Northfield Methodist Church

Dear friends—

Dear friends,

Dear friends—

Dear Friends—

Our theme today is Practicing the Presence of God. I am sure you recognize these words. They are the title of a well known and deeply loved little book written by Brother Lawrence. He discovered that in his work in the kitchen he could experience the Presence of God just as powerfully as he did at the Sacrament of Holy Communion. In this book he shares his secret of how he learnt this. I hope this morning that like Brother Lawrence we will also learn how to be more open to the Presence of God in the midst of our very busy and full lives.

Dear Friends—

Our theme for today is Slowing Down In A Hurry Up World! I wonder if that sounds relevant. According to dictionary definitions for hurry, they use phrases like “excessive haste”, “ a recurrent agitation of sound”’ “ a state of urgency”. Hurry is associated with words such as “hurl”’, “hurry-scurry”’, “hurly-burly”’ meaning uproar or tumult. The words hurry and hurricane are very close. You can almost feel it! Dallas Willard writes that hurry is “a state of frantic effort one falls into in response to inadequacy, fear and guilt”. That is worth thinking about.

Dear friends

We live in uncertain, tough and challenging times. Few people would dispute that. On almost all human fronts, ranging from the political and economic to the very personal, we face enormous challenges. Not surprisingly, many of us live with deep levels of fear and anxiety.

Against this background, it is wise for us to reflect again on the basis of our security. Where do we find our ultimate sense of security? When we reflect on this question, we may give many different answers: family, friends, money, property, job, insurance and so on.

Dear Friends –
Warm Greetings!

Dear Friends—

Warm greetings—as was mentioned last week we enter a month with an unusual emphasis on prayer. We hope that you will be part of this journey. We began last
Friday with the 24/7 prayer in the Chapel and continue with a number of offerings over the next few weeks.

First of all, have a look at your invitation to our
DEEPENING THE PRAYER MINISTRY OF THE
LOCAL CONGREGATION conference. It will be held on Saturday the 20th August here at Northfield. There is something for everyone and anyone. There will be a plenary address by Trevor Hudson, followed by the

Dear Friends,
Warm greetings!

We are heading into a very exciting month here at Northfield Methodist. We will be seeking to centralize as strongly as we can the ministry of prayer in our midst. To this end there are a number of “prayer opportunities” that we would value you diarizing. We hope you will be able to be part of some of these events. Please go through them carefully and see where you would like to participate.

Dear Friends

For six weeks we will be exploring the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives today. We trust that you will make this journey with us. We hope that it will be a time of renewal, refreshment and restoration. May the Wind blow over all our lives today!