Thought for the Day

Here is the text for this mornings Thought for the Day that I gave on BBC Radio Leicester. Or you can listen to it here about 47 minutes into the programme.

During the American civil war, a solider was granted permission to seek a hearing from the president. However, when he arrived at the White House, he was refused entry and sent away. He went and sat in a nearby park. A young boy came across him and remarked how unhappy he looked. The solider told the boy everything. Eventually the boy said, ‘Come with me.’ He led the dejected soldier back to the White House. They went round the back; none of the guards stopped them. Even the generals stood to attention and let them pass. The soldier was amazed. Finally, they came to the presidential office. Without knocking, the boy opened the door and walked straight in. Abraham Lincoln, standing there turned from his conversation and said, ‘What can I do for you, Tad?’ Tad said, ‘Dad, this soldier needs to talk to you.’ The soldier had access to the president through the son. Christians believe that we have access to God the Father through Jesus the Son. When we pray we are not talking to some distant, far off God. We have direct access to our loving heavenly Father who delights to hear from us and longs to know what is on our hearts.

Christmas Fair

Now in its third year, today say the St Paul's Christmas Fair taking place. Many thanks to all who worked so hard to make it such a successful day. Thanks too to all who came along and joined in. The Fair was opened by the Mayor and half of the profits will go to his charity Leicester Children's Holiday Mablethorpe. The other half we go towards the work of Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Early Spring Programme

The Christmas festivities are not yet passed, but is already time to look forward. This link gives access to the new programme of our main services for January and February.
 
Why not join us and see what goes on as we worship God together.

 Happy Christmas!

Adverts

Christmas adverts are upon us! For me this is one of the best I have seen so far from Amazon Prime depicting a friendship between a Vicar and an Imam. Watch it here.

Disturb us, Lord

I was reminded of this great prayer recently which is attributed to Sir Francis Drake...

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves.
When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little.
When we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we posses
We have lost our thirst for the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity,
And in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas,
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes,
And to push into the future in strength, courage, hope and love.

Light Party

On Sunday 30th October Churches Together in Oadby hosted a Light Party at St Peter's.
Here are a few photo's of some of the activites they got up to as they focused on Jesus as the Light of the World.

Confirmation

Lou writes...What an amazing evening celebrating the faith of these 5 young people! It was such a privilege and I’m so proud of them all.

It’s such a blessing to work with our young people and I feel incredibly proud seeing them confirm their faith tonight. They are caring, loving, humble, compassionate, courageous, inspiring and generous followers of Jesus and tonight was a lovely way to celebrate them and thank God for them. Here’s one very proud youth worker

Praise God for all he is doing in and through their lives and how they bring love, light hope and Jesus to others. Please remember them and all of our young people in your prayers

To see a video of their story visit here.