Thought For The Week 13 October 2019

Welcome to our services this morning. I trust that wherever you worship with us today – be it our heritage service at Trinity or our contemporary   service at St Stephen’s, you will encounter the life-giving Spirit of Christ and be encouraged in your faith.

Today we are beginning a new 4-part series based in 2 Timothy, which contains the last thoughts of Saint Paul before he was martyred under orders from Nero, around 67 AD. The last recorded words of people can be touching, humorous or even tragic. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle turned to his wife while sitting in his garden and said “You are wonderful”. Then clutched his chest and died. Nostradamus predicted, “Tomorrow, at sunrise, I shall no longer be here”. He was right!  Johnny Ace, an R&B singer, died in 1954 while playing with a pistol during a break in his concert set. His last words were, “I’ll show you that it won’t shoot.” My favourite comes from the American civil war where a soldier is reported to have said “They couldn’t hit an elephant from that dist…”

Paul’s last words are written to Timothy his ‘son in the faith’ and the leader of the church in Ephesus. He writes as one who is handing over the baton of leadership to the next generation and is mindful of the challenges his understudy will face. Within this letter are timeless truths we need to hear and be reminded of. I hope you will be blessed as we take a closer look at Paul’s final words.

Blessings

Brent Richardson