{"id":1605,"date":"2020-11-16T17:14:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T17:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2020-11-16T17:15:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T17:15:02","slug":"message-from-the-minister-letter-20-sunday-22nd-november","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1605","title":{"rendered":"Message from the Minister Letter 20 – Sunday 22nd November"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

I\nhope and pray that this letter finds you well. \nThis week we come to one of my favourite Sundays in the Christian calendar.  Christ the King Sunday when we look at Christ\nas King overall, this is traditionally just before the start of the period of\nAdvent.  Why should we look at this subject\nnow and what is the rationale behind it? \nDuring Advent we traditionally look at the Second Coming of Christ which\nis when Jesus will return as the King of all and the victor, so it makes sense\nto examine the subject at this point.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nyear, the passage of Ephesians 1: 15-23 has been selected but as you peruse\nyour Bible you will realise there are a great number of passages that refer to\nthe kingship of Christ, how many can you find? \n(I will give you the answer next week). \nThe passage in Ephesians is one of great encouragement as Paul is\nthanking the Ephesians for their love and faith in Christ and what a blessing\nit has been to him.  In his prayers to Almighty\nGod, Paul is asking that the Ephesian church may be given the Spirit of God in\nabundance.  This will help give the\nbelievers both wisdom and revelation as to who God is and help them in their\nfaith journeys.  Who in their right mind\nwould turn down the gift of greater wisdom? \nImaging receiving that as a gift this Christmas, more wisdom, I think we\nall could do with a dose!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\noverarching aim of Paul\u2019s plea to God is that the Ephesian Christians might\nknow God better, well is that not that the aim of all Christians?  Isn\u2019t that why; we say our prayers regularly,\nread our Bibles daily, study the scriptures often, and attend worship and\nfellowship frequently so that we might just do that?  The next part is my favourite that \u2018The eyes\nof your heart are enlightened in order that you may know <\/em>the hope to\nwhich he has called you\u2019 (verse 18, italics my emphasis).  Knowing that truth deep down in our hearts, souls,\nour very beings is life transforming and life affirming.  For that truth, that hope, will set us free\nand release us into the life that God has called us.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfinal portion of the passage relates to the theme mentioned earlier and the\nkingship of Christ and how God raised Him from the dead and exulted Him to the\nhighest place at His right hand in the heavenly realms.  How amazing is that talk about a promotion!  Christ is now above every rule and authority,\npower, and dominion not only in the present age but in the one to come.  In other words, His power and authority are\nunparalleled.  His reign is exquisite, eternal\nand without equal.  We worship and\ncelebrate a King who is the greatest, not only yesterday but tomorrow as well\nand for all time.  This week may we all\nrealise that we serve the greatest King and Kingdom that has ever existed in\nall humanity, and let us take our hope, joy, and confidence in that message in\nthese uncertain days.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May\nour Lord Jesus Christ, the King of all kings, Prince of all princes and the\nLord of all lords, bless us now and always, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Dear all, I hope and pray that this letter finds you well.  This week we come to one of my favourite Sundays in the Christian calendar.  Christ the King Sunday when we look at Christ as King overall, this is…<\/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\/1605"}],"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=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1606,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions\/1606"}],"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=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}