Words of Light and Hope from Sue Page LLM

Words of Light and Hope Sunday February 23rd 2025  2nd Sunday before Lent     Sue Page LLM                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Dietrich Bonhoeffer sums up the heart of our Christian Faith                                                                                                                        “God lets Himself be pushed out of the world on to the Cross Bonhoeffer wrote “He is weak and powerless in the world and that is precisely the way, the only way. In which He is with us and helps us Christ helps us not by his omnipotence, but by virtue of his weakness and suffering…. Only the suffering God can help”                                                                                                                                                                            Living in the Promise                                                                                                                                                                                                Perhaps the greatest danger that threatens us comes from being overly involved in the small, ordinary happenings of daily life – from becoming so enslaved by them that they fill our heart and soul. To go about life in this way is to go about unprotected, unaware, distracted, and removed from reality. Let us never allow ourselves to be dragged down by pettiness, or take the things of this earth so seriously that they burden us day after day. Let us live constantly in the Promise.  God does not want us to be swallowed up in what is transitory, but calls us to what is eternal.                                                                    C F Blumheardt                                                                                                                     Prayer from BRF                                                                                                                                                                                                         “God-to-the-rescue’ in Christ  Thank you for reaching out in Love To those on the margins and without hope.  Help us in our turn To care for the last and least among us With the love you pour into our hearts. May more and more people Find refuge in the shelter of your presence For the sake of the Kingdom. Amen                              

I thought perhaps you would come in splendour. With chains of angels and golden majesty. And I would sing Your praises through all eternity. I have no voice.  I thought perhaps you would come in judgement . But You ask no questions, make no accusations, Only by your light I see my own sinfulness, And Your great mercy.     I thought perhaps your would come in power, But you do not ask, or say, or do but only be, And in the sun of your silence, my silent heart Opens like a flower                                 Elizabethe Rimmer                                                         An Amazing Parado                                                                                                                                                                                                             What an amazing paradox. We are called to freedom, but through love we should be slaves to one another. We are not bound to the Jewish ceremonial law, but    empowered to live out what it represents: the love of God expressed in our love of our neighbours. The heart of God is to love. Keeping these two great commandments is freedom                                                                      Heinrich Arnold