Sweet Afternoon

Major Ruth Dykes took our home league this afternoon and she promised us a sweet afternoon and that is what we had both literally and spiritually.

Our opening hymn was Sweet Hour of Prayer and after prayers Major Ruth passed round a bowl of M and M sweets and we were told quite emphatically not to eat it. Unfortunately we have some ladies who are hard of hearing and so they had to have another one. Each person was asked a question depending on what the colour of the sweet was. Some were asked for a childhood memory (that was a yellow one), some were to say one thing they were good at, some one thing they learned last week, some were asked to mention one thing that happened to them yesterday, (red) and some were to say one thing they could not live without (brown). Dorie who is in her middle nineties got the last one and said "That's easy, breathing!!" As well as the lighter moments there were things that people shared that made us aware of others who were in need of prayer. 

After this Major Ruth produced a bag and took our various bars of chocolate one at a time. The first was the flake which she said reminded her that we are not to build our faith on anything unstable, not on flaky shaky ground but on a solid foundation, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Secondly the mars bars came out which she said reminded her of the heavens, and the vastness of God's creation, Major Ruth quoted from Psalm 8

And we thought for a few moments of how God visited the earth, He is Emmanuel, God with us and our great Creator has promised to never leave us or forsake us. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are with us daily, moment by moment and God cares about everything in our lives, it really is quite mind blowing and we say along with the Psalmist, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him” and He is mindful of us and He does visit us, and a simple thing like a mars bar reminded us of this.

Then Major Ruth produced from her bag Bounty bars reminding us of the bountiful grace and mercy of God, His unmerited favour to His children, even when we fail Him, He is always faithful, He is compassionate, He listens, He understands our pains and our anguish, and His bountiful grace covers our every need.  

Then she brought out a box of Cadbury’s Milk Tray and we all immediately recited from the advert “All because the lady loves Milk Tray”. And what lengths the man in the advert went to, to get this box of chocolates to her, He climbed mountains, jumped from aeroplanes, swam shark infested water, what a hero. He loved her so much that he went through all that just so that she could have her favourite chocolate, quite a man. But Jesus didn’t do any of these things, he wasn’t a hero in the sense that we consider a hero. He came as a baby, grew to be a man and He walked among men, teaching them, helping them, healing them. But the greatest thing He did for man was to take the punishment for our sins. There was no human heroics He was obedient to the Father and willingly sacrificed His life for us. Why? Why did the Father sacrifice His only Son, John 3:16

  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 

that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 

but have everlasting life. 

That is why God sacrificed His Son because He loved us and still loves us and for any who would repent of their sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ they will be saved and receive everlasting life.

The last box to come out was a box of Cadbury’s roses, and again we all remembered the catch phrase to the advert, “Roses grow on you that’s what they do” 

Roses are a beautiful flower and they have a wonderful fragrance, and Major Ruth reminded us that the beauty of Jesus should be seen in us in every aspect of our daily lives and that we are to be a sweet fragrance to all those around us as Jesus is to us. But we were also reminded that roses have thorns and sometimes our lives will be thorny, we will be hurt, things will happen that wound and scar but even through all of this as the Lord Jesus bore the thorns for us so we should willingly bear thorns for Him.

Our response to all this was to sing the chorus I Love You Lord.

I love You Lord,

And I lift my voice,

To worship You, O my soul rejoice,

Take joy my King, in what You hear,

May it be a sweet, sweet sound, in Your ear.

It really was a sweet afternoon of fellowship with the Lord Jesus, and with each other. May God bless you.