Our preacher, Robin Perry, opened our service with words from Revelation 7 – Salvation belongs to our God. Prayers of praise, thanks and penitence and the Lord’s Prayer were followed by a story for our children – Lion misses breakfast. God protected Daniel in the lion’s den exemplifying the need for Christians to be strong in adversity, holding on to God’s ways. Penelope and Emma took up our offering and then Guy read to us from Ezekiel 22, the sins of Israels’ leaders, and from Luke 3, the mission of John the Baptist. The children then left to learn about Noah’s Ark.
Spiritual leaders in Ezekiel’s time were prophesying contrary to God’s law, working for the king and supporting popular themes. Ezekiel challenged this expressing the need to get back to a proper relationship with God. God finds people to stand up and point out wrongs, people such as Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonnhoffer, Martin Luther King, George Whitfield. We too, like John the Baptist, must stand up for Jesus telling how he saves but expects change, offering his care and a full life. Robin prayed for peace and healing in our broken world and gave time for us to pray for those on our minds. We sang Who is on the Lord’s side? and shared the Grace together.