Message from our Locum – Joan Kilpatrick – Mar 2016
Dear Friends
As I write this letter the sun is streaming in through the windows, no doubt a welcome sight for so many after the deluge of rain experienced in various parts of the country, hopefully it will be a time of ‘drying-out’ for homes and land. It’s also a time when we see new growth, life returning through the daffodils, crocus and snowdrops – a sign of hope of better things to come.
We are also fast approaching Easter, it’s earlier this year and feels as if we’ve only just celebrated Christmas! In some ways it’s good as we become more aware of the birth of our Lord, His ministry on earth and His death on the Cross, the short time between these celebrations keeps the momentum going and reminds us that without His birth there would have been no death and resurrection.
The Lenten Bible Study focuses on our salvation by asking the following questions, What are we saved from? What are we saved for? Who can be saved? What do we have to do to be saved? How are we saved? We are looking at it through the film The Way, it’s the story of father and son who have become almost detached from one another and how the son’s tragic death at the start of his pilgrimage on the Camino in Spain, a journey of approximately 500 miles, brings them back together as the father decides to go where his son should have.
Lent and Easter should be a time for us to look at what we really believe, what we have been created for and how that impacts on our lives. It’s a time to reconnect with Jesus as His ministry takes Him to Jerusalem where His final days will be spent being interrogated, beaten, humiliated, cursed and executed – what does all this mean for us? Can we take on board the forgiveness and hope that is given through the Cross? Do we really understand that we have been given a life that, although filled with trials and uncertainty, is moving towards something greater and better?
We are asked to focus on the One who heals, forgives, provides, suffers and dies, to believe He is with us through the Holy Spirit, to let Him take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess, the beauty of Thy peace – but do we?
I hope and pray this Easter will be a time for each one of us to see the wonder of the Cross, to once more bring ourselves to a place where He will meet us so we can be given that peace which seems to be missing from so many lives and our world.
We hope to share our services with our friends from Langside Church during Holy Week just as we did last year, once the finer details are available we will let you know. Mount Florida Primary School will once again hold their Easter Service in Clincarthill, that will be on Maundy Thursday, 24th of March, time to be confirmed, it would be great to see some of you there as this relationship has been a real blessing to our community and church.
In the meantime, I wish a truly blessed and hopeful Easter, may the Lord Jesus Christ bring peace and consolation to you in whatever circumstances you find yourself in, may His resurrection promises be a rock on which you hold tight to in the whole of your life.
Love and Blessings
Joan