As we move into November we are
surrounded by the wonderful Autumnal colours of the trees which are truly
magnificent this year, and with that comes a distinctive change in the weather.
With the onset of winter not far off also come the long dark days and even
longer nights. As I mentioned last month, it is very important for us to keep a
caring eye on our fellow neighbours and friends especially those living on
their own.
To take a few minutes out of your day
to call and make sure someone is OK particularly those who are most vulnerable is not only an
act of kindness, but enhances the Christian message ‘love your neighbour as
yourself’. I am very conscious of the diversity of people within our Parish of
all different ages, with many and various needs and with that in mind I am looking
to begin a healing service on a monthly basis. The Bible talks about healing of
our physical ailments, as well as emotional and spiritual ones. Jesus cured
people, and he then told them that their faith had healed them. God always
hears our prayers and requests for healing and he answers our prayers according
to his will, healing is about wholeness and sometimes that may not mean a cure
in the way we understand it. It is said that our final healing comes with our
death when we are welcomed to the place that scripture tells us is prepared for
us. It is a mystery that some are healed in this life and some are not and we
just have to trust God that he knows our suffering and he will bring us healing
whatever that means.
The Bible says that faith comes by
hearing (Romans 10:17), and that would mean hearing the Word of God written in
scripture and as we know Jesus Is the Word made flesh. But
"hearing" means more than just occasionally reading and listening to verses
of scripture.
It means that we have to internalize
the Word of God in all that we think, do, and say. It means meditating on
the Word of God, and then observing all that it says to do. Another mention of personal healing in
the Bible involves prayer for others. That is evident by the amount of prayers on
our Prayer Board in the Lady Chapel which is a wonderful tribute to the way the
Lady Chapel is being used by everyone. Let us be reminded what it says in James
5:14 16: Is
any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them
pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord’
Next week is our second Soup and Sandwich
lunch - an outreach into the community through the many nursing homes we have in
Hoylake. Please do feel free to come along and join in with the wonderful sense
of love and fellowship which has been generated. Outreach is a great way to
grow a church spiritually as well numerically, please remember God uses each of
us very differently, and we all have gifts that we can offer. So please feel
free to participate in any way you can.
Finally it was lovely to have Bishop
Keith with us to preach and celebrate last month. The Sunday was made even more
special by having Holy Trinity choir singing. My thanks goes to Mr Ham head
teacher, and to Mr Rochester who runs the choir for such good and enthusiastic
singing, we are looking forward to seeing them on a more regular basis.
Your friend Rev Paul
No comments:
Post a Comment