Every day we post a Thought for the day written by someone within the circuit. Some are very light hearted and some are very deep theologically with all bases between covered.
We hope these will encourage, uplift and make you reflect but most of all we hope you enjoy reading these small daily snippets and take some inspiration on your daily journey
“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:15)
The waiting is almost over! Christmas Eve. What does it mean to you? Perhaps it’s a time of rushing around buying the final items of food for Christmas lunch or buying the present for a relative you had forgotten about. Maybe you look forward to attending church on Christmas morning and being able to sing the 6th verse of “O Come…
Martin E Leckebusch has written some updated lyrics to the traditional carol ‘O Little town of Bethlehem’. I offer them here as a meditation at this Christmas time remembering Ukraine and all other places suffering from wars and conflict. O West Bank town of Bethlehem, How still your victims lie; The grieving weep, deprived of…
A little while ago Helen wrote a piece here that reflected on the shelf of old bibles in her home. She wrote touchingly about people who are history for her but memories for me. One of the people featured was my dear Aunt Edith. When I started preaching over forty years ago, and in the…
Violins screeching, recorders blasting. A little girl dressed as an angel, pushing a wise man off the platform. Two shepherds attacking each other with crooks while their headdresses slip down over their eyes. And the parents in the pews say’ aah’. The school carol service is in full swing. There in the corner on a…
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” This is a meditation on a well-loved verse. We are to trust with all our heart – first of all trust is a mental decision,…
This is the 4th week of Advent when we think of the love that came into the world. We also remember that part that Mary played in that nativity story. The gospel reading set for the 4th Sunday of Advent also tells of the part played by Joseph. (Matthew 1:18-24) He wasn’t one of the…
Bramford Road Methodist church in Ipswich held our annual “Follow the Star” service on Sunday 11th December 2022. It is one of the services in the Churches calendar that I look forward to the most and during the last five years of being minister of the Church this has become one of the highlights of…
At the recent Folk Cafe in Trinity Methodist Church I read this poem which I found in the book “Tidings of Comfort and Joy,” by Pam Rhodes. The poem was written by Tafadawa Mhondiwa Mugari. There once was a shining Christmas tree, Standing out where all could see. Its brilliance captured every eye And seemed…
Paul doesn’t give a narrative account of the birth of Jesus but he does refer to it in his letters. In Galatians 4:4-5 he writes,” When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we…
I have reflected before on our strange attitude to taxation. For what seems like an age, politics appears to have been obsessed by tax rates. The potential for tax cuts offset by the need to increase taxation is the balance. Why are we surprised and indignant, if we are surprised and indignant, that after the…