Thought for the Week - 26th March 2023

Dear Friends, 

As the Lenten journey moves towards its conclusion for another year, we can perhaps begin to see on the horizon Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday which we will celebrate next Sunday. Words and images that we associate with Palm Sunday are palm branches, donkeys, celebrations, and the word ‘Hosanna!’ which means ‘Save us!’. It is what the crowds cried out as Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, where people gathered from all over the known world to celebrate, and it is a reminder that Jesus’ coming wasn’t just a little local event but that he came for all people everywhere and in all time and space – including you and me. But the question might come, ‘How do I become a Christian?’ The apostle Paul writing to the believers at Rome gives them a simple and beautiful answer, telling them, ‘If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved’ (Romans 10:9-10). Perhaps people believe that is must be a complicated process, but it is not. If we believe in our hearts and say with our mouth that Jesus is the risen Lord, then we will be saved.       

Grace and peace,

Neil
     

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