i-church

For beautiful little Charlie Gard, his devastated parents and family and for the judge who had to decide his sad case. Lord let your Light and Love and Comfort be felt by all those who have been touched by little Charlie's life and may Charlie rest now in your Love. Amen. Lord, have mercy. :votive2...

Lent Pictures Day 43 DELIVER I'm the daughter of a midwife, so the word 'deliver' always makes me think of birth. I heard loads of stories of births when I was growing up, and whenever I went to the shops with my mum we'd be stopped at least once by someone whose baby she had delivered. Birth is ver...

Revelation 3.14-22 - Laodicea -

Lent Pictures Day 42 HOPE There's a cluster of frog spawn in our tiny, leaf-filled pond again. A few years ago, I had a bout of hospitalisations with various acute illnesses. I found the hospital environment very dull, and longed to see the outside. Once I was home, I spent quite a few weeks watchin...

Lent Pictures Day 41 STEADFAST God's love is described in Psalm 36 as faithful, or steadfast. God doesn't give up on us, although we can, and do, give up on God. I was once asked to be the parish lay representative on a residential Diocesan conference. My discussion group included a visitor from a l...

Lent Pictures Day 40 HOSANNA Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week, has been dominated this year by the news of Coptic Christians in Egypt being killed at worship. The Spectator magazine notes: "At least 36 people have died in Egypt after blasts targeted Coptic Christians on Palm Sunday. Today’s attac...

Thank you! I hope you might feel encouraged to post your sermon on i-church?

Lent Pictures Day 39 PROCLAIM Angels are messengers from God. When they visit humans, they bring news of God. To proclaim is to shout loudly about something to draw attention to it. The end of Psalm 118 proclaims that God's goodness and kindness towards us is unfailing. How can we proclaim this news...

Lent Pictures Day 38 GRATITUDE This year, i-church members have been reading Archbishop Justin Welby's DETHRONING MAMMON as our Lent book. Welby draws a strong contrast between the culture of Mammon - allowing property and money to determine our actions - and God's economy of grace, abundance and ge...

I made friends online through Christian discussion forums and I vividly remember meeting someone I'd shared a lot with online for the first time. There was a strange 5 minutes while I adjusted what I thought she would look and sound like to what she did look and sound like, which was a bit like wait...

Lent Pictures Day 37 VICTORY Winning can be exhilarating. I remember going to greet Coventry City football team in 1987 on their return from Wembley with the FA cup. It's hard to say why I was exhilarated - I'm not a football fan - but seeing people succeeding is uplifting. One of the most striking ...

Are online friends real?

This BBC video suggests they are!

https://www.facebook.com/BBCLikeThat/vi ... 585728044/

Lent Pictures Day 36 HELP The cat was sitting in the hall today looking very attentively at something. It turned out to be a large bee buzzing around in circles on the floor. I got the bee onto a spoon and put it outside, not wanting self or cat to be stung by it. I realised with hindsight that I ha...

8SCorW9r_Is John 19.38-42 After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to ...

Lent Pictures Day 35 REFUGE A refuge is a place of safety, a place to hide in. Psalm 118 talks of God moving the psalmist to a broad place in answer to a cry of distress, and tells us that it is better to take refuge in the Lord than put our confidence in people. The idea of taking refuge in the Lor...

Lent Pictures Day 34 FOREVER I remember, when I was little, being fascinated by the picture on a packet of Kensitas cigarettes. I think my grandpa smoked them. They showed a butler with tray, on which there was a pack of Kensitas cigarettes, showing a butler with a tray, with a pack of Kensitas ciga...

Lent Pictures Day 33 RESURRECT This picture was taken in my garden in Spring last year. The plant it shows is some kind of tall shrub, which dies back to being a bunch of very dead-looking, tall sticks in the winter, which suddenly sprout abundant green leaves and yellow flowers just after the daffo...

Lent Pictures Day 32 REDEEM I've never used a pawnbroker, but my mum was familiar with them from growing up in a poor community. When a family's cash ran out, they could take whatever objects of value they had in the house to the pawn shop, and be loaned a sum of money in exchange. On pay day, you t...

Thank you, Joe. It's good to have people join me in my Lent journey. I'm never sure where it will take me!

Lent Pictures Day 31 WAIT I've spent quite a lot of nights watching for the morning. I've never slept well, even as a child, and used to be scared of the dark. So if I was awake on my own, I'd look at the window, waiting for the sky to lighten in colour, and for the first bird to start singing. Sinc...

Lent Pictures Day 30 FORGIVENESS At a bible study group for young offenders I was helping to run, one of the members said one week he blamed God for the bad things that people do to each other. 'If he didn't go round forgiving people' he said, 'they'd know they couldn't get away with it.' Psalm 30.3...

Lent Pictures Day 29 CRY Psalm 130 talks about crying out to God in prayer, and waiting for an answer in trust that it will be favourable. The saying 'There are no atheists in foxholes' refers to the phenomenon that, in extreme circumstances, many of us will ask a God we don't generally believe in f...