Today’s guest writer is Anthony:
The Repair Shop
Doreen and I have recently discovered BBC television’s programme ‘The Repair Shop.’ Yes, I know that it has been around for a while but, there you go, better late than never!
For those who have not seen it The Repair Shop is an amazing programme. Set at the Weald and Downland Living Museum, it brings together some of the best craftsmen and women around in order to repair the items members of the public bring in, each with a story behind it.
Often the items are in a really bad way – a weather-vane from a Methodist Church, Teddy Bears that are the worse for wear, clockwork model toys that don’t function any longer, or a tatty bicycle from the Second World War ridden by one of the staff at the Bletchley Park decoding centre.
And what transformations Jay Blades, Suzie Fletcher, Will Kirk, Kirsten Ramsay, Steven Fletcher and others make, often leading to tears of joy as folk come to collect whatever it was that they left for repair. It really is a ‘feel good’ programme!
There is a spiritual lesson here, namely that the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth and gave His life on the cross in order to repair our relationship with God the Father that had been messed up by sin.
And when we become followers of Jesus, we have both the desire and the power through the Holy Spirit to repair any broken relationships we may have with others so that we might become one with them again.
And Christians should also have a desire to ‘repair’ our planet by being good stewards of creation in whatever ways we can. This world comes from our Father’s hand; let’s look after it!
Anthony
Praise, my soul, the king heaven to His feet thy tributes bring;
ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, who like thee His praise should sing?
Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him!
Praise the everlasting King.
Father-like He tends and feeds us; well our feeble-frame He knows;
in His hands He gently bears us, rescues us from all our foes
Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him!
Widely as His mercy flows.
(H. F. Lyte 1793-1847)
Prayer requests
For Judy Cook and her father Peter as they mourn the death of Gillian.
For Carrie who is unwell
For Sue’s daughter Helen as she continues to work in the QE’s Intensive Care department
For Steph and her family as they care for her step-dad whose health is failing.
Sunday Morning:
I will be leading a time of worship at 10:30am on Sunday morning which you can access either through the church’s facebook page or by joining us on zoom. Here is the link to Sunday’s 10:30am Zoom meeting. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83465537239?pwd=VGlvUG9EYW9TbzBoNFFuY0QzS0ZIUT09
The Zoom room will open at 10:15am giving people opportunity to say hello to each other before I start at 10:30am. We will NOT start live-streaming on facebook until I start our worship at 10:30am. Once the closing song and prayer have ended, we will stop the live-stream on facebook, but then give those on zoom the opportunity to say goodbye to each other. So, anyone on Zoom, unless you interrupt me during the worship will not appear on the Facebook live-stream - Stephen