Daily ScriptureThe next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him ‘Follow me’.Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathaniel said to him ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him ‘Come and see.’ (John 1:43-46)Daily ReflectionPhilip has made the most amazing discovery: the long awaited Messiah foretold by the prophets is living just down the road, in the next town. Could there be any news more exciting, more mind boggling than this? And what is Nathaniel’s response to the news? With a dismissive shrug he replies, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Of course, when he actually meets Jesus for himself, face to face, he recognises how mistaken he was. He becomes a follower of Jesus, and one of his close circle of disciples.Great blessings sometimes come to us in unexpected ways and through unlikely people. God’s way of doing things may not be ours. Once we open ourselves up to the surprising possibilities, he may have in store for us life becomes infinitely more exciting! Revd Rosemary
Daily Scripture:18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ 19 Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. 21 ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’ (Mark 2:18-22)Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new,transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,and in the renewal of our livesmake known your heavenly glory;From the Collect (prayer) for the Second Sunday of Epiphany, Church of EnglandDaily Reflection:It is mid-January, and maybe some of us made some New Year’s resolutions. Have we kept them? Or, have we already come unstuck? This year, more than ever, we might feel like it’s futile. But new habits take time to form. In this Gospel reading Jesus is asked why he and his disciples don’t fast, when others do. His explanation says: ‘I’m bringing something new, a whole new way of living. You can’t expect my followers to live like people have always done.’ When we turn to Jesus and start following him, our life is changed. Our habits are changed, our way of thinking and acting. But, like all good habits, this takes time to bed in. Don’t lose heart. Keep praying, keep reading the Bible, keep practising kindness.Revd Ylva
Here is the link to our service at 10am on Sunday 17th January: https://youtu.be/kReaQuKs9PkThis is followed by a Zoom Coffee Morning at 11am. Details as follows: Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/<wbr></wbr>3971102878?pwd=<wbr></wbr>UkpkY2R2Z1lXbmJqNUdzdzB2RVZUUT<wbr></wbr>09 Meeting ID: 397 110 2878 Passcode: 658989
Daily Scripture:‘We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.’ (Psalm 33 v 20 - 22)Daily Reflection: And still we wait - wait for the vaccine to be given out, wait for the R number to come down, wait for the hospitals to be back to normal, wait for our lives to get back to normal!But wait we must, we cannot give up hope that this will all, at some time in the near future, come to an end and we will be able to return to some semblance of normality. In the meantime, we have the knowledge that God is with us, He is our help and our shield - something that we need to hold on to in these very dark days. God’s unfailing love will always be there - don’t give up hope - we just need to hang on in there for a little while longer.Lyn Hayes, ALM
