We were pleased to welcome Mr Peter Williams to lead our service last Sunday morning and Peter challenged us with his theme of “God’s Plumb Line”, a line of thought which was fresh and vital. He was welcomed by Bunty Hodgkins. As a call to worship we read alternate verses of a Psalm of Praise. We sang “Praise my soul, the King of Heaven; To his feet they tribute bring”, a glorious hymn of praise. Peter led our prayer of praise and adoration and our prayer for others on a global scale particularly for the situations in Ukraine, China and Taiwan, Israel and Palestine and for our Government in these difficult times.
Margaret Maxwell read from chapter seven of the Book of Amos which told of his prophesies and the visions he had received and felt compelled to deliver to the northern kingdom of the Israelites about the middle of the eighth century B.C. His vision was of the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built with the help of a plumb-line. God was showing that his people were like a wall that is out of line and the place where they worship will fall down and be destroyed.
Using his theme of God’s plumb-line Peter spoke of his attending, on the behalf of our Methodist Church Circuit, the recent National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast in Westminster Hall attended by the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and many MPs and others. Seated and listening Peter observed the angels carved into the roof timbers of the ancient hall built over a thousand years ago. The angels reminded Peter that God is above all this, and with all the chaos now going on, God is stability. The music of the cello playing to the gathering brought calm and tranquillity to the proceedings also. Peter was reminded of the prophecy of Amos that God is bringing out his plumb-line urging leaders to straighten up. In our day to day living our lives need to be straight and true. God pitches himself as a builder in the Book of Isaiah and Jesus is referred to as a cornerstone in the New Testament, justice as the measuring line and his
law as the plumb line. God places before us his plumb-line as it teaches the way and helps us to see our crookedness and to see his Grace. Peter challenged us to be straight and true in all we do. We concluded with a great hymn of Charles Wesley “Love divine, all loves excelling”