Friendship

Did you personally reject the letter? asked our namesakes.  The mhinisteir reassured them that we did not and that we hadnt even received the so called letter that our namesakes were referring to.

This incident happened during Holy Week.  One evening the Mhinisteir and I were coming home after an evening service when the mhinisteir informed me that there had been several missed calls from our namesakes.  This was really odd as our namesakes never phone us instead they only write to us.

We were both very concerned as we began to think the worse.  We were on the phone to them the moment we got home.  Thankfully all was well with them.  But what was the urgency? It transpired that our namesakes had written to us three weeks ago but then the letter was returned to them two days ago with the sticker rejected by sender.  Our namesakes were shocked and saddened that the letter was returned to them.  They had assumed that we had rejected it personally and were so heartbroken that they couldn’t sleep for two nights!!!!!

Thankfully they finally decided to ring us and find out the truth.  The truth was that we never got the letter.  Our namesakes got our post code wrong and it went to somebody else.  What confused them was that the letter had been opened and sealed again!!! So our namesakes concluded it was we who opened it and rejected them.  They basically concluded that we didn’t want to be friends with them anymore!

Two days later, the said letter arrived.  This time in a special delivery envelope!!!!

Can we be ashamed of the Church?

I am ashamed of the Church!!!! Those words jumped at me as I flipped through the Church Times.  Those words were spoken by a senior cleric in the COE.

That statement seemed  so wrong.  Why I thought it was wrong, I had no idea!   Are we even allowed to be ashamed of the Church?

The Church is a gift to us from God Almighty.   The Church can never be perfect for it is filled with sinners. The words from the following hymn has reminded me why I should never be ashamed of the Church for Christ bought her with his own blood.

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the Word:
From heav’n He came and sought her
To be His holy Bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.

Elect from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

‘Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace for evermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly,
In love may dwell with Thee.

source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/miscellaneouslyrics/christianlyrics/thechurchsonefoundationlyrics.htmlL

 

 

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Eisegesis

The Mhinisteir recently introduced me to a new word.

EISEGESIS – it means to bring your own ideas and push it into the text.