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Reverend Paul Collings BTh (Hons) - - - - paul.collings@methodist.org.uk - - - - 01392 206229 - - - - 07941 880768

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Wednesday, 30 August 2023

Promises, promises


Matthew 28:20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

A man went out on a starry night and shook his fist at the heavens yelling, "Oh, God, what a lousy, rotten world you’ve made. I could have done much better." Then a voice boomed from the clouds saying, "That’s why I put you there. Get busy."


Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravians, was converted in an art gallery in Dusseldorf while contemplating a painting of Christ on the cross which had the inscription, "I did this for thee. What hast thou done for me?" This picture had been painted by an artist three hundred years before.


When he had finished his first sketch of the face of the Redeemer, this artist called in his landlady’s little daughter and asked her who she thought it was. The girl looked at it and said, "It is a good man." The painter knew that he had failed.


He destroyed the first sketch and, after praying for greater skill, finished a second. Again he called the little girl in and asked her to tell him whom she thought the face represented. This time the girl said that she thought it looked like a great sufferer. Again the painter knew that he had failed, and again he destroyed the sketch he had made.


After meditation and prayer, he made a third sketch. When it was finished, he called the girl in a third time and asked her who it was. Looking at the portrait, the girl exclaimed, "It is the Lord!"


John Wesley was surrounded with his closest friends when he was on his deathbed. He called his friends close to him as he breathed his last words. His final words were “Best of all, God is with us.”


Dear Lord, 
Thank you for being with me in every moment of my life. Thank you that I never have to be alone because You, God love me so much that you are here with me always. May each moment of my day be filled with that life-strengthening truth. I love you, Lord. 
In your name, I pray, Amen


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