We had an in-house afternoon at Thursday Fellowship this week entitled, ‘Our Choices’. 15 members gathered and it was an opportunity for many of us to bring favourite hymns, poems and thoughts – what a lovely afternoon and what glorious sunshine and warmth for this time of year!
Faith started the meeting reading from Romans 12 v 1-2 and then brought some thoughts from Frances Ridley Havergal from a recent Our Daily Bread devotional. Frances, who was particularly affected by loneliness from the age of 11 came to know that with Jesus she was never alone. As we offer ourselves to Him, our lives are transformed into His likeness. Faith chose Frances’ most famous hymn, Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord to Thee. Interestingly, this was June’s choice of hymn too. June loves the words – they mean so much!
Maria read ‘God’s Grandeur’, a poem written by the 19th Century poet and Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins. One poignant line says this, “And for all this, nature is never spent; there lives the dearest freshness deep down things;”
Wendy brought a selection of lovely thoughts and a beautiful poem written to remember our dear friend, Yvonne Waller.
- People will never forget how you made them feel!
- A smile is a most wondrous thing! If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours!
- Regarding a smile, “Let’s start an epidemic quick and get the world infected.” (Attributed to the late Spike Milligan).
Sylvia chose, Blessed Assurance , Jesus is mine because it cheers you up!
Sue read a beautiful song called Above all powers, above all kings written by Lenny LeBlanc and Paul Baloche with the wonderful chorus:
Crucified, laid behind the stone;
You lived to die, rejected and alone;
Like a rose trampled on the ground,
You took the fall and thought of me,
Above all.
Although Maureen was unable to be with us, her choice of song was In Christ Alone – a firm favourite and one which most people present are planning to have at their funeral/memorial service!
We sang, Father I place into your hands which holds a very special place in Kath’s heart particularly the line about placing into God’s hands the things that trouble me!
Jane told her story of how she came to faith and left us all with a challenge: Do you have a story to tell? Have you got your story straight? Are you willing to share it?
To finish our meeting, we sang O the deep, deep love of Jesus written by Samuel T Francis. This hymn came about when the author, a young man at the time, was standing on a bridge overlooking the river Thames contemplating taking his own life. He had a spiritual awakening and went on to write many more hymns and poems.
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”
