Daily Scripture:‘We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (I Thessalonians 1.1-10)Daily Reflection:Paul assures the new Christians in Thessalonica that although he is no longer with them he has certainly not forgotten them. The Thessalonians’ who had so recently turned from their pagan gods to follow Christ’ must have been greatly encouraged by his words of love and support. He tells them how others have been drawn to faith not by words, but by seeing it in action in them.Actions do speak louder than words. We are called to reflect God’s love ‘not only with our lips but in our lives’. Far more people, I believe, come to faith by seeing it in action in the day to day lives of God’s people than are ever convinced by clever arguments. Separated as so many of us are at present from those who are dear to us, we, like Paul, remember them constantly in our prayers, and support them with our love. And tell them so!Revd Rosemary
Daily Scripture‘Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name, tell out his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples.’ (Psalm 96 1 - 3)Daily ReflectionBack in July 1971 there was a TV advert for Coca-Cola which involved a world wide youth choir standing on a hillside, all in native dress singing “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony”….etc. etc. It was one of the most successful and popular ads of all time. King David had a vision and wrote Psalm 96 as a declaration of eternal hope and salvation, to be sung by a choir of nations spread across the whole earth. The lyrics of King David’s song urge this great choir to loudly lift up their voices to heaven and harmoniously shout as one. If the simple and momentary pleasure of sharing a fizzy drink with friends is worth singing about, how much more so this Psalm!Lyn Hayes, ALM
Daily Scripture‘Come, let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker. For he is our God; we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice.’ (Psalm 95:6-8a)Daily Reflection How do we listen to his voice – to God speaking to us? We can do it through prayer; we can do it through reading scripture; we can do it by hearing what someone else is saying to us….God uses all sorts of ways of getting his message into us. Some of them can be quite unexpected. For our part though we need to be open, attentive; we need to be ready to listen…..and not too busy that we miss Him!In those few verses He is expressed as: our Maker, our God, and (implied) our Shepherd (ie he cares); and we should worship Him…..and we should listen!Prayer: Lord God, the maker of all, as we bow down in praise this day, make us attentive to your voice and do not test us beyond our enduring; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Revd David
Daily Scripture‘O Lord, how glorious are your works! Your thoughts are very deep. The senseless do not know, nor do fools understand’. (Psalm 92.5-6) Daily ReflectionHow little we - any of us - understand! ‘Fools’ and ‘the senseless’ may include people of great knowledge and brilliance, but who lack understanding - who are not wise. Wisdom, the Bible says, begins with recognition that we are creatures who should be in awe of our creator. There are principles behind the way the world works deeper than knowledge (‘science’) can grasp. Human history (and the biblical story) is sadly rich in examples of folly and moral failure. Yet we have the capacity to be wise, to understand what really matters, because wisdom is the capacity to recognise goodness when we see it. Jesus showed us how much deeper God’s thoughts are from ours. David Harmsworth
