Listen and understand (1)

Come, with purpose,
into the presence of the living God.
Come to worship, and to be amazed,
to discover and learn new things.
Come, knowing that God welcomes us all with open arms.
Amen.

As per my last blog for Sunday 26th July we are called to worship but for now in a very different way!

Today’s Blog is entitled “Listen and understand”
For those of you that have been following my blogs you will be aware that this will be my last Blog during lockdown, it has been interesting to say the least, it has given me a lot of satisfaction & I hope those that have followed these Blogs have gained something from them, 

they will remain on the Heath & Havering Website so can be re-looked at any time going forward. I thought that the title of this week’s Blog was very relevant I don’t know how many of you have dipped into any of these Blogs if you have I truly hope that you have got something from them, even if that’s a prayer that you liked, a picture that you felt was relevant, ​​a group of words that meant something to you. We that is Nelmes United Reformed Church have decided to complete two Zoom services in August, lots of other churches are doing the same or similar, including our own Western Road Church, we have been opening Nelmes on a Monday night (7-8pm) for individual prayer, as a warden on duty every other week I have been surprised and delighted at the conversations I have had on those evenings, from people actively wanting to have some quite time to those who just want to talk & those that ask what is going on, once explained those that I have spoken with appreciate the thinking behind the idea. They have listened and hopefully understood.

Sometimes we & I include myself in that number assume we listen and understand as a general rule of thumb, but do we listen properly if we don’t then how can we understand.

“Don’t be afraid to listen, don’t be afraid of what you might hear, as it says in Psalm 50: “ Our God is coming, but not in silence; a raging fire is in front of him, a furious storm is around him.” We must be always alert so we can listen and understand!”