The Rev’d Roger Baker, one of our former ministers, led our worship last Sunday morning. It is
always good to have him in our pulpit and he was welcomed by Sue Fox. Rod Smith played the
organ. After some words from the Psalmist, as a call to worship, we sang the rousing hymn
“Praise my soul the King of heaven to his feet they tribute bring” following which Roger offered
prayers of praise, adoration and confession.
There were two bible readings, the first from Psalms 42 and 42 read by Keith Harrison in which
we shared by reading alternate verses, and the second, read by Jill Harrison, from Romans,
chapter eight headed “God’s Love in Christ Jesus”.
“Life is full of challenges” began Roger in his address. “Some of these challenged can be life
changing”, he said but the verse “we know that all things work together for good to those who
love the Lord” is an assurance for many, but we know we do not have such a security blanket. In
the inconsistency of our lives we can be assured of the consistency of God. Roger examined five
aspects of this well know verse which is life enhancing for many. There are the small things we
encounter and there is the big picture which sometimes we fail to see in the moment but this must
be seen. The verse says that no one is entirely good except God. The verse continues to say that
all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. He is good to
the whole world and he is merciful; and God works with us in good times and in bad and the
Christian is convinced that neither life nor death can separate us from his love.
Roger led our prayers for others in particular for our new Government and for those known to us
personally, and we concluded a lovely service as we sang the hymn “Great is thy faithfulness, O
God my Father”.