{"id":1636,"date":"2021-02-02T09:24:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T09:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1636"},"modified":"2021-02-02T09:25:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T09:25:17","slug":"message-from-the-minister-letter-31-sunday-7th-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1636","title":{"rendered":"Message from the Minister Letter 31 &#8211; Sunday 7th February"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear\nall,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope and pray this letter finds you well and keeping safe.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 ministry is starting to progress as we explore the reading set for this week of Mark 1: 29-39.\u00a0 \u00a0How do you relax and unwind after a busy day?\u00a0 Admittedly, now, with the way things are, normal routines and ways of doing things are different, but normally speaking, do you enjoy a nice walk in the countryside, cooking a meal, baking some delicious treats, reading a book, watching tv, doing sport?\u00a0 Whatever you do to relax and unwind it is important to give yourself space and time in order to recharge your batteries.\u00a0 It is no surprise to find out that in today&#8217;s reading that Jesus needs time out from His schedule.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reading begins with Jesus leaving the synagogue with four of His disciples to go to the home of Simon and Andrew which was nearby.\u00a0 Upon arrival, they make an unexpected discovery and find that Simon\u2019s mother-in-law is unwell.\u00a0 Jesus is informed and immediately goes to heal her, and she begins to wait on them.\u00a0 I always find this slightly odd, but I suppose it was the custom of the day.\u00a0 News that Jesus is staying in the area begins to spread and that of what had occurred earlier in the day at the synagogue. As a result, people begin to bring to the house, the sick and demon possessed, for Jesus to heal.\u00a0 The text tells us that the whole town gathered at the door of the house, and Jesus healed many.\u00a0 I suppose people also came to see what was happening out of curiosity and intrigue.\u00a0 It is interesting to note here that again the people do not realise who Jesus was, but the demons do and Jesus commands them to remain silent.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a remarkably busy previous day,\nJesus gets up early and goes off to a solitary place to pray.&nbsp; &nbsp;Notice\nJesus does not tell even the disciples where He was going, and they end up\nsearching for Him.&nbsp; The disciples do not appear\nhappy that Jesus has taken some time out without consulting them.&nbsp; Look at Jesus\u2019 response to them, He does not\nfeel the need to justify Himself or give a detailed explanation, but He moves\non to the next item on His plan.&nbsp; Jesus is\nkeen to continue preaching and teaching.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lesson we learn today is that even\nJesus needed time out from His busy schedule to rest and relax.&nbsp; It is also important that we make time to\npray and notice Jesus prioritises this early in the morning when He is at His\nfreshest before He does anything else.&nbsp; &nbsp;Taking time for rest and recreation is\nimportant from our schedules even in times like this to vary our days.&nbsp; We may not be able to do everything we would\nlike but we can still do some things around our homes.&nbsp; Spending time in prayer is particularly\nimportant to develop our spiritual lives and helps us to restore our energies\nand help us in so many ways.&nbsp; Let us ensure\nthat we prioritise both prayer and times to relax in order that we can have as\nbalanced days as possible and days do not become full of either paid work or\nhousework and chores around the house.&nbsp;\nOnce again let us take our example from Jesus, our model and\ninspiration.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May\nour Lord Jesus Christ, the One who inspires us, 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 this letter finds you well and keeping safe.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 ministry is starting to progress as we explore the reading set for this week of Mark 1: 29-39.\u00a0 \u00a0How do you relax and unwind after&#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\/1636"}],"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=1636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1638,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636\/revisions\/1638"}],"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=1636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}