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The Vicar's Message for March 2010
It is with regret that I announce that Claire Callaway feels that is time to stand down as Editor of our Magazine. I'm sure you all join with me in thanking, not only Clare but Andrew too for their work in putting our Church Magazine together over these past years. If, in the future you would like to contribute to the magazine (which I hope you will) then please do send me an email.
Meditating on the Bible
We are of course now into Lent and it is during Lent that we often pick up something extra to read, perhaps as a Lenten discipline. Well here is a suggestion, why not meditate on the Bible as you read it?
J. I. Packer once described meditation as an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communication with God. Its purpose is to clear one's mental and spiritual vision of God and let his truth make its full and proper impact on one's mind and heart.
So… never be in a hurry when you read or study God's Word. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. In other words, God would love us to have His word running around our minds in the background all the time.
God also says in Deuteronomy 6:8-9, Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. God is of course saying in this, that He wants His Word everywhere. But we live in a culture where our eyes are daily assaulted with all kinds of rubbish - all those advertisements, more often than not, for things we don't need or want (until that is, we're told we want them), and we find that over the week, months and years, all this accumulates in our minds and crucially, the minds of our children. God's idea for us however is that we take His Word and let it be a noticeboard in front of our eyes, so that over the years we allow it and not the rubbish to fill our mind.
A man was once asked, When you can't sleep, do you count sheep? He said, No. I talk to the Shepherd. That's what God wants His people to do, talk to the Shepherd, to meditate. Psalm 1:1-2 says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Like the cow chewing its cud, going over it and over it and over it - that's how God would like us to meditate on His Word, going over it and over it and over it. I pray that you may be encouraged to perhaps read St. Luke's Gospel during Lent in this way, reading it daily and taking anything that might strike you, letting that small passage stay with you all day. Perhaps you might think about coming along to the Convent on Church Hill for our Wednesday evening meetings during Lent, or come and join the fellowship, for soup and a bun on Fridays at the Salvation Army Citadel.
If you don't already have a copy, why not consider buying yourself a copy of Bishop Tom Wright's book 'LENT for everyone - Luke' (ISBN 978-0-281-06220-1).
My prayer for you is that by the end of this Lenten Season, you may know more of God's love
for you and be ready to enter
more fully into the joy of Easter.
Your friend,
Rev'd Vince Fenton