{"id":1634,"date":"2021-01-29T11:19:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T11:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1634"},"modified":"2021-01-29T11:19:58","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T11:19:58","slug":"message-from-the-minister-letter-30-sunday-31st-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1634","title":{"rendered":"Message from the Minister Letter 30 &#8211; Sunday 31st January"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear\nall,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope and pray this letter finds you well\nand you are keeping warm and safe. &nbsp;This\nweek we continue to work through the opening chapter of Mark in which Jesus\u2019 ministry\nis starting to unfold.&nbsp; The reading is\ntaken from Mark 1: 21-28.&nbsp; In our world\ntoday, who do we look to as someone with authority? Do we look to our civic and\npolitical leaders?&nbsp; Or do we look to\nsports people or celebrities?&nbsp; How is\nauthority given and how is it exercised?&nbsp;\nIf you hold a powerful office does it automatically mean that you have authority?&nbsp; Or is it more complicated than that?&nbsp; Last week saw the inauguration of a new US\nPresident, but does that mean that President Biden automatically has authority?&nbsp; In some respects, yes, because authority and\npower come with the office that he has now inhabited but in other regards, it\nwill depend on how he is viewed by the people and whether they take to heart his\nmessage and agenda.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus has just started his public ministry\nand goes to Capernaum, on the Sabbath He goes to the synagogue and begins to\nteach.&nbsp; Notice the response of the people\nto the teaching of Jesus, they are amazed.&nbsp;\nThis was because He taught as one who had authority, not as the teachers\nof the law.&nbsp; So, notice here, although they\ndo not realise who Jesus is or the purpose of His mission, it is because of His\nstyle and the way the teaching has been delivered that they are captivated by\nwhat Jesus has to say.&nbsp; This is in marked\ncontrast to the teachers of the law who usually teach at both the synagogue and\nin other places such as the temple courts.&nbsp;\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus then demonstrates His power and\nauthority, a second time by healing a man with an impure spirit who cries out\nto Him during the service.&nbsp; What is\ninteresting here is that the congregation may not know who Jesus is but the\nspirit who is clearly not of God does.&nbsp;\nJesus commands the spirit to be quiet and then leave the man.&nbsp; He shakes violently and then is healed.&nbsp; Now the importance of this episode is not what\nis wrong with the man, although he has been inflicted with this spirit for some\nreason, but the fact that Jesus has the authority over it and the spirit not\nonly knows this but obeys Jesus.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The people again are amazed and cannot\nbelieve their eyes, a teacher with such powerful teaching and authority.&nbsp; This causes news about Jesus to spread\nquickly around the region of Galilee.&nbsp; &nbsp;The lesson we learn from this account is that authority\nnot only comes with the positions we hold but by the way we conduct ourselves\nand the authority we are given from God to help us to serve Him, the Church and\nthe Kingdom.&nbsp; Jesus was given extra\nauthority for He had a special mission which with hindsight we know about.&nbsp; We as Christians are given authority to act\nin the name of Jesus for the purposes to which He calls us.&nbsp; Let us use that wisely as we seek to serve\nHim.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May\nour Lord Jesus Christ, the One who speaks and acts with authority, bless us now\nand 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 this letter finds you well and you are keeping warm and safe. &nbsp;This week we continue to work through the opening chapter of Mark in which Jesus\u2019 ministry is starting to unfold.&nbsp; The reading&#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\/1634"}],"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=1634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1635,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions\/1635"}],"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=1634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}