, more equal, more just society – in the speech Martin Luther King speaks about the dreams he has for a better time – time and time again he repeats the words ‘I have a dream’ – 9 times in total. But he also uses another phrase the same number of times – ‘let freedom ring…’ And as we think about the gospel reading we have heard this morning (Luke 17:11-19) I think we have an example of freedom for some but not for others…. In the reading 10 lepers were healed by Jesus – 9 went on their way presumably rejoicing at their new found health, but one turned back praising God – the others may have been heal...

In the early days of the Salvation Army, the founder William Booth was often bitterly attacked in the press by both religious and political leaders. People didn’t like that the Salvation Army were dealing with all kinds of difficult people, in difficult places - in spite of what the gospel says about how we absolutely must be doing those things!   Whenever William Booth’s son, Bramwell, showed him a negative newspaper piece, he would reply with the same answer, "Bramwell, fifty years hence it will matter very little indeed how these people treated us; it will matter a great deal how we dealt with the work of God." Today we celebrate Harvest and you may well wonder what that has to do with harvest, but at harvest we are doing a number of things. Firstly we are celebrating God’s goodness, we are offering our thanks to him for the good things that he has given us. Secondly we’re recognising the often large number of people who help to bring our food to us and we’re givi...

S. I. McMillen, in his book   None of These Diseases , tells a story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application blank that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst.  To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower." In today’s readings we receive an invitation again to be followers of Jesus and to consider what that really means… And we do it with the help of the day in the church calendar on which we celebrate Michael and All Angels… It’s not the easiest of Feast Days to think about. What we know about Michael is that he is considered to be the Chief Archangel – this great messe...

from Helen Today is a feast day, it is the feast of St.Michael and all angels. I have to say for exciting feast days today is the day. Last week Robert and I discussed me arriving with a sword and dressing up like the Archangel Michael, who was in a battle that we heard about in our reading from Revelation (12:7-12). This battle was a battle in heaven that was part of the vision that the apostle John had of heaven which he wrote down. Today is a day then when we could think about the almighty battle that was between good and evil. The moment when good won the day. The passage describes for us in the most amazing language and picture, which could be a film, the time when through the death and resurrection of Jesus, good won. There would be life eternal and this life eternal means that we can all have a part of this. There are times when things seem so good we can never imagine that there could be anything bad. We all believe and know that God has won but sometimes it is so ...