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What was so special about Jesus? Can he really be the only way to God, if there even is a God? Listen to discover one approach to navigating these kinds of questions. PowerPoint – Confident Conversations 3 – Jesus the only way Confident Conversations 3 – Jesus the only way group leader notes
Jon Petts – Why Every Christian should celebrate Passover
In this Easter Sunday message, Jon explains the importance of remembering Passover.
Grief, Mourning and the Christian
During the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone has suffered losses. For some it’s the loss of loved ones, for others the loss of routines and the familiar, the missed family gatherings or coffee with friends, the cancelled holidays and postponed weddings, even the loss of going into the office every day.
Any loss, big or small can cause us to experience grief. And the bigger the loss, the greater the grief. A war widow will know greater loss than the person who loses a favourite jumper.
Christian psychiatrist Curt Thompson defines grief as
“Our emotional inflammatory response to loss… when we are deprived of anything to which we have a significant emotional attachment…”
So grief is our emotional response to loss, whatever the loss is. If it was something significant to us and we lose it, we will experience grief.
I’m told that we can compare grief with physical injury. When our bodies suffer harm we feel physical pain and there is a wound that needs to heal. In a similar way, grief pierces the soul and causes some kind of inner wound.
The injury of grief is worse when the thing or person you have lost is more important to you. So when we scratch ourselves pulling out brambles, the injury is minor and will heal quickly, but when we incur a more serious injury, it may take specialist help and time to heal. Grief too can be serious and deep or just a moment to work through.
In John 11 we see a beautiful picture of Jesus in all his humanity as well as the ultimate power he held as Son of God. We also can learn something about the grieving process.
Mark Goodyear – Fingers
It’s easy to point the finger in judgement. When Jesus was asked to judge the woman caught in adultery, he used his finger to write in the ground. Listen to Mark Goodyear help those feeling judged whilst challenging us not to sit in judgement and point the finger ourselves.