{"id":1611,"date":"2020-12-09T16:17:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1611"},"modified":"2020-12-09T16:17:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:17:56","slug":"message-from-the-minister-letter-23-sunday-13th-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1611","title":{"rendered":"Message from the Minister Letter 23 &#8211; Sunday 13th December"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear\nall,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\nhope and pray that this letter finds you well, as our Advent journey\ncontinues.&nbsp; I do not know if you have\never played that game whereby you consider who you would invite to be your\ndinner guests.&nbsp; You can choose from anyone\nin history dead or alive.&nbsp; Perhaps a\nformer prime minister or president, a sports star, celebrity, or actor?&nbsp; How easy would you find this exercise?&nbsp; Would you choose any characters from the\nBible?&nbsp; You cannot choose Jesus\nthough!&nbsp; One of the most fascinating\ncharacters of the Bible I think is John the Baptist, and certainly one of the\ndinner guests I would invite.&nbsp; The reading\nfrom last week in Mark was truly inspirational but this week\u2019s reading comes amongst\none of the greatest passages from the entire Bible.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John\n1 is traditionally read at carol services and is considered John\u2019s version of\nthe creation narrative.&nbsp; This week we\nlook at verses 6-9 and 19-28 which relate specifically to John the\nBaptist.&nbsp; However, I strongly recommend you\nsit down in a comfy chair and read chapter one in its entirety.&nbsp; I did not fully appreciate this chapter until\nI was training for the ministry and had to study this passage as part of my\nGreek classes.&nbsp; It was only then that the\nfull impact and power of this chapter hit me.&nbsp;\nThe language and tone are incredible and quite overwhelming if you stop\nto think and ponder over the words.&nbsp; The\nchapter is a real treat and I believe one of the greatest of all scripture.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\nweek we consider John the Baptist again.&nbsp;\nJohn, the gospel author, makes it clear that John the Baptist was sent by\nGod and he came as a witness to testify to the light.&nbsp; This is in order that people might hear the testimony\nand believe in Jesus Christ.&nbsp; John is not\nthe light but a witness to the light.&nbsp;\nThe trouble was that people began to witness the ministry of John the\nBaptist but become confused as to who he was.&nbsp;\nSome thought that he was Elijah, others the Messiah.&nbsp; John made it clear that he was neither of\nthese people.&nbsp; We then hear the same proclamation\nin John which was recorded in Mark echoing the prophet Isaiah.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Again,\nwe hear those truly inspirational words: \u2018I am the voice of one calling in the\nwilderness, \u2018Make straight the way for the Lord.\u2019\u2019 I found these words so\npowerful and moving, telling us all that the great one to come is going to\nchange the world and be like none other.&nbsp;\nI often think that we underestimate the ministry of John the Baptist and\njust how revolutionary he was.&nbsp; His\nministry ushered in Jesus, who transformed the world both with His sacrifice\nand affect just about every aspect of life from how we record time to our view\nof God and eternity.&nbsp; John also exhorted\nhis listeners to a life of repentance and holiness, a challenge which is as\nrelevant today as it was then.&nbsp; Let us\nheed his call and take it seriously.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May\nour Lord Jesus Christ, the One True Light, bless us now and always, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear all, I hope and pray that this letter finds you well, as our Advent journey continues.&nbsp; I do not know if you have ever played that game whereby you consider who you would invite to be your dinner guests.&nbsp;&#8230;<\/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\/1611"}],"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=1611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1612,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions\/1612"}],"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=1611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}