Daily Scripture:As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:5-8)Daily Reflection:Paul is writing to Timothy, urging him to carry on the work they started. He himself is almost done. His time is up.When a good person dies, like my friend who passed away on Friday, then we are sad. Yet, we also know that their life was full of meaning, that they were loved and loved others in return. They have done all that they could to leave this world a better place. Learning from them, we should also make sure we ‘fight the good fight’ and that we ‘finish the race’. Joy, my friend, certainly ‘kept the faith’; a lifelong Christian she embodied all that is good and right and kind – and she had the driest, most wicked sense of humour! Our Lord will get a good chuckle when he hands her the crown…Revd Ylva
Daily Scripture:Almighty God, you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image: teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children... (from the Collect for today, the Second Sunday before Lent)Daily Reflection:The Collects are a wonderful resource: encouraging, challenging, thought provoking. Today’s is one of my great favourites, one to which I constantly return and often quote from. It calls us to open our eyes to the amazing complexity and beauty of our planet, and to praise God for it. Not hard, living where we do, with signs of spring appearing all around us! Rather more challenging is the call to discern God’s likeness in ‘all his children’. In some blessed souls His likeness shines through; in others it is much harder to find. But if we look hard enough, and humbly enough, we may be surprised at what is to be discovered in apparently unlikely places.And more challenging still: How likely are people to discern something of God’s likeness in us? Revd Rosemary
Daily Scripture:Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. (1 Corinthians 16 v 13-1)Daily Reflection:This past week we said goodbye to a true hero - Captain Sir Tom Moore - someone who embodied the spirit of courage & strength of character - someone for whom “doing the right thing” was the only way. He stood firm in his resolve to walk 100 laps of his garden to raise his initial target of £1000. He captured the hearts and minds of the whole nation and gave us all the sense of hope that we all needed in a time of darkness. He did everything with a strong sense of duty, but above all he did it with love. I for one will hold on to his lasting words which he used for the title of his autobiography “Tomorrow will be a good day” - hold on to those words and those of St. Paul - stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Lyn Hayes, ALM
Daily Scripture:Yet I have been the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no saviour. (Hosea 13:4) Daily Reflection:Words written by the prophet Hosea over 700 years before Jesus was born. Christianity teaches us that Jesus (the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one), that God is our Saviour. Yet over 700 years before he was born, people are told there is one God, and he is the Saviour.God is there, through all the good times and through the tough times of our lives. We just need to remember that – and not just in the tough times….. when it is easier to call out to God for help. The people of Israel cannot have said, “We didn’t know; we weren’t told;” they were, many times. Neither can we say, “I didn’t know.” We cannot be untold something; so here is it, clear and simple: “God is your Saviour”. So give Him praise, and thank him. Today.Revd David
