PASTORAL MESSAGE

Pastoral Message for April
from Steve Judd - one of our Elders​

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Spring is a time for change.  In the natural world around us flowers are blooming, trees are coming into leaf, and soon young animals will be in the fields and on the Forest nearby.

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But not all change is welcome, and at the moment there seems too much change of the wrong sort.  We face higher costs for almost everything in this country, but at least we are far from the conflicts.  Other people are seeing homes destroyed, their country’s economy and infrastructure wrecked, and loved ones injured or killed.

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Closer to home, we all know people struggling with ill-health and other changes to their lives, but in all of this one thing stays constant.

Christians believe that God is in all situations and that his grace and mercy can work miracles even when all around us seems grim.  And God’s love is offered to all of us, which we especially remember this time of year when we reflect on the love which sent Jesus to the cross for all of us that we may know new life, as Jesus was raised from the dead to new life on the first Easter Day.

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Many years ago, mental health problems turned my life upside down, but God sent a message of how much his love for me meant in all this.
In the words of a song I wrote, remembering that time:

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“But then your love reached out to me, and touched my heart,
and made me see that only you, O Living God, could fill the emptiness in me.”

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May the love of the Living God fill your life now, and in the days ahead.

Every blessing

Steve Judd