Our senior steward Bunty Hodgkins welcomed our preacher, Mr Robin Perry, to lead our worship last Sunday morning. Robin used some words of St Paul writing to the Philippians as his call to worship in which St Paul writes about Christ’s humility and greatness, “For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name”.
To music provided by Neil and Jill Barnett we sang that great Charles Wesley hymn “Father of everlasting grace, Thy goodness and thy truth we prove; Thou hast in honour of thy Son, the gift unspeakable sent down, the Spirit of life, and power, and love” following which Robin led our prayers of Praise, Adoration and Thanksgiving. After the Lord’s Prayer we recited the Apostles Creed to remind us what we believe and proclaim.
Our morning’s bible reading was taken from 1 Corinthians, chapter one, read by Jill Harrison.
This speaks of Christ being the Power and Wisdom of God “for what seems to be God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and what seems to be God’s weakness is stronger than human strength”.
After a short prayer Robin led our thoughts on “The Broken Cross” which was the theme of his service. In a bold statement Robin proclaimed the Gospel is the hope of the Nation and he highlighted some words of Jesus in the Temple, where inspired by words of Isaiah in the Old Testament, Jesus said “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me” as he preached, taught, and healed the sick and the lame. The message of the Cross is foolishness to many but for those who are called Christian, the power of God and the wisdom of God abides in them; but the Gospel is inclusive and as we are children of God we are made in his image. Robin spoke about various passages of scripture concluding that God is Love but also of Justice.
We prayed for others before concluding with another great Charles Wesley hymn “And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour’s blood…Amazing love! How can it be that thou my God, should die for me?”