{"id":1603,"date":"2020-11-16T12:22:07","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T12:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1603"},"modified":"2020-11-16T12:22:16","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T12:22:16","slug":"message-from-the-minister-letter-19-sunday-15th-november","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1603","title":{"rendered":"Message from the Minister Letter 19 – Sunday 15th November"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dear\nall,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nhope and pray that this letter finds you well. \nIt is good to be back after having a month off for the final part of my\nsabbatical which got postponed due to the pandemic.  Once again, we find ourselves in a lockdown\nbut hopefully it should not last too long this time.  Throughout history there have always been people\nwho have said that Christ was coming back and then predicted a date.  In due course it has been proven they were\nincorrect and thus a false prophet.  The\nBible warns us to be on our guard against such people.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthis week\u2019s reading taken from 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11, we are concerned with\nthe coming of the Lord.  The first thing\nto say is that we need to be always in a state of preparedness as we are told\nJesus could come back at any moment. \nWould you live your life differently today if you knew Jesus was coming\nback tomorrow and the world would end? \nIf there are things you would do differently and if they are people you\nwould contact to make amends or catch up, ask yourself why?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsecond point is that we should be extremely wary of date predictors or people\nthat claim to know the truth when Jesus is returning.  We are told in scripture that not even Jesus\nhimself knows the time nor the hour (Matthew 24: 36).  The purpose of the text before us today is to\nhelp us understand that Jesus\u2019 return is imminent and will come like a thief in\nthe night.  This image has the tendency\nto be rather like the children\u2019s story Burglar\nBill <\/em>in which Jesus would quietly tiptoe into our world without making a\nsound.  However, this is not what is\nmeant if we read this culturally, when the thieves came to a village, they did\nnot creep in, steal valuables and creep off again, they did the total\nopposite.  They created such a noise, hullabaloo,\nand confusion that people would run around panicking and in all the melee and the\nmayhem, the robbers would steal goods and make off with them unchecked and\nunnoticed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nrather creates a different picture doesn\u2019t it? \nAnd so, because of this we are warned, not to \u2018fall asleep\u2019 in other\nwords remain vigilant and ready to greet our Lord.  When Jesus does return, we are to be found to\nbe faithful and encouraging one another. \nSo, in the meantime we are to put on the breastplate of faith and love,\nand the helmet of hope for salvation. \nJesus Christ is coming back to redeem His church, His people, and His\nworld, this should make us expectant and hopeful for the future.  As we approach Advent when traditionally we\nthink about the end times let us do so with renewed hope and vigour,\nencouraging all and sharing the Good New with our nearest and dearest.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May\nour Lord Jesus Christ, the King who is coming to reign, bless us now and\nalways, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear all, I hope and pray that this letter finds you well.  It is good to be back after having a month off for the final part of my sabbatical which got postponed due to the pandemic.  Once again, we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1604,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603\/revisions\/1604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}