4th May - Are You Converted?
This week we read the stories of the almost instant conversion of St Paul on the famous Damascus Road told in Acts Ch 9 and St Peter, whose conversion probably took the whole three year length of the time he spent with Jesus, concluding only when Jesus asks Peter to look after His sheep, related in John Ch 21.
So what does ‘conversion’ really mean? Peter had always believed that a Saviour would one day come and travelling with Jesus, he believed that Jesus was that man. But Peter hadn’t fully accepted what following Jesus would really mean, because the difference between believing in something or someone and truly accepting their supremacy over us are two different things. Being ‘converted’ therefore means following Jesus and accepting God’s guidance over everything in our lives – even when we want to do something differently, in our own way!
In John Ch 15 Jesus tells us that He is the only true vine and that we need to remain connected to Him. We do that through taking time to praise Him (worship), talk with Him (praying constantly) and acting upon His words, through committing ourselves to serve others (and Him), asking ourselves in every circumstance – would Jesus want me to do that or not?
Each one of us is a valuable and much loved part of God’s Creation and we are all made through and by Him. We need to start our conversion journey by accepting that Jesus really does love us because true freedom and eventual salvation for our souls only comes when we recognise His guidance in our lives here on Earth.
For some, true conversion happens very quickly, but for others it can take a lifetime - both are equally valid.
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27th April -New Life
This week Rev Dawn Brown considered the story in John Ch 20 when Jesus, risen from the dead, appears to His disciples whilst they were hiding in fear from the authorities in their locked upper-room.
After the incredible dramas of the previous week they were no doubt wondering what they should do next. Even though they’d seen the empty tomb and heard their women saying that they’d seen Jesus, they were living through uncertain times, with many unanswered questions. Was the whole Jesus story over and done with?
But God is always a step ahead as Jesus miraculously appears and despite their troubled minds, greets them with His Peace. Because that’s what He does – He shares our troubles and walks beside us as we work our way through them. True Peace only comes with the presence of God.
Then we read about Thomas, one of the disciples who wasn’t present in the room, saying that he wouldn’t believe that Jesus was alive unless he saw Jesus for himself, which he eventually does when Jesus appears again.
And then as God had done in giving the original Adam life, Jesus breathes new life into them, preparing them for a new mission and purpose, that of bringing more people to faith and belief in God and His forgiveness of their sins, paid for and washed away by Jesus’ blood.
Why? Because life only makes sense if we align ourselves with Jesus and His message of eternal life with God, free of all our wrongdoings.
‘Seeing is believing’ we often say. Our job as Jesus’ followers and disciples today is to walk alongside others, and in so doing help them to find God.
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20th April -Surprise Surprise
And the Good News, this Easter Sunday and every Easter Sunday, is that the grave is empty and Jesus has defeated both our sins and deaths. This was part of Local Preacher Judy Tasker’s message for us this morning saying that once we were no people but now we are God’s people!
Surprises though are not always nice. Luke Ch 24 tells the story of the women who went to anoint Jesus and wondering who had stolen His body. Their surprise at not finding Him was turned from being a not so nice surprise into a wonderful one, with puzzlement fear and amazement disappearing when they realised that He had risen. They had not remembered that He had told all His disciples that this was going to happen and it meant that they were looking for Jesus in the wrong place!
So where are you looking for Him? We can meet Jesus in many different places and ways. Some encounter Him in prayer and Bible reading, in church or outside of it. Jesus has many different ways of surprising us because He is in all of us and in all human experiences, in happy times and sad ones, even in unexpected situations, He is beside us and will help us if we are open to Him.
Telling the story of a little boy who met God in and old lady on a park bench with the little boy meeting God in that old lady, try to look for Him with fresh eyes. Be surprised at what God has in store for you. Let’s take His love into the needy world, doing all we can in His name and for His Kingdom.
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6th April -Who really matters
This week we concentrated upon the fact that following and believing in Jesus is the only thing that really matters in our lives.
We read first from Isaiah Ch 43 where God tells the Jewish people, exiled in Babylon and seemingly without hope, that He will provide a pathway for them to return home. It’s an Old Testament recognition of who really matters and is a text for any age, telling us that God can break down the bars of any prison whether physical or mental, to rescue His followers and provide a clear way forward from any difficulty
Next we looked at St Paul’s letter to the Philippians. When written there was a huge controversy about whether non-Jewish people needed to follow Jewish law in order to be accepted as followers of Jesus. Paul is vehemently opposed to this, saying that believing in Jesus is the only thing that matters. It’s a remarkable testimony of Paul’s faith, where he tells his readers that living right with God is not achieved by birth or following the law but solely on faith in Jesus. Nothing else has any true value at all.
Finally, we turned to the wonderfully tender story in John Ch 12 about Mary anointing the Lord’s feet with a hugely expensive perfume, wiping His feet with her hair. This takes place shortly before Jesus enters Jerusalem where He will be judicially murdered. The text tells us that the anointing oil is hugely expensive, worth a year’s wages and it demonstrates the need for us to dedicate to the Lord both our physical selves and everything we have.
Her personal and incredibly passionate act demonstrated her deepest love, witnessing to us all how Jesus really mattered to her. Can we put Jesus first as she did?
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30th March -Perfect Love
This Mother’s Day, whilst noting that for some the actions of their mothers make them not necessarily worthy of high esteem, Rev Jenny Porterpryde spoke about the famous 23rd Psalm which describes the Lord as our Shepherd. this Psalm confirms God’s love for us and that His forgiveness is always available if we ask Him for it, so to coin a modern expression, we are never ‘cancelled’ by God.
Next we looked at St Paul’s well known celebration of Love in 1 Corinthians Ch 13 where the Apostle notes that love does not hold grudges or remember other peoples’ wrongdoings. It’s a perfect description of what our love should be like. Jenny told us that if we confess our sins God not only forgives us but actually makes a conscious decision not to remember them. In other words, God wipes our slate clean and treats us as if the sin had never even existed.
Another lesson we learnt was that we should not be distracted by past wrongdoings or by things we should have done but omitted to do.
Ask God today how He wants you to express both your and His love in your community.
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23rd March -Look for the Lord
We all experience periods of difficulty in our lives but referencing Psalm 63, where the soon to be king David laments his position in the desert wilderness, Local Preacher Peter Walsham’s first message to us this morning was that in God’s hands we are safe and secure, saying that as told in Deuteronomy Ch 13 vs 4, it is God on whom we must rely, keeping His commands obeying, serving and holding fast to Him.
Next we moved to the Gospel of St Luke in the New Testament. At the beginning of Ch 13 we see Jesus teaching His Jewish hearers that bad things which happen should not be considered as punishments from God because they often occur through human negligence or disobedience. The Lord went on to tell them a parable about an unfruitful fig tree (that’s us) which is given a second chance to live when it is provided with the nutrients it needs to produce figs. Back then and it’s still true today, these nutrients are to be found by reconnecting ourselves to God both through speaking with Him in prayer and reading the Bible which contains His lessons for how He wants us to live.
In this Lent period before Easter we are meant to make time for honest reflection. We are all guilty of wrongdoing from time to time but God forgives us if we recognise our faults and truly ask for His forgiveness.
Modern life is so full of our busyness with far too many distractions which take us away from the way of life that God wants us to live. Please take some time this week – and every week - to slow down, search for the bigger picture and take the path He wants us to follow.
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16th March - Life's Journey
We all have our own exclusive individual life story and Local Preacher Maureen Simpson spoke to us today about how if we trust in God He will always help us to navigate our way through, whatever problem we have to face. Being a Christian does not prevent bad things happening to us but with God at our side we can have confidence in the future.
But remember, although occasionally we do daft or wrong things God always cares for and forgives us although if He calls us to do something for His Kingdom, then He doesn’t go away until we decide to do as He has asked.
We read one of the stories told in Genesis about how God promised Abram (who was later called Abraham) a son and heir and that his descendants would become a great nation. Trusting God, Abram sets out on a journey without knowing where God is taking him and it’s the same for us today – we’re on a mystery tour and although at times we are hesitant and frightened, God asks us to trust and follow Him.
At times on our life journey we have to wait for God but waiting gives us the opportunity to slow down, rest and use the time to think things through. It’s a stop-gap opportunity on the hamster wheel of life.
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9th March - Soul food
This Lent, the Methodist Church is looking at what nourishes our souls and with this as her theme, Rev Dawn Brown looked at the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness as told in Luke Ch 4.
The context here is that Jesus has just been baptised in the River Jordan by His cousin John, hearing the voice of God commissioning Him and feeling God’s Holy Spirit descend on Him like a dove. Immediately, He goes alone into the wilderness to decide the shape of His ministry on Earth where He contemplates the Devil’s very human temptations.
First Satan tempts Jesus with food. We’ve all been hungry so we know how that feels! But the message here is that God does feed us, as He fed the Israelites with manna or the 5,000 strong crowd with a small boy’s lunch. We might not get all we want, but we will get all we need by trusting in Him.
Next, Satan offers Jesus power to rule over humanity as an autocratic dictator. Jesus rejects this choosing to rule over people through the power of love, defeating sin and death through His self-sacrifice and subsequent resurrection. Jesus wants us to follow Him through our God-given freewill.
Finally, Satan suggests that Jesus test God by jumping off a high building to be saved by angels. Jesus rejects this approach too. He wants people to follow Him for the right reasons not by a display of circus-like showmanship.
Jesus experienced all our human temptations, but like He did we need to dismiss them and trust God to provide through Jesus’ saving grace alone. And if we give something up for Lent, why not gift the price of that foregone luxury to charity? That’s real soul food - you will feel better for it.
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2nd March - Be Generous
In our lead up to Lent and the Easter season Rev Alf Waite asked us to consider our giving, saying that God is in no man’s debt, because it is impossible to ‘out-give’ our God from whom every blessing that we enjoy flows. It’s an opportunity to review what being a disciple of Jesus should mean which is to give whatever we can, whenever we can.
Being generous is not all about money although that plays its part of course. In 2 Corinthians Ch 9 St Paul tells us that God loves a willing giver and urges people to sow generously and God will reward that with abundant blessings. So we need to be generous in spirit, love, time, wisdom, energy, in our labours and in our hearts. In other words, we need to give our whole selves because in being generous we reflect the loving character of God Himself.
God has been forgiving humankind from the very beginning as demonstrated at the start of the Bible in the book of Genesis where God provides clothing for Adam and Eve when they discover, through their disobedience, that they are naked. Ultimately, God, in Jesus Christ, sacrificed Himself on the Cross in order to finally reconcile those who believe and follow Jesus with Himself, the great Creator.
Our loving actions towards others and in places where there is need have lasting impact. Every act of kindness we undertake is part of our work in and for God’s kingdom. With that thought in mind ask yourselves when you last reviewed your generosity and what you give in thought, word and deed as well as in the material things you possess. Because it’s in our generosity that we fulfil what we say in the Lord’s Prayer – ‘Your kingdom come’.
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23rd February - Agape Love
There are over 500,000 words in the English language, but there’s only one for all the different forms of love that we experience so Rev Jona Sewell explained today what Jesus really meant in Luke Ch 6 vs 27 – 36 when He told us to love our enemies.
Because the form of love that Jesus was referring to is not that which we might show to a spouse, family or friends, but Agape love, which is the self-sacrificing care we need to show towards those who oppose us and might actually do us harm.
Jesus, who embodied our Father God when He lived among us, demonstrated Agape love many times in His ministry, forgiving people their sins without being asked. An early example was when He offered forgiveness to the crippled man let down through a roof (Mark Ch 2 and Luke Ch 5) whilst at the end, Jesus, the Lord of all Creation actually does the job of a slave washing His disciples’ feet (Luke Ch 22 & John Ch 13). Even on the Cross, the ultimate example of self-sacrificing Agape love, He forgives His executioners!
Think how amazing all of that is! It proves that love for us all is at the heart of God himself, no matter what we might have done in our lives to date.
Sacrificing ourselves in Agape love for others is not always easy particularly in fractious situations, but Jesus encourages us through His words and actions to choose to live in harmony even if we may feel we are in the right because being gentle with those who oppose us can lead to changes of heart and better future collaborations.
We are responsible for our words and actions. As Jesus’ followers, we must love others because God first loved us.
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16th February - Choices...
We all have the gift of freewill - but have you ever made a bad decision or perhaps taken an easy route rather than the more difficult option your inner-self is telling you is the one you should take? Well today, Local Preacher Peter Walsham reflected on the life-choice lessons taught in the Bible through the Old Testament’s Psalm 1 and Jesus’ ‘sermon on the mount’ as recorded in Matthew Ch 7 vs 7 – 20.
Both passages provide us with guidance on the choices we need to make in response to the things we have to deal with in everyday life.
Verses 1 & 2 of Psalm 1 set the scene by telling us to reject the advice and example set by evil people but in order to find true happiness we need to read, think about and then follow God’s laws. In doing so God offers us His protection, but if we refuse, then we are warned that we will be judged when our lives are done.
Warning of false prophets, Jesus’ words in Matthew Ch 7 echo those of the Psalmist. Satan, through evil people, seeks to turn us away from choosing the ‘narrow pathway’ which is how He describes going down the right road and doing the right thing. In today’s language that translates as being that there are times when we shouldn’t follow the masses but instead look for a better reaction or solution to a problem, trusting in God’s Holy Spirit for guidance.
Before the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land, Moses told them to love God, keep His commands and to live according to His Word.
Even though God continues to love us whatever we do, 3,000 years on, Moses’ message applies to us just as much now as it did back then.
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9th February - God wants YOU
This week we looked at two Bible passages, Jeremiah Ch 31 vs 7-14 from the Old Testament, the other being the introductory verses of John’s Gospel.
In Jeremiah’s message we are told that God, displaying endless patience and love for His wayward people, will welcome home His people from exile including refugees, the disabled and those that are vulnerable, something which is particularly relevant to our political discourse today. We may not have been kidnapped by a foreign power as the Jews had been when the book was written, but instead, perhaps we are being held captive by the pressures of the modern world and we often do not treat disadvantaged people in the way that God would want us to.
We were reminded of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke Ch 10 where an outcast in Jewish society looked after an injured man when his own kin would not - a salutary lesson to all societies down the ages on how foreigners should be treated.
Turning to John Ch 1, Jesus is identified as God Himself and that the entirety of Creation was made by and through Him. It’s a mind-blowing statement that’s hard for us to take on board fully but it has profound depth and meaning for all of humanity. The first five verses are written as undeniable statements and are the core of our Christian faith.
The amazing Good News contained in these early verses state unequivocally that God came to Earth in the human form of Jesus to invite us all into a special relationship with Him.
The great Welsh evangelist Selwyn Hughes put it like this: All other religions tell of man’s search for God, but Christianity tells of God’s search for man presenting the word of God in the flesh.
How wonderful is that?
Enjoy this service here in full:
9th February - God wants YOU
This week we looked at two Bible passages, Jeremiah Ch 31 vs 7-14 from the Old Testament, the other being the introductory verses of John’s Gospel.
In Jeremiah’s message we are told that God, displaying endless patience and love for His wayward people, will welcome home His people from exile including refugees, the disabled and those that are vulnerable, something which is particularly relevant to our political discourse today. We may not have been kidnapped by a foreign power as the Jews had been when the book was written, but instead, perhaps we are being held captive by the pressures of the modern world and we often do not treat disadvantaged people in the way that God would want us to.
We were reminded of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke Ch 10 where an outcast in Jewish society looked after an injured man when his own kin would not - a salutary lesson to all societies down the ages on how foreigners should be treated.
Turning to John Ch 1, Jesus is identified as God Himself and that the entirety of Creation was made by and through Him. It’s a mind-blowing statement that’s hard for us to take on board fully but it has profound depth and meaning for all of humanity. The first five verses are written as undeniable statements and are the core of our Christian faith.
The amazing Good News contained in these early verses state unequivocally that God came to Earth in the human form of Jesus to invite us all into a special relationship with Him.
The great Welsh evangelist Selwyn Hughes put it like this: All other religions tell of man’s search for God, but Christianity tells of God’s search for man presenting the word of God in the flesh.
How wonderful is that?
Enjoy this service here in full:
2nd February - Think again
This week, Local Preacher Maureen Simpson looked at the story of Jesus’ return to His hometown synagogue as told in Luke Ch 4. Having read from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus tells them that it is Himself that the prophet is talking about, in effect that He is the long expected Jewish Messiah or Saviour. On hearing this the townsfolk are horrified and angry and they bundle Him out of the synagogue and, when about to throw Him off a cliff, Jesus stops, turns around and walks back through them and goes on His way, rejected by the very people He knows best in all the world. It's a shocking story and we can only imagine the distress on both sides.
But as with everything in the Bible there are important lessons here. Were Jesus’ congregation unhappy simply because they thought He was blasphemous, above His station or even deluded? But was it more complicated because they resented Him saying that they needed to change? Perhaps they resented the fact that He mixed with foreigners and with people they considered outcasts?
Jesus’ mission on Earth was - and through us remains - to reconcile people who have gone astray from God. We’re told that Jesus came to give good news to prisoners, the blind and the poor, but we’re not talking about physical restraint, eyesight or wealth here. Think instead about those who are blind and prisoners in themselves because they are poor in their outlook, stuck in their ways and self-centred.
So what do we need to do? The answer is to read the Bible and talk to God in prayer, asking for His guidance and what He wants us to do in His world. Because we can all do something for Jesus’ sake in the community around us.
Enjoy this service here in full:
2nd February - Think again
This week, Local Preacher Maureen Simpson looked at the story of Jesus’ return to His hometown synagogue as told in Luke Ch 4. Having read from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus tells them that it is Himself that the prophet is talking about, in effect that He is the long expected Jewish Messiah or Saviour. On hearing this the townsfolk are horrified and angry and they bundle Him out of the synagogue and, when about to throw Him off a cliff, Jesus stops, turns around and walks back through them and goes on His way, rejected by the very people He knows best in all the world. It's a shocking story and we can only imagine the distress on both sides.
But as with everything in the Bible there are important lessons here. Were Jesus’ congregation unhappy simply because they thought He was blasphemous, above His station or even deluded? But was it more complicated because they resented Him saying that they needed to change? Perhaps they resented the fact that He mixed with foreigners and with people they considered outcasts?
Jesus’ mission on Earth was - and through us remains - to reconcile people who have gone astray from God. We’re told that Jesus came to give good news to prisoners, the blind and the poor, but we’re not talking about physical restraint, eyesight or wealth here. Think instead about those who are blind and prisoners in themselves because they are poor in their outlook, stuck in their ways and self-centred.
So what do we need to do? The answer is to read the Bible and talk to God in prayer, asking for His guidance and what He wants us to do in His world. Because we can all do something for Jesus’ sake in the community around us.
Enjoy this service here in full:
2nd February - Think again
This week, Local Preacher Maureen Simpson looked at the story of Jesus’ return to His hometown synagogue as told in Luke Ch 4. Having read from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus tells them that it is Himself that the prophet is talking about, in effect that He is the long expected Jewish Messiah or Saviour. On hearing this the townsfolk are horrified and angry and they bundle Him out of the synagogue and, when about to throw Him off a cliff, Jesus stops, turns around and walks back through them and goes on His way, rejected by the very people He knows best in all the world. It's a shocking story and we can only imagine the distress on both sides.
But as with everything in the Bible there are important lessons here. Were Jesus’ congregation unhappy simply because they thought He was blasphemous, above His station or even deluded? But was it more complicated because they resented Him saying that they needed to change? Perhaps they resented the fact that He mixed with foreigners and with people they considered outcasts?
Jesus’ mission on Earth was - and through us remains - to reconcile people who have gone astray from God. We’re told that Jesus came to give good news to prisoners, the blind and the poor, but we’re not talking about physical restraint, eyesight or wealth here. Think instead about those who are blind and prisoners in themselves because they are poor in their outlook, stuck in their ways and self-centred.
So what do we need to do? The answer is to read the Bible and talk to God in prayer, asking for His guidance and what He wants us to do in His world. Because we can all do something for Jesus’ sake in the community around us.
Enjoy this service here in full:
January 26th - Sing it out loud
At our annual Covenant service today Rev Dawn Brown asked us to recall the central Methodist theme for the Christmas period just passed which was to ‘Hush the noise and join the Angels’ song for the coming of Jesus and to reflect on why He came.
Reading from Jeremiah Ch 51 we heard that the Israelites were asked to (vs 7) “Sing with joy for Jacob… and make your praises heard, and say, ‘Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel’ ” while in Ch 1 of John’s Gospel we are told that Jesus is the word of God Himself through whom everything was created at the beginning of time.
Singing does something for and to people and songs have the ability to search our souls at the deepest spiritual level. The bible is full of songs and there are 150 in the book of Psalms alone. We remember Mary’s song of joy when she knows she is carrying the infant Jesus.
And it’s well known that singing improves mood and usually brings happiness – even sad songs can do that. It’s good exercise too, both physical and spiritual, preventing us from becoming stiff just as movement frees our bodies from the stiffness we feel when we have been sitting around for too long.
The Bible is full of stories about movement, particularly of those like Abraham or Joseph in the Old Testament or St Paul in the New Testament as well as Jesus Himself. All of them went on journeys not knowing the outcome but firstly obeying God’s call and then trusting in Him to support them.
It is Jesus who teaches us how to live in tune with our loving Father God. Ask yourself this. Do I need to rethink the song that I am singing in my life?
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January 19th - Our Precious Time
Expressing surprise about the number of special days there are in some calendars Worship Leader Gwyneth Walsham emphasised that every day is God given and not to be taken lightly or squandered.
Something we should do is to thank God for each day and count the innumerable blessings we receive. It may help if we were to record those things that we are grateful for in a daily journal because although some very simple things might seem to be small and of little consequence, looking back, they may actually turn out to be quite important. But whatever we do, our time is limited and precious and we need to make each day count.
Daily Bible readings and prayer enable us to concentrate on God and His word and to discern how He wants us to live day by day. Doing this will help us to appreciate every gift we receive and make the most of every day.
God knows us and never asks more of us than we are capable of delivering and He gives us enough time to complete what He has asked us to do but when we are busy, it seems that each day is just too short.
However, just as we do with our money we have to budget our time too! And maybe if we did that carefully, we wouldn’t have those feelings of stress, unfulfillment and time pressure because we would have made the time to complete the tasks that God had set for us. It’s all about being willing to obey.
We live with God’s grace but our days are numbered. Let’s not waste them on trivia!
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January 12th - Reasons for Hope
With the terrible news of so many wars all over the world as well as natural disasters, like the wildfires sweeping across Los Angeles, it’s easy so soon after Christmas to become depressed, but Local Preacher Judy Tasker asked us to look up and remember that amongst it all there is reason to hope because Jesus has come.
In Isaiah Ch 43 vs 1 -7 the Jewish exiles in Babylon are told not to be afraid because nothing can come between them and the Lord’s protection, a message as relevant to us now as it was to them 2,500 years ago. It’s also a lesson that we should not become so involved with life around us that we forget about God and His Word.
Over Christmas we were encouraged to ‘Hush the Noise’ and concentrate on the real message of Christmas, the birth of Jesus our Saviour demonstrating God’s love for us and reminding us that we must make time to listen to - and for - God.
1 John Ch 4: 19 says that we love because God first loved us and that’s the message we are entrusted to pass on to those around us. There are many ways we can do this from offering our help to others personally, through our commitment to community organisations or by giving to the work of charities like Toy Box. Take a look at https://toybox.org.uk/about
Take heart from Romans Ch 15 vs 13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
In God we have reason for hope. May the God of Hope go with you all throughout 2025.