Thought for the week – Nigel Mansfield

Many families invariably have some rift or other which has never been properly addressed. It can go on for years.

As Christians it offends the name of Christ, that we bear, if we cannot forgive.

A helpful book on the subject is the ‘Language of Apology’ which flags up 5 things that need to be said and meant – when we set about apologising.

All or some of the following:-

(a) “I was sorry.”

(b) “I was wrong.”

(c) “What can I do to make it right?”

(d) “I’ll try not to do it again.”

(e) “Will you please forgive me?”

The actual language of apology we use is important.

Sometimes it can lead to us being misunderstood ourselves.

Or we can misunderstand others when they are trying to apologise to us.

Either side may consider the apology is insufficient and so a gap develops which can widen over time and cause a rift in relationships – if not dealt with.

A Prayer

“Lord help me to apologise fully and appropriately to those I need to apologise to.

Lord help me to set myself to do this and get it done sometime soon”

Bible verses: Luke 23:34; Matt 6:12: Matt19:21,22; Matt 19:23-35.

‘The Language of Apology’ (2006) by Garry Chapman & Jennifer Thomas published by Northfield  (ISBN – 978-1-881273-79-0).

Nigel Mansfield

From the Manse – March 2010

Dear Friends

The other day I received an email from a friend in Romania. The email was about the
Falkirk Wheel. My friend was so amazed how clever and simple the whole mechanism is
that he wrote only three short sentences: ‘This is quite something.’ ‘It is well thought out.’
and ‘Who did invent it?’

I suppose he is not the only one who is so stunned by the construction. It is a piece of
engineering ingenuity and quite rightly it is counted among the World Heritage Sites. It
appears to be so simple, and fitting. It looks so obvious and effortless as it transfers boats from one level to
another. One just marvels at it and wonders, how did he or she not think of it? And then you try to understand
the simplicity of the wheel, and you attempt to get to grips with the principle of Archimedes that
makes it so simple. But then it takes a while to understand the whole structure completely. It is not enough
just to stand there and marvel at it; mind you I could watch it for hours. If you really want to understand it
you need to get into it, to experience it, maybe do a bit of background reading, and delve into
science too. Yet it still has its mystery.

My friend’s enthusiastic email about the Falkirk Wheel reminded me of the Cross of
Christ. I know, you say, everything reminds ministers of the cross, or Jesus or God. Which is
probably true, but this time it really did; I was not searching for an analogy there, honest. God
made plain His wonderful nature to us in the cross of Jesus Christ. It is a simple construction that
over-bridged the gap between heaven and earth in love. Its vertical beam reminds us that God
came down to us from heaven to open up his arms and embrace us, of which the horizontal beam can be a
reminder. There is the Gospel message, God loves us! So simple, yet so mysterious. If you want to know it,
it is not enough just to marvel at the cross, you must enter into God’s love to experience it, feel it together
with others in the congregation. And you need to delve into the Bible to read the background about God’s
love and it still will be a mystery to you and so it should be.

This Easter season will allow us a number of opportunities to know the love of God deeper. The joint
half hour short Lenten services are already held at our church on Saturdays. While for those who want to
explore fresh ways of expressing God’s love in the world as a church we have a Lenten fellowship with
folks from other churches on Sunday nights at Garelochhead Church Hall. On Palm Sunday the Church of
Scotland congregations will celebrate and worship together at West Kirk. The Holy Week services this year
will be held at St Michael’s and All Angels Episcopal Church and begin at 8:00pm each night. On Good
Friday the traditional Walk of Witness will be organised again, and in our Sanctuary we will have again the
Easter Experience display from Good Friday till Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday we have the usual open
air service and egg rolling at Hermitage Park (bring along your hard boiled eggs!) followed by an Easter
Breakfast which will await us in King Street Hall, after which it will be time for our Easter Family Service.

After Easter we will begin our ten weeks Enquirers’ Course which will be held at Braeholm, for all those
who want to know more about God, His love for us, Jesus Christ, how the Holy Spirit guides us and how the
church works, are invited and welcome to this fellowship meal and discussion.
Please feel free to take any or all these opportunities to marvel at, get involved in God’s amazing
love. It is so simple, so mysterious and free for all.

With every blessing
Your Minister,
George

From the Manse – February 2009

 

This wee blog comes from Romania, where we are spending our holiday (only one more day remained).  It was nice to see friends and family.  The kindness and the hospitality are as overwhelming as ever!  We need some serious exercise to lose weight again!  hospitality is still the most dangerous thing in Transylvania.  It was interesting to see how local authorities try to make the towns and cities nicer, a lot of work was put into beautifying the buildings, but there is still plenty more to do.  The roads are busy with cars, so much so that at certain times of the day and some parts of the city (Oradea) traffic is almost impossible; cars are parked often on both sides of the streets.  Some traffic diversions aim to ease this difficulty.  Travelling in the country is exciting, the scenery is lovely and you never know what the road is going to be like.  In some parts it had an excellent surface, but at others you needed all your skill to avoid the potholes that threaten to swallow up your car together with you.  It was sad to see the factory buildings that once so proudly symbolised the achievements of the communist system now standing derelict and abandoned.  Only a few of them, the better ones, were reused by the new owners.  New shopping centres are popping up at the outskirts like mushrooms after rain and offer a huge range of products to any who can buy them.

We had the opportunity to worship with local Christians too, which were great experiences.  As we visited Benjamin and his family in Targu-Mures we worshipped both with his congregation where I preached twice and together with the other churches of the city as part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  This week is a very popular event in Transylvania.  It was truly an ecumenical event.  Four denominations (Reformed/Presbyterian, Lutheran, Unitarian and Roman Catholic) worshipped together at joint services in each others’ churches.  The closing service was hosted by the Lutheran congregation, since their hall was too small the neighbouring Reformed church offered up their sanctuary and the sermon was preached by a Catholic priest, over one thousand people worshipped together!

Later as we came back to Oradea, we worshipped in one of the local Reformed churches that took the advantage of having a visiting minister and asked me to preach.  The minister of the congregation told us with great joy that this winter-time the number of people attending the services, and not only at his church, but all over the town has increased.

We had some great experiences and happy times in Romania.

 

Thought for the Week – Bobby Caldwell

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 7 VERSE 10

Never ask “Oh why were things so much better in the old days?” It’s not an intelligent question.

I am sure that most of us who are older have said or thought of saying these words. Particularly at this time of uncertainty, we feel the necessity to look back at how things used to be.

However we should remember that the world is always changing and in this season of Advent and new beginnings let us look forward with hope for the future

Prayer

Lord please be with us at this time and give us the faith to look forward in hope. Amen