My Mam was a Local Preacher and I have recently acquired some of her resources; some of the stories she used as sermon illustrations or as part of all age worship. One of them is entitled “Love will find a way!”

A man had three sons and bequeathed his seventeen camels to them. His Last Will and Testament bore the words, “Love will find a way.” Inside, it read, “To my eldest son I leave one half of my possessions. To my second son I leave one third of my possessions. To my youngest son I leave one ninth of my possessions.”

One of my favourite Bible verses is Micah 6:8: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God’. God’s desire for justice is one of the principal themes of the Bible, running strongly throughout the Old Testament and being put into practice through the words and deeds of Jesus.

A celebratory weekend, in more ways than one! Firstly we celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the church, when the disciples received power of the Spirit and they were called to witness to all that Christ had revealed to them. In Acts 2 we are told that ‘the disciples were all together in one place, and suddenly, from heaven there came a sound like rushing wind and it filled the house where they were sitting…..All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages’. They went on to become witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. For some this is merely a celebration of a past event but we are the disciples of today and we too are called to witness. A role that is sometimes difficult and the path we tread can be dangerous but we too are empowered the Holy Spirit.

John 14: 23-29 – The gift of peace

During the Last Supper Jesus said to the apostles, ‘Peace I leave with you, my own peace I give you. A peace which the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. So, do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.’ Lovely words from the Gospel to comfort and reassure us.

Every year within the Methodist calendar, we mark Aldersgate Sunday which falls each year on the Sunday immediately preceding 24th May (‘Wesley Day’), the day on which Methodists commemorate a life-changing moment in the Christian journey of John Wesley, the most prominent of the founders of Methodism. In May 1738, John unwillingly attended worship at a Moravian ‘Religious Society’ meeting on Aldersgate Street in London. It was during this service that he felt his "heart strangely warmed", as he experienced God's love in a most personal and life-giving way. Until then he had known God in his mind, but not in his heart. Now he understood the value of a personal experience of God that would bring assurance of salvation to the believer. Aldersgate Sunday is a great opportunity to celebrate the work of God in our lives, and to reflect on how we should respond to everything that God has given us.

Every now and again in the life of our churches we get what I call a God given opportunity to serve others.

Let me explain…

Last Sunday, I had two ‘interesting’ and quite challenging baptisms which I conducted.

I found myself before the second service, sitting on the floor with the little girl who I was to baptise. She was approximately 2 or 3 years old. We were playing with the water in the font, which I had placed on the floor. This had 2 aims, firstly trying to show her the water which I would place on her head, and secondly, trying to calm her tears which were failing down her face.