Corps officers Majors Alec and Andrea Still were again leaders of our meetings yesterday.

 Majors Andrea & Alec Still

The morning meeting began with song 249 from the Salvation Army Song Book which was followed immediately with Scripture from Psalm 145:1-7. The Singing Company brought ‘He knows my name’ (soloist Erin Burdett) and Songs of Fellowship 303 led to prayers.

Major Alec brought a children’s thought on the topic ‘The answer is………….’. He  asked two young people to answer two questions each, the answers all being ‘Jesus’. As the score was two each (contrived) he asked a deciding question ‘who can change the world?’ In this case the answer was not only Jesus but ourselves if we are followers of Jesus.

Songs of Fellowship 260 and scripture from Romans 12:9-21 followed before the Songsters contributed ‘I am praying’ to the worship.

The chorus ‘Come, beautiful Christ‘ preceded the sermon, delivered by Major Alec on the theme ‘What is love?’ He said:

Jesus can change the world but so can we if we come before him. Today is National Winnie the Pooh Day. Piglet asked Pooh ‘how do you spell love?. Pooh replied ‘you don’t, you show it.

What is love? We all know, don’t we – but do we? Can we describe it? Sometimes we can’t put our feelings into words. I have asked people this week to tell me what love is. The answers were many and various. Dictionary definitions include ‘great affection’, sexual passion, extreme liking, etc. Even then we do love an injustice. We should look at our scripture again.

None of us can attain all these virtues at the same time but we can associate with all of them some of the time. We can certainly try and all things are achievable. But then it gets more difficult. Loving our enemies is not easy for us. Neither can we say that we can do right in the eyes of everyone.

But le’s stop here and talk about God’s love. Despite all the sins and errors of the past he still loves us. Paul does not talk about revenge. Instead he says do the opposite of what the world expects. If God’s love is shown the world will see it. He is not about condemnation but about love, bringing people to repentance. We can show our own experience of God’s love and his forgiveness. When we know Jesus from experience our scripture falls into context. He loves us and we need to let that love, through us, pour into others.

Let’s not create a list of our own achievements but simply allow God’s love to flow through us.

The chorus ‘Channels only, blessed Master‘ gave time for thought and song 348 from the Salvation Army Song Book completed the meeting

In the afternoon all four corps music sections took part in what was a praise and Testimony meeting. Song 48 (SA) began proceedings and this was followed by selected verses from Psalm 136. Songs of Fellowship 413 followed before more scripture from the Psalms (121) was read. This period of worship concluded with Songs of Fellowship 124.

The remainder of the meeting comprised contributions from the music sections and testimonies. The Singing Company brought ‘You can never be too grateful’, the Band ‘Reflections on Galilee’, the Young People’s Band ‘Jubilee Day’ and the Songsters ‘Whosoever will’    Testimonies were requested on two themes, ‘I praise Go because…………’ and ‘Memories of the faithful’. Several spoke of people who had been of special influence in their lives.

Also included was scripture from Psalm 136 (Psalms now), Songs of Fellowship 894 and the final song, 22 from the SA Song Book.

Erin Burdett, who sang so beautifully in t he morning, has been selected to represent the London South East Division in a Participation Day (about children having a voice). The event takes place next weekend in Dunstable. We wish Erin the very best in this important role.

 Erin

Fiona Pennington took part this week in the Kent Schools Cross Country Championships (2.5km year 7 girls) and finished 23rd out of 150. Well done Fiona!

 Fiona

And finally we hear from all those who attended Hendon Highlights at the Cadogan Hall on Saturday that NChant, the senior girls choir of Rochester Grammar School, under the leadership of our own Carolynn Woodman excelled its performance. Well done girls and well done Carolynn.

 

NChant & Carolynn