Our Sunday School (Lift up our Hearts)

A hard end to a cruel year. Ditto to Philip's loving comment.

Hi all, Believe it or not, we are approaching our festival of Christmas. A festival bolted onto an existing northern hemisphere festival, celebrating the passing of the shortest day. Tongue in cheek with hope for the future. That was the celebration, longer days, with springtime around the corner. Wait a minute, we've the coldest month of the year to get through yet! Looking back, many of us have endured awful disappointments. Our stalwart member did just a few days ago, as well as the interruptions brought about by the pandemic, that goes on & on. A bit like me, I hope not! So what cheer can I bring to our souls that are so wanting just that. A bit of cheer. Sadly, I can't on my own, because for cheer to mean anything, it has to come from inside of each of us, but I can tell you a bit about a Christmas story. A book with just four chapters. I used to think that it was a sloppy story for romantic ladies, but few stories have thrilled me so much listening to it being read to me. The book of Ruth is a beautiful story. The events in it happened over 3,000 years ago. Because it is about ordinary people, this story can help us today. This story is about an ordinary family whose members suffered many losses but God went on looking after them. Then he gave them new gifts to make them glad. We do not know who wrote Ruth. Perhaps it was a familiar story that a *scribe wrote down after King David's death. In chapter 4 verses 18-22, there is a list of people who were born into Ruth's family. This includes King David. He was a very great king, an *ancestor of Jesus. The Book of Ruth is about a young widow, Ruth. Ruth was a foreigner. But she came to Israel to help Naomi. Naomi was Ruth's husband's mother. Ruth left her own country, to serve elsewhere, hoping for a better life than she was used to, living in a family that for most part was not up to much good. Naomi and Ruth were very poor. But Ruth could collect any grain that remained after the harvest. This was God's law. And one man who respected this law was called Boaz. So, Ruth came to Boaz's field to collect grain. Boaz saw Ruth and he loved her. He agreed to pay her family's debts, so that he could marry Ruth. Ruth was just a poor foreigner. But her family became Israel's royal family. Both King David and Jesus belonged to this family. I was heartened to be told by a very close Muslim friend, just how much ladies from so many faiths take so much encouragement from this story. Yes, story it is. No one is sure who wrote it, but by my faith I believe it to be God's word. That is just my faith. Certainly the facts tie with the genealogy to the birth of Christ. The whole book of just four chapters can be read almost as a bedtime story. I set my Kindle, to an easy read scripture version, selected a voice speaker & it was such sweet dreams. I can't labour on this, otherwise I abuse YOUR trust in me regards our forum content. I reserve these posts to special events, special events only. Thank you. To each of you, members of our forum, your families & friends, folks who may be just reading various topics, it's obvious I'm wishing you all a happy Christmas, but more than that, just as the book of Ruth theme is played out, that we all may be able to cope with whatever comes. God bless.

Thank you, Philip

No battlefield had soldiers asking for a padre, all asked for medics to ease the pain. No books were written in the very past, all were written in recent times, even the Dead Scrolls proved a different version to what we once believed. We all have our own beliefs, and see the world our own way and how we think, and history refutes what really happened in the Holy Land so many generations ago. I don't want to annoy anyone, or change anyone's thoughts, let us all go forth our own way and tackle what may come in our own hearts and souls.

Hi all, So much of our wellbeing is fuelled by our friendships. Straight away, recognising our forum ties. The best will in the world, we sometimes incur differences of opinion. I have issues with an organisation right now, not malice, it's frustration almost, because an important issue is stuck in the pending tray, but I believe intended to stay for ever. Sadly, none of us have forever, so an appropriate point is reached where we draw a line. I've posted this odd comment on this wellbeing topic, because just now & again a quote from literature comes to mind, this time from my friend Scripture. "But let my 'Yes' be 'Yes', and my 'No' be 'No'..." That can save a lot of going around in circles, hey. A part-quote from the book of Matthew. I do hope that can be of some help to us all.