Sunday Worship - Sunday 5th July

Good Morning! Welcome to this mornings united service with Kingswood Methodist Church.

Click below on the red play button to start the video. You can also find the service on YouTube here if it isn’t working on the blog.

You may need to be patient as the video is a very large file and may take a little while to load.

Our virtual worship leader is Pam Grayling and the Message is from our Minister Christine Fox.

The format of today's service is following Kingswood's monthly Interactive Service.

God Bless x

Summer Journal Activity

Jesus teaches us and gives us rest

…why not keep a summer journal as a household, answering the questions-

What things do you do and where do you go?

What are your prayers?

When do you feel close to Jesus?

What is he saying to you?

- stick in mementos;

add verses from the Bible that are important to you.

This will become a great record of what you learn from God this summer which you can look back on!

Message - Rev Christine Fox

Recently we’ve been made more aware of how painful it is for those who are treated differently because of their ethnicity, their appearance, their age or any number of other diversities. On top of the fears raised by Covid19 causing more fatalities among these groups, the disrespectful treatment they have received for years has been recognised but still waits for justice.

Jesus pointed out in his time that people were always judging others. They had criticised John the Baptist for fasting and they had criticised him because he enjoyed feasting with a whole variety of people. In judging him and John because they were different, they were missing the point – Jesus said look instead at what God is doing through me – through my words and actions – that’s what matters – see what God is doing!

If we’re honest most of us find ourselves judging other people at times – even the best of us do it when we are stressed ourselves – and we often would never wish our words or actions to hurt anyone – so why do we do it?

Jesus sees our hearts, he knows our weakness – and he offers to be alongside us, helping us to carry the burdens that we each have so that with him beside us, we can better show God’s love to others.

It makes such a difference when we have family or friends nearby, sharing our lives; so many of us are missing this vital support now. But there is no excuse for allowing our own burdens to lead us to disrespect others, whoever they are, just because they are slightly different, after all who isn’t different? Even identical twins have different life experiences. So let us turn to Jesus who is still here with us, let’s accept his offer of a shared yoke – a partnership of his strength and our words and faces so we can see God’s love in the lives of all the different people that bring a richness into our world we can’t do without.

Remember that Jesus calls you to him so that you might learn from him and receive rest for the renewing of your soul. Amen.