Giving up my protection

 In a book that I was reading last week I read a part that surprised me. I was reading about knowing the protection of God and letting go of the protection that I might build up around myself. In the book it said to imagine you were on your own walking through a jungle. You would be scared. However, if you were riding through a jungle on the back of a lion, well, the only thing that you would need to be scared of is the lion.

This is really not the way I expected the writer to go. I thought he was saying that being on the back of the lion might make you feel stronger. However, he was pointing out that there was only one thing to fear and this is the lion that you had decided to sit on.

A good point. In our readings today we heard about what happens when we trust in the power of God. We heard of the things we could lose out on if we built our own protection systems, rather than trusting in God.

In our gospel reading (Luke 8:26-39) this morning we have heard not about the religious leaders, or even the disciples recognising who Jesus was, but a man who was troubled. A man who was set free by Jesus from all that stopped him enjoying life.

The story we heard is an incredible story of a man whom society was afraid of. A man who was on the outside and who suddenly became like everyone else. He had recognised Jesus for who He was.

When Jesus did something amazing, when He set this man free from all that was restraining him the people were afraid, and the rest of the town asked Jesus to leave. They were scared of Him and His power. This makes hardly any sense, you would think that when someone was set free right before your eyes you would want to welcome them. But what were the people actually afraid of?

I heard of a young curate who had visiting cards and if he knocked on the door to see someone and they weren’t there, he would write. ‘Sorry to have found you out.’

I am sure it wasn’t this way, but could you imagine someone wondering if the curate knew something about them that was meant to be a secret, ‘sorry to have found you out’!

It makes me wonder whether people were scared by the power of Jesus because He might know things about them, He might change something that they were quite happy not to have changed. 

I wonder whether these people had built up a lovely life for themselves.  They thought they were perfect and in a good place, after all they had their very own frightening person to keep them safe ! They had built their own protection around themselves. A protection which sadly meant that they were not able to see all that Jesus could offer them. 

It would be so easy in our lives to be quite comfortable and happy as we are and not to allow Jesus to change us, to challenge us. Are we happy to listen to Jesus and see what He might be telling us to do, or showing us something that we should change in our life ?

In our epistle reading (Galatians 3:23-end) Paul, the writer, stressed that everyone was equal. This is great, but it may bring another challenge to us. 

There were people in the Church in Galatia who really thought they were better than everyone else. They saw themselves as true believers because they had been Jews first. Paul pointed out that actually they were no different to anyone else in the community. 

Each member of the Church to whom Paul was writing was equal. They had all become one through their belief and baptism in Jesus.  They had a new identity. This was that they were all brand new through their belief in Jesus. 

Paul in the epistle was pointing out that we are all equal. He wrote that there is neither male, or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free we are all equal, and the reason ? We are all children of God. 

To be a child of God, to have a new life of following Jesus means that we are changed and we need to be different.

We have said yes, and because of this we need to be prepared to make a difference by being more like Jesus. Jesus came amongst us to set us free. Free from all that holds us back, free from our doubts and concerns, free just to enjoy the love of God for us. 

We need to remove all the things or behaviours that can stop us getting closer to God. The man in the gospel when he was stripped of all that had held him back was suddenly free. The people to whom the epistle to the Galatians was written, just like us, had been set free and united, not by birth, race or gender but by the change that their belief in Jesus had given them. 

We all have different aspects of our characters that can be hard to let go of. Maybe they are the things that stop us opening up to God. Maybe they are like a protection. 

However, we can keep turning to God and starting again. I love this!

We are the same in the eyes of God and we need to treat others just as if they were the same as us. We have an identity in Jesus we are able to turn to Him but sometimes we hold things back that we want to deal with ourselves. We like to keep something for ourselves, to build our own way and protection.

The people in the gospel reading and those in the epistle who thought they were better than others had built up a type of protection. This was a protection that needed to be broken in order for them to be the people that they really should be. We are set free when we trust God, when we allow Him to change us. 

May we be ready to continually turn to God asking Him to change us and to set us free - free from all that would stop us from enjoying the love that He has for us. AMEN

Lake Como, Cornwall and the Holy Trinity

 The morning of Trinity Sunday is a dangerous morning for a preacher. It is a morning when you could easily confuse people, and a morning when basically you could end up being a heretic as you try and explain how God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit but is still one God. 

Yes this morning is an important day. It isn’t Christmas, it isn’t Easter, it isn’t even my birthday !! Today is the day when we celebrate that God is not only amazing, but He wants to be in a relationship with us. A day when we give thanks that God has shown Himself to us in so many ways because He is all around us and He loves us.

Today as we celebrate Trinity Sunday, we think of the majesty and glory of God as we think of the fact that God created us, God became one of us and God walks with us now as the Holy Spirit. 

This could be the most complex of all days but actually I think that it may be simpler than we expect. 

I want you to think for a moment of conversations. Have you ever thought about the number of different conversations we may hear or be part of a day. It may be other people talking to us, it may be us talking to other people, it may be the radio, the television, reading the news in a newspaper as conversations are reported on and relayed to us – and I expect that we have all either purposefully or not intentionally eavesdropped. Knowing about people’s conversations, having a conversation can tell us so much. 

I remember an occasion when I totally misunderstood a conversation with my Mum. This was a while ago when my Mum was going on holiday to Italy. She was really looking forward to it, but imagine my surprise when she told me that she was going to Cornwall. I told my husband that she wasn’t going to Italy anymore but Cornwall and she seemed really happy about it. I told my mother in law about my Mum going to Cornwall now instead. I asked my Mum what had changed, she explained that she was going to Lake Como not Cornwall and all I had heard was her say Como and I took that to mean Cornwall !

Life and conversations can be very confusing. People have tried so many ways to explain how God can be three in one and one in three. Theologians have had headaches on this, lots of ways to explain the Trinity have been thought up but actually one of the best ones I think involves talking, and not just because that is something close to my heart.

There is a very famous icon of the trinity, by the iconographer Andrei Rublev. This icon has God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit all sat around a table. Around this table they are talking to one another. There is a unity in their appearance but there is something slightly different about each one of them as well. I was thinking that actually it is a painting of a relationship, of a conversation. I love the idea of God and relationship. Relationship, like a conversation is something that we can understand.

In our readings today we heard more about the relationship of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the reading from Proverbs (8:1-4,22-31) we heard of wisdom. Wisdom was seen as God coming into our world and giving us wise words to help us live our lives. From the beginnings of the Church, wisdom was seen and personified as Jesus. Wisdom had been present before creation, wisdom had something to say to the world. 

In our epistle reading (Romans 5:1-5) we heard of us having a relationship with God ourselves as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross. We heard of God as Holy Spirit pouring the love of God into our hearts. In our gospel reading (John 16:12-15) we heard of God reaching out to us and each part of God using the other part to speak to us. Almost like a relay race one part of God informs the other who in turn informs us.

Now a bit like Chinese whispers, here is where a relationship can get confusing. God existed before all time, each part of God was there and they worked as one, and before we get a headache we can think of the relationship of God and then start to wonder where we fit in. 

Each part of God talks to the other so that we can be invited into the relationship. I want you to imagine that you are in a really dark room, and think of how you will find your way to the door. In this dark room you suddenly jump as you realise that there is someone else by the side of you, and then your fear turns to joy when you realise that they have a torch and can help you find your way out. After this you notice that someone else has come into the room behind you and they are in the dark and so you pass them the torch so they can find their way out and this keeps happening until you suddenly realise that you are all outside in the light. 

God is in a relationship, He has a conversation going on and you are invited into this. When we turn to God and enter into that relationship with Him. He passes us a torch, a light that is Himself so that we can walk in the world as His children. This is a relationship, a relationship of true love. God loves us all and He asks us to love Him too. If that is the only thing that we can ever remember in life – well, we have everything. AMEN

Who are we ?

 What are you known for ? What defines you ? I expect you’re not known for causing a disturbance at a major religious festival. I remember when I was a child going to a special event for the Church in Wales, one of the Bishop’s fell off the stage. He was fine but that is all I remember of that event. I can’t imagine any of us being known for speaking in multiple different languages that we have never spoken before. I heard once of a plumber who had been invited to a posh meal. It was decided that he should say grace. So, he stood up and listed a number of plumbing terms in Latin followed by Amen. Everyone was very impressed. 

The disciples had a reputation for following Jesus. They had been staying undercover for quite a while as they did not want to be seen or caught by any of the people who were against Jesus, after all they might have been caught as well. Suddenly, the promise that Jesus had given them, the promise that they would be helped by the Holy Spirit happened. They were now to be known for being people who spoke about Jesus. They became known as those who helped the gospel of Jesus to spread. They became known as confident preachers and not scared followers. They had the power of the Holy Spirit. They disturbed an important Jewish festival with the good news not only of Jesus but the good news that the Holy Spirit for whom they had been waiting had arrived. The Holy Spirit was, and is, available to us. 

The disciples were changed. I love the fact that when we read the book of Acts in the New Testament we read of a group of disciples who were scared ended up preaching the good news of Jesus to the very centre of the Roman empire, Rome itself. As they did this, with the power of the Holy Spirit they were able to reach an incredible number of people. Lives were changed, communities of people worshipping Jesus were developed and grew. 

It is great to think of the different significant events in the Bible that still effect us today. We are here because God created the world. We are here because God was born as a human child. We are here because this child, who was God Himself, grew and taught us how to live like Him. We are here because although He was crucified, it was for our sins and then He rose again. We are here because He ascended into heaven, where He continues to pray for us and we are here because God came amongst the disciples giving them power to preach at Pentecost. We are here because the Church was born and grew, and grew. I am not going to give a Church history lesson now, but just think what we are known for, and what defines us, is partly the fact that we believe.

This is amazing. If we go back in time, we know that the people in the Old Testament had been waiting for the one promised by God. The One who would change the world. At Christmas we celebrate the gift of Jesus, the one promised by God. God Himself. In the reading that we have heard this morning from the Acts of the Apostles we heard of Peter referring to the book of Joel in the Old Testament. As he did this he was explaining that the Holy Spirit who had been prophesied about by Joel was now amongst them. God had come amongst them again. This time in a slightly different way. God was with them through His Spirit. Every time they asked God for His help He would be with them.

In the words that Peter used from the prophet Joel, he was showing that not only was the awaited Spirit with them, but they could know that this was all ok. This wasn’t men causing a drunken disturbance. This was men, filled with the Spirit as prophesied. It was an amazing way of reasoning and explaining. You can almost imagine, a Homer Simpson moment of Doh ! It’s obvious, we should have known.

The arrival of the Holy Spirit was a great equaliser, because everyone would be able to experience Him. There was no division by age, gender or nationality. The Spirit was available to all who called on the name of God. All those who believed and it is the same for us today. What are you known for ? What identifies you ? Someone who believes, someone who prays, someone who calls on the name of God.

In the gospel reading (John 14:8-17) we heard of Jesus promising that the disciples would receive an advocate. This word is sometimes translated as comforter. It doesn’t matter as much as the meaning that God was going to come amongst the disciples and provide them with a strength and support that they had not experienced before. This was God abiding with them and in them. God amongst us, God within us. God there when we pray. God giving us power for our day to day walk with Him. This is amazing. What identifies you ? What are you known for ? Someone who knows and believes that they can turn to God always and He will be there to help and support them? Someone who believes that God is always with them? 

In the gospel reading we heard of Jesus telling the disciples that if they loved Him, they would keep His commandments. This can almost sound like a very nice sentiment, after all love can be absolutely lovely. I wonder though if Jesus was actually saying something that was a lot more blunt. If you love me, you will be changed to be more like me so that you will obviously keep my commandments because you will not be able to do anything else. Obviously these aren’t the words Jesus used but when you think of it, by truly loving Jesus we will want to be more like Him and so we will automatically try to keep His commandments. What are you known for ? What identifies you ? Someone who loves Jesus so much that they can’t fail but to keep His commandments and to love like He did. This is to love unconditionally.

There is a lot of ways that we can be known. There are lots of things that identify us. The main one is that like the disciples by the Holy Spirit living within us, we are to seek to be ready to be changed. AMEN. 

Casper, Monsters and Ascension

 I used to be a Sunday School Teacher.   I worked with the 4-6 year olds, and at the time of Caspar the friendly ghost there was one little boy, who saw Caspar as being a necessary part of any picture that he drew.  So Moses was walking up Mount Sinai to get the 10 commandments holding hands with Caspar. The little boy decided to expand his theology a bit, when he decided that monsters were more likely to be in the Bible than a friendly ghost and so he drew monsters on every picture just in case.

I dread to think what he would have drawn for Ascension day, I imagine Jesus would have been pictured ascending, holding hands with Caspar and with a monster !

On Thursday we celebrated Ascension Day and you will be pleased to know that I will not be talking about monsters or Caspar the friendly ghost.  

Instead I will start with a quote from William Temple, a former Archbishop of Canterbury who wrote,  ‘In the days of his earthly ministry, only those could speak to Jesus who came where he was. If he was in Galilee, people could not find him in Jerusalem; if he was in Jerusalem, they could not find him in Galilee. But his ascension means that he is perfectly united with God, and we are with him wherever we are present to God, and this is everywhere and always.’

Ascension Day marks a turning point in our Church calendar and it’s a hugely important day for the Church today just as it was when Jesus left his followers 2000 years ago. This turning point meant that no longer would the followers of Jesus focus inwardly, meeting together, praying, sharing times of fellowship and learning directly from Jesus himself, now they were to have an outward focus as they looked outwards to the needs of the world. 

This Sunday falling between Ascension Day and Pentecost is a Sunday that I would like to call preparation, or waiting Sunday. 

Next week the Church throughout the world will remember the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.  When we  think about Pentecost we remember that the disciples found themselves moving out from Jerusalem, from the relative coziness of their fellowship, to share the gospel throughout Judea in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Back to Ascension, the disciples were suddenly without Jesus, but He had made it clear he would never leave them and that is the point William Temple was making in the quote I mentioned earlier. Jesus had not gone away but had ascended into a place where nothing could separate us from him.  Not only this but the followers of Jesus  were now commissioned to go out and be like Him to others. This meant to live and to love as he lived and loved.

And that was a turning point for the whole Church  from an inward looking fellowship committed to caring for one another, they were now to go about caring for all. 

God gave a challenge but He didn't leave the disciples then, or us, without the power to do this. When we heard our reading from the book of Acts (16:16-34) we heard of Paul being attacked for speaking the words of Jesus. In our gospel reading (John 17:20-26) we heard of Jesus praying that we would have power, He prayed that we, the Church, may be one, united as God Himself is united.

That is amazing, Jesus prayed this prayer  the night before He died.   He was concerned about how all believers would cope as they spoke of Him and His words, and His power to save. In Acts, Paul spoke of the need to believe in the Lord Jesus in order to be saved.

This is absolutely amazing, not only did Jesus come amongst us, die for us, rise again, ascend to heaven but He left us more. Jesus prayed for us, He prayed for you, He prayed for me. Jesus wanted us to know what it is like to know Him.

There is a mystery play from the Middle Ages about the Ascension. It is said that after Jesus was lifted up from the earth and was ascending to heaven, the two men dressed in white followed after, straining to catch up with Him. These angels cried out: “Jesus! Jesus! Wait for us!”

Jesus turned to greet them, and as they continued to ascend together, He said: “Yes, my friends! Well done!” One of the angels replied: “That is what we should say to you, dear Lord, for you have done all that has been asked of you! But what will happen next? Isn’t there more to be done?” 

Jesus answered: “Well, of course! There is always more to be done! But weren’t you paying attention down there? Didn’t you hear me give them what they will come to call ‘the Great Commission’? Now they will go out and baptise all people into my continuing life and work, reconciling the whole world to myself!” 

The two angels looked at one another somewhat hesitantly, and then looked back at Jesus. One of them cautiously said: “Well, certainly we heard all that. But haven’t you been paying attention to them? Do you really think you can count on that lot?” 

“He’s right, you know,” the other angel said. “Honestly, what’s your back-up plan? What will you do if those you have left behind don’t continue your work?” 

Jesus paused for a moment and then said, simply, “There is no back-up plan.”

There is no back-up plan because the grace set free by the Resurrection, the Ascension, and ultimately the gift of the Holy Spirit is sufficient to affect God’s plan of salvation.  

We now have to think of  whether and how we will choose to join in that work. Will we participate fully in the mending of creation, or will we choose to stand back and watch from a comfortable distance? 

The Eucharist service always ends with the response, ‘Go in peace to love and serve the Lord’ – this is a definite and challenging call to take the strength we have received from our relationship with God and with other Christians, and go out and proclaim his name, and his love. May we do this always. AMEN 

Anything for love - what about for God ?

 Is there anything that you would never do ? I am not adventurous so I would never go anywhere without a plan of what I was going to do and certainly without any idea of how I would complete it. I won’t carry on thinking too much of what I would never do, we don’t have enough time !! However, I remember in 1993 that there was a big question over a song by the pop star Meatloaf. The song said, ‘I will do anything for love, but I won’t do that.’ There were so many possibilities. Was it, I wouldn’t kill someone else ? Was it I wouldn’t move to another country ? Or, and most importantly, I wouldn’t give up my last rolo.

Love can make us all do strange things and happy things. Sometimes, things that don’t make sense and I was reading last week that the last thing Jesus did before He died on the cross was the same thing that He did when He rose again. It was that Jesus offered forgiveness. To the people who had crucified Him, or supported His crucifixion He prayed for forgiveness. He told the thief on the cross that he was forgiven. When He rose again, He forgave Peter for denying Him at His arrest and made him head of His Church.

Love can make us do all sorts of things. In our gospel reading this morning  (John 14:23-29) we heard of Jesus talking to the disciples. I always find these conversations both comforting and challenging. They always make me ask questions either about my trust in God or my love for Him. 

In the reading Jesus was preparing the disciples for what would happen after His arrest, crucifixion, resurrection and ultimately His ascension. These words were given on the same night as the Last Supper. Jesus showed His love as He both prepared the disciples for what was going to happen and gave them the promise that they would never be alone. 

This happened as He told them about the Holy Spirit.  Jesus was offering the disciples peace and the promise of the Holy Spirit who would always be with them. They were offered a constant companion and comforter.  This is a wonderful example of love. Jesus in His love for the disciples both offered and gave them peace. This was peace in knowing that He would always be with them.

So far, so good. Jesus died for the disciples and He died for us. Here comes the challenge. In the reading Jesus told the disciples off very gently. He explained that if they really loved Him, they would be pleased that He was going back to His Father. This would mean that He had completed this part of His mission. 

Of course, the biggest difficulty for the disciples would have been that they were human, just like we are. This would mean that they needed the extra assurance of an advocate to come. Jesus also left them His peace. I am not sure how this must have felt, but the love they had for Jesus made them want to tell others about Him.

The comfort is clear for us as well. We are not alone. God gives us strength to follow Him. We are also to love God so much that we can’t help but want to tell others about Him and to share His love with them. 

This is much less comforting. I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that. How about if we all asked ourselves if we would do anything for God, but we wouldn’t do that. 

In the reading from the book of Acts (16:9-15) we heard of the first believers showing their love for God in exactly this way. They  stepped out from all they knew to share the good news with others. An angel appeared to Paul in a dream sending him to somewhere completely different to what he knew. 

Through Paul going to Macedonia and other places on the way he was thrust into a different culture, a different language, different ways of believing. He went, and all he knew was that he was going to spread the good news of Jesus and as he did this he would have the power of the Holy Spirit with him.

Lydia, whom he met in Philippi, and her household were baptised. It wasn’t through the words of Paul though. It says in the reading that God opened Lydia’s heart to hear the words of Paul. She listened eagerly. This is both comforting and challenging as well. God prepared the way for Paul to speak and He will do the same for us. The challenge is that we need to listen to God calling us to talk to others. We can ask God to show us when there are opportunities to tell people not only why we worship Him, but also to tell people about the fact that God’s love is so great that He is always with us.

As we pray for opportunities it is also important that we pray for our community and all who do not know God, for all who are struggling.

Today is Rogation Sunday when we are called to pray for our community. We ask for God’s blessing on all the people in the community, and all those who work here. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week are also rogation days when we keep praying for the community, and for agriculture in particular. I am going to suggest that we use the Psalm we had this morning (67) as our prayer for the week as we pray for our community. It is known as a harvest Psalm. 

Then starting on Thursday we are following Thy Kingdom Come which lasts until Pentecost. This is kept as days of prayer for five people we would like to come to know Jesus. We have books to accompany these prayers, with a Bible reading and reflection. Please take one home and use it in the time between Ascension Day and Pentecost. We will be asking you to invite the people for whom you have been praying to a special service on 29th June where there will be a real feeling of celebration. It will be a great service and one that it is important that you attend if you can. There will be no other services in the Ministry Area that morning. 

There’s a lot that we can be doing to think about, to be thankful for, and to share God’s love. 

Back to Meatloaf and his words, ‘I will do anything for love, but I won’t do that’.  We will never know what he wouldn’t do, but how much will we do for God and His love.  AMEN

Lambs, sheep and a shepherd.

 I am aware that children often want some unusual things. There is the child who will only eat food that is a certain colour, there is the child who wants and prays for a dog and in my case the child who wants a lamb. Now that sounds very nice and you might picture a lovely setting for growing up with fields and lots of green, just like here. In my case I lived on a council housing estate in Cardiff without much green. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t have a lamb, after all we did have a garden !

I was thinking about this as I looked at our readings for today, readings which talk of sheep and shepherds. In our readings we heard what is perhaps the most well known Psalm, Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd. Then in our gospel reading (John 22-30) we heard of Jesus both knowing and being known by His sheep. 

We are God’s sheep and we are all people in need of the shepherd who offers us protection and a better life. A shepherd who is good. 

Jesus is the good shepherd and He looks after us and in His loving arms we are safe. This never means that all will be well but it does mean that with God life is just somehow that bit easier. Easier in terms of having someone we can turn to who will never let us down even when life is not so good. It doesn’t stop difficult times but we know where we can turn. 

There is a lovely story about Psalm 23. It is that once an actor was the guest of honour at a social gathering where he received many requests to recite favourite excerpts from different books. An old preacher who happened to be there and he asked the actor to recite the twenty-third Psalm. The actor agreed on the condition that the preacher would also recite it. The actor's recitation was beautifully intoned with great dramatic emphasis for which he received lengthy applause. The preacher's voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his diction was anything but polished. But when he finished there was not a dry eye in the room. When someone asked the actor what made the difference, he replied, "I know the psalm, but he knows the Shepherd."

We know the Psalm so well, and we also know the Shepherd who loves us more than we can begin to imagine. In the gospel reading we heard of Jesus’ sheep knowing Him. 

In the reading we also heard of Jesus being questioned at the festival of Dedication. This festival marked the time when the temple was dedicated after being rescued from destruction by a man called Judas Maccabaeus 

In perhaps the most typical way ever, at this festival Jesus was questioned. He was asked once again if He was the Messiah. He was asked as to how long He would keep people in suspense. I am not sure whether this was a sarcastic and bullying question. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. The answer Jesus gave was a very clever one that answered them whilst making a very good and obvious point. This is that if they had trusted Jesus and followed Him they would have seen who He was. Jesus cleverly makes the point that if they knew Him, they would be one of His sheep and He would know them. Not only this, but they were promised eternal life. It is the same for us as followers today.

In the reading from Revelation (7:9-17) we heard of a lamb. Not just any Lamb, but the lamb who was sacrificed for us. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice who died and then rose again so that we could have our sins wiped away and be offered eternal life. As we follow we are sheep, and yes, we follow a Good shepherd but we also follow the lamb who was sacrificed for us.

If all this talk is getting confusing, remember it is all a way that was used to help us understand what God has done for us. There are many images and terms for God in the Bible and we can always find the one that makes the most sense to us. This can change over time. The main thing is that we know God became like us so that we could understand Him more. He described Himself as a shepherd. He was sacrificed for us. I do like the point in the reading from Revelation that He wipes away our tears. 

Isn’t it good that God came amongst us and helped us understand by saying things such as He is a Good shepherd.

We follow Him and to be honest I would much rather Him do the leading than for me to try to attempt to lead myself. If you knew anything about my sense of direction, you would never want to follow me ! Unless you wanted to get lost. 

A young woman who wanted to go to college, was disappointed when she read the question on the application form that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower."

There is no shame being a follower of someone or something – and when we follow Jesus we are following someone who it is impossible to lead, and someone who always knows our thoughts and needs even before we do. 

Well, I never had a lamb in my back garden. I am pleased to say that I am a follower, and so part of the sheep. Jesus said that He knows His sheep and they know Him. I pray that we will always know and see our Good Shepherd at work and that we will always seek to know Him more as we pray, read our Bibles and learn more about Him, giving thanks for His sacrifice for us. AMEN