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IN FOCUS - The Annual Gathering |
| The Gathering takes place
every May bank holiday, this year the 30th April to 3rd May. Every year
the weekend takes up a different theme from the Bible, the theme for this
year is Daniel, God's Man in Babylon. About 250 people from around the
country will come and take over a local school for the weekend. The weekend
is an opportunity for everyone there to come closer to our Heavenly Father
and the Lord Jesus and to share fellowship with people of the same faith.
We share meals together and listen to Bible talks and worship together,
singing songs, usually with many instruments taking part. There are workshops
geared towards tackling the many issues with being a modern day disciple
of Jesus. There is also a lot of coffee drinking and general chatting!
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THOUGHT – "What shall I wear?" |
| Jesus once told a story
that began like this "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who prepared
a wedding banquet for his son…". You can read it for yourself in
Matthew's gospel, chapter 22 verses 1 to 14. To summarise the story
for now, basically the invites went out and those first invited refused
to come (at their peril!). One detail of this story is very interesting;
a man is found at the wedding with "the wrong clothes" on, and upon being
questioned why he is dressed so, he is speechless and is thrown out!
I guess we can understand this to some extent since we all have expectations
of what should be worn at a wedding (a 3-piece suit as opposed to a boiler
suit maybe?). But this story of Jesus is not really about a wedding,
it is about the Kingdom of Heaven.
Unlike many modern social events, guests at a wedding in Jesus' day would all be given a "wedding garment". Whoever you were, rich or poor, you would all be dressed with the same garment. Perhaps if you were rich and proud, then this garment would represent a lowering of status. Maybe then you would resent it, maybe that's what this man in the story was doing, maybe we are guilty of delighting in our own glory and not that given to us from God. The Bible talks a lot in parables and symbols, and often about clothing. But it does not talk of the latest trainers (or sandals), or the latest tracksuit (or loin cloth). We are told to "clothe" ourselves with compassion and humility, with kindness, gentleness and patience. In a sense, we "put on" those things that are from God and so on the day when his Son returns, to the wedding feast, we are not dressed "inappropriately", we are not naked, but fully clothed in those wedding garments, able to stand before Him. |
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Just a quick note... |
| It's about a year since we sent out the first newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it. The aim of our newsletter is for everyone who lives around about Old Trafford to get a picture of what we do at our church. Also we hope to give you a spiritual message (brief as it is!) which is relevant to all our lives. Finally though please take this newsletter as a warm invitation to come along and find out in detail what we're all about, we'd love to see you. |