Sunday Celebration
Hosting
Preaching
Worship
Notes
People are facing the reality of death – it’s a lot more in their faces now and people are asking more ‘what happens after I die’.
How can we be prepared for this?
The world is a dark crazy place, getting even more so.
How do we respond to this?
- Don’t compromise on our core beliefs
- Don’t withdraw into a holy bubble!
- Don’t be combative (so common in this increasingly polarised society)
- Grab those opportunities when they come along!
REFERENCES
“and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.”
Ephesians 6:15
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Matthew 16:18
MY DEBT TO POPE BENEDICT XVI (BY FREDDY GRAY)
Back in early 2019, my wife discovered that she was pregnant with our fourth child. A few weeks later, we discovered that the child, a girl, had Down Syndrome. The NHS asked if we wanted to abort her. We did not. My wife, brave and stoic, soon accepted the news as a blessing. I wanted to do the same, but I felt shocked and scared and morally inadequate.
How bad would her disability be? How would our other children cope? How would we cope? Would the rest of our lives be spent looking after this child? I spent a lot of time worrying. I took to praying and, as I pondered the matter, a line from Pope Benedict XVI kept repeating itself in my head:
“We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God.”
Pope Benedict XVI