Saturday, January 1, 2011

This year perhaps.

Good morning. Today we are  facing the New Year with all its promise and possibilities.

A lot can happen in a year.

For centuries the Jews, scattered in different countries around the world, prayed: “Next year in Jerusalem”.

It seemed a distant dream to those millions dispersed for successive generations in foreign lands. Could it ever be that they would return to their homeland?

I recall in 1967, after the six day war, Moshe Dayan leading his troops to the site of the ancient temple to pray at the wailing wall. He said “It is no more “Next year in Jerusalem”. God has answered our prayer. We are here, never again to leave.”

The hope of Christians that has been cherished through the centuries is “ Perhaps this year the Lord Jesus will return?”

Keep the dream alive. He promised in John 14:
“ I WILL COME AGAIN and receive you unto Myself, that where I am there may ye be also.”

I quote from the King James version, for that is the Bible from which my mother read in 1943 when bombs were raining down around our home in York, England.

Forgive me, but I cannot remember a single sermon preached by Vicar Wilkins in the church around the corner, but I can recite those verses from John 14 by heart. Everyone was underscored by concussions of 500 pound bombs. What a great aid they were to my memory. By the way, the promise that Christ would come again is as good this morning as it was in the blitz of York in 1943.


2011 - looking ahead. Sometimes it helps to be two faced!

Good morning. I trust that you had a “high fives “ Christmas time with all your family and friends.

As we enter the New Year I think of the Roman god, Janus, from whom we are given the name, January.


Janus had two heads, or rather, two faces. One looked back to the old year and the other forward to the new.

Not a bad idea. We can walk forward with confidence into the future with the lessons of hindsight that come from our own history.

2010 is now behind us for better or for worse. As we consider 2011 let’s do what Paul what the Apostle Paul enjoined when he said

“Hold fast to that which is good!” or, put in another way “ 2010. Extract the best and forget the rest!”

There was a writer called Joseph Hart who lived in the 18th Century. He penned one of my favourite hymns, a verse of which reads:

How good is the God we adore, Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home.  We’ll praise Him for all that is past.  And trust Him for all that’s to come.

Success and blessings to you all.