On Sunday evening I heard Stephen Cottrell, the Bishop of Chelmsford, preach on the Bible Year 2011. Bishop Stephen's sermon was bookended by two stories. The first concerned a man who had read, in 24 hours, the whole of the New Testament for the very first time and who had concluded that it was the most incredible message of love. The second was about a woman who had sung a rhyme listing the books of the Bible to the Bishop while in the Silver Ring at Royal Ascot on Ladies Day. This incident had been a trigger for this person to share something of her troubled background with Bishop Stephen and commit to opening and reading her Bible again, after many years of not doing so.
In between, he spoke about the Psalms as the love songs of the Bible and highlighted the look of love from God towards who walk in his ways (Psalm 33). This he contrasted with the look of love which Jesus has for the rich young ruler who walks away from him (Mark 10. 21). That same love was there for the woman in his story regardless of the way in which she chose to respond to the incident. All this illustrated the need for us to give away to others the Bible and its message of love and, as a result, three words should be added to the Bible; 'to be continued'.
Bishop Stephen was preaching at St Peters Harold Wood and, as part of the same service, dedicated two fused glass windows by Caroline Richardson, which had been commissioned through commission4mission.
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Sixpence None The Richer - Breathe Your Name.
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