{"id":983,"date":"2017-12-10T15:58:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T15:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/?p=983"},"modified":"2017-12-10T16:05:01","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T16:05:01","slug":"983","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/983\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister’s Blog December 2017 – February 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends<\/p>\n

\"ann-fox-new-photo\"You may recall that in the last Link, we talked about the chosen theme of the President and Vice-resident of Conference for this Connexional year – \u2018Day by Day \u2013 exploring the rhythm of mission and discipleship\u2019. Rev Loraine and Jill encourage us to think of a \u2018Spiritual Five-A Day\u2019: Pray, Give thanks, Act, Read and reflect and Keep silence.<\/p>\n

We began by looking at \u2018Pray\u2019. As we are currently in Advent, approaching Christmas and the New Year, perhaps this is good time to look at the theme of \u2018Read and reflect\u2019. Read Psalm 130: 5-6. Let\u2019s pause and think about the words. Put yourself in the Psalmist\u2019s shoes, praying for the Lord to come to his help. Are we \u201cwaiting eagerly\u201d? Ask yourself, as we begin the Advent journey, what are you hoping for? How might the Advent Hope of Jesus change your life?<\/p>\n

I remember when I used to give piano lessons to young people. I would begin to teach them how to play Christmas carols in early November, so that they would be able to play them at Christmas.<\/p>\n

How much preparation do we give ourselves as Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ at Christmas? I don\u2019t just mean preparing for services and activities at church, but personal preparation. Read \u2018The Song of Mary\u2019, her \u2018Magnificat\u2019, Luke 1: 46-55, as she \u2018magnifies\u2019, or sings her \u2018praises\u2019. Reflect on the mystery of the Lord\u2019s incarnation; of God choosing what is weak to shame the strong; the lowly are made high and the high are brought low; the hungry are filled and the rich sent away empty; the last become first, and the least become the greatest. Reflect on what that means to us as a Christian community. Think about what it means to you personally.<\/p>\n

The New Year is always a good time to reflect on the previous year and look to the future year with hope and expectation. What about the present time? Read Psalm 72 (lectionary reading for 7 January) and verse 15. What gift could the poor bring to the king that is worth more than gold? Prayers. Let\u2019s reflect on how we use prayer; when do we how pray; how do we pray; who and what do we pray for? The Psalm is a vision of harmony under God, in a world where only our Lord Jesus Christ can be King. In our own judgements, rules and decisions, let\u2019s pray for Him to use us as
\nchannels of his peace, within our church, our families and our communities.<\/p>\n

StF 707
\n\u201cMake me a channel of your peace.
\nWhere there is hatred, let me bring our love;
\nwhere there is injury, your pardon Lord;
\nand where there\u2019s doubt, true faith in you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Through Advent, Christmas and into the New Year, may we find our spaces of quiet to \u2018Read and reflect\u2019 on the coming of Jesus and His truth within our lives. Eagerly wait, prepare to celebrate His birth, pray for His peace.<\/p>\n

God bless,
\nAnn<\/strong><\/p>\n

The booklet \u2018Day by day\u2019 is available from The Methodist Church (www.mph.org.uk<\/a> or 0845 07 8220) and can be downloaded from the Methodist Church website:\u00a0Click here to visit the page.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends You may recall that in the last Link, we talked about the chosen theme of the President and Vice-resident of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-05-06 21:40:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}