Sunday 12th July Mark 6:14-29

The beheading of John the Baptist

There are many different aspects to this story and each one will speak to a
different group of people. Maybe, it is the way Herod was interested in what
John was preaching even though he was being criticized. Maybe it is the fact
that Herodias got her way by using her daughter. We commented in TFG that we all have our own agendas so God will speak to us each in a different way.
I was struck while thinking about how we apply the story to our own lives. We can see from the story that John the Baptist was not afraid to speak out. We are sometimes slow to speak out about the wrongs in our world. He was
pointing the way to Jesus who must also be our Saviour and Lord. He was
higlighting the need for repentance. We too must put aside all the wrongs of
our past and make a fresh start with Jesus. Also, at the end he was killed
and we too must be prepared for persecution and maybe even death for what we believe.

Let us know you views and how God has spoken to you through this story.

Peter Ewen

Sunday July 5 - Appearances are Misleading

In our All Age Praise on 5 July we looked at: “Appearances are misleading – Judging!”

We had great fun with a brief passage from 1 Samuel, and why Eliab was rejected. For this section, the very young children each chose a cuddly toy of their choice and then said why they liked it. So we learned that it wasn’t necessarily the most beautiful or smart that was selected, but for many reasons.

We then listened to Jesus’ words “Don’t judge others, so that God will not judge you” from Matthew 5.

Following this the older ones explored optical illusions, how they appeared from different angles and the visual deceptions they produced; how mind and sight put things in place that aren’t there and add effects to alter perception. This, as I told, the adults is what happens when we try to judge people; we don’t know why they are how they are, we can never walk in their shoes, so we can’t form an objective opinion. We have to leave that to God. No-one is good enough to judge others. Only the faultless has a right to look for faults in others; and that one is, and can only ever be, our Lord Jesus.

So we came to the conclusion that Appearances are misleading – in judging others we’ll come unstuck. We must learn to think the best of all people and can only hope they’ll do the same for us. We had various songs such as Give me oil in my lamp, Whether you’re one and When I needed a neighbour and enjoyed some children’s interactive prayers by Pauline. It all worked really well.

We left with green and yellow paper heart-shaped promises to re-commit ourselves to God and to each other, but not before we had enjoyed a lovely piece of Hazel’s birthday cake!

Peace and Joy!

Deacon Olivia