Sunday 4th December, 2011 Sunday - Finally we treat Sunday as the Day of God

On several occasions in recent weeks, other commitments have got in the way of our going to church on Sunday. Thanks to my infected toe and recent stay in hospital, it was not sensible for me to go to a swimming pool today. Sue and I were both supposed to be at the ASA South East Region Championships in Aldershot, but in the end decided not to go which left us free to go to church. I had my best night's sleep for months. I enjoyed nine hours sleep punctuated by one visit to the loo at 3am and antibiotic tablets at 6am. We went to church at St. Mary's at 10:45 in the morning and again at 6:30 in the evening. The teaching in the morning service reminded us that whatever we have done in the past, God will accept us, providing that we turn away from that kind of behaviour and have faith in Jesus Christ. One of the songs included the wonderful words When I was lost, You came and rescued me, reached down into the pit and lifted me. O Lord, such love, I was as far from You as I could be. You know all the things I've ever done, but Jesus blood has cancelled every one; O Lord, such grace to qualify me as Your own. Remember that I had personal experience of God reaching down and lifting me in August! Sue and I enjoyed a roast lunch at The Hatch and I spent most of the afternoon dozing, still recovering from the time in hospital. Chris had to do a lot of work at the swimming competition in Aldershot. He arrived home at 6pm, which meant that everything must have gone very smoothly and also meant that Sue and I could get to church. The evening service is very different to that in the morning. This was the second week of a new service pattern with two morning services. Despite this, there were lots of people at the morning service. The evening service is much quieter with no young children. The church 14+ youth groups meet in the evenings, so there are usually a lot of teenagers present. The focus of the teaching in the evening service was living for the future. A Christian should not just be living for gain in this life, because this is just a short fragment of eternity. This reminded me of an analysis which came to the conclusion that the Bible cannot by just be of minor importance. If, there is no God and the stories about Jesus are untrue, then the biggest selling book in history has no importance whatsoever. However, if, as I believe, there is a good and the stories about Jesus are true, then responding to the Bible is of supreme importance.