Thought for the Week - 20/6/2021

Dear Friends, 

In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks who plays the title role is sitting on a park bench and begins a conversation with a nurse by asking if she would like a chocolate and then reminiscing that his mother had told him, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get’. Of course it means that life is unpredictable and that there will be surprises along the way, some pleasant, some not so. If you were watching the Euro 2020 football match between Denmark and Finland last week, you will have seen the Denmark player Christian Eriksen collapse on the pitch and need extensive medical attention before being stabilised, wheeled off and taken to hospital. It was a reminder, in perhaps one of the starkest ways, that life is fleeting. In the psalms we read, ‘Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure’ (Psalm 39:4-6). The psalmist is reflecting on how transient life is, and that apart from God, life doesn’t make sense, it is empty and fleeting. It is a little bit like a child trying to catch bubbles only for them to burst in their hands, or like seeing our breath on a frosty morning which is there for an instant, and then it is gone. In the grand scheme of things, life is short no matter how long we live, and so we might want to reflect on if there is something important that we want to do we should do it and not put it off until another day. So it might be telling someone how you feel about them, it might be giving or accepting forgiveness for something that has happened and cause a rift in a relationship, or it might be telling someone you love about Jesus and what he means to you, or it might be you accepting the free gift of Jesus Christ in your life. Whatever it is, remember the old saying, ‘Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today’.

Grace and peace,

Neil

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Week - 28th January 2024

Dear Friends, In 1985 the Congregational minister and hymn writer Fred Kaan reflected on ‘For the healing of the nations’ saying, ‘Of all the hymns that I have written, this is the text that has been more widely reprinted and incorporated in major hymnbooks than any other’. It was first used in 1965 and it expresses something of the deep longing and desire for peace and reconciliation, for God’s justice to be known, and for an end to all conflict and violence. Fred Kaan was a committed pacifist and, in an obituary, following his death in 2009 at the age of 80, it read, ‘His theology reflected a God committed to and immersed in a world crying out to be set free from every form of injustice. Fred’s poetry centred on a Jesus who embraced the whole of creation and excluded no one and nothing from his love. In Fred, the Christian peace movement found its voice.’                      ...
Read more

Thought for the Week - 29th October 2023

Dear Friends,  Today we are celebrating two things, firstly it is the Bible Society’s Bible Sunday, a day when we can give thanks to God for the scriptures and echo the apostle Paul’s words, ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’ (2 Timohty 3:16-17). And secondly, as a church we are celebrating the 140 th Church Anniversary of Beckenham Baptist Church, founded in 1883 as Elm Road Chapel, the opening services took place on Wednesday 31st October – 9.30am Prayer Meeting, 2.45pm Public Service, 4.45pm a Meeting in the Chapel, and at 6.30pm another Public Service – with various Baptist luminaries of the day in attendance. The public reading of the Scriptures has always been at the heart of all we do as a Christian community, for it is there that we can hear the stories of the Bible and reflect upon our own place in God’s never-ending story ...
Read more

Thought for the Week - 4th December 2022

Dear Friends,  ‘Census 2021 will probably be remembered as the one in which Christianity became a minority religion in England and Wales’, so read the article in a leading UK newspaper. It went onto say that ‘the number of people identifying as Christian dropped 5.5 million in the past decade’ ( The Guardian , 29/11/2022). Responding to the findings the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said that the country has ‘left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian’, and that the Christian church would continue its work in the face of both ‘revival and decline’ ( Sky News , 29/11/2022). He went on to say in an interview for BBC News, ‘ It's not a great surprise that the census shows fewer people in this country identifying as Christian than in the past, but it still throws down a challenge to us not only to trust that God will build his kingdom on Earth but also to play our part in making Christ known’. The Bible Society says that the findings of...
Read more