23rd. June. 2020. Daily Devotion.

Here are St Paul’s words about patience and forbearance in our relationships.

2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:2-3

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfil the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. Galatians 6:1-5

Remember, a sin can be as simple as being impatient or saying or thinking something unkind as well as a greater offence.

Here are Charles Wesley’s thoughts on this:

There is no love of God without patience, and no patience without humbleness and sweetness of spirit. Humility and patience are the most certain evidence for increasing love. Humility alone unites patience with love, without which it is impossible to draw benefit from suffering or indeed to avoid complaint, especially when we think we have given no occasion for what men make us suffer. True humility is a kind of self-annihilation, and this is the centre of all virtues. A soul returned to God should be attentive to everything which is said to him, on the head of salvation, with a desire to profit from this. Of the sins which God has forgiven, let nothing remain but a deeper humility in the heart and a stricter regulation in our words, in our actions, and in our sufferings. God is the first object of our love. Its next office is to bear the defects of others. We should begin practising this within our own household. We should chiefly exercise our love towards them who most shock either our way of thinking, or our temper, or our knowledge, or the desire we have, that others should be as virtuous as we wish to be ourselves.
Adapted from A Plain Account of Christian Perfection by John Wesley

Soul of Christ
Soul of Christ make me holy,
Body of Christ save me,
Blood of Christ fill me with love,
Water from Christ’s side, wash me,
Passion of Christ strengthen me,
Good Jesus hear me,
Within your wounds hide me,
Never let me be parted from you,
From the evil enemy protect me,
At the hour of my death call,
And tell me to come to You,
That with your saints I may praise you,
Through all eternity, Amen.

Your loving care
Lord Jesus,
when you walked with us on earth
you spread your healing power.
We place in your loving care
all who are affected by Coronavirus.
Keep us strong in faith, hope and love.
Bring relief to our sick,
console our bereaved,
protect those who care for us.
We lift our prayer to you Lord,
and trust in your infinite mercy,
as we wait for the daybreak.
Amen.

For Married Persons
Father God, you have consecrated the state of matrimony to represent the spiritual marriage and unity between Christ and his church. Look with mercy, I pray you, upon those who are married, that they may love, honour, and cherish each other, and so live together in faithfulness and patience, in wisdom and true godliness, that their home may be a haven of blessing and of peace for them. Let your Holy Spirit dwell with them, and guide them from pride and selfishness, and into the spirit of service for one another, and any children they might care for, as Christ humbled himself to serve us. This I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Congregational Message
As we are now in phase two of the lockdown, in Inverkeithing we are considering opening the Church for private prayer. We tried this in the weeks prior to the lockdown, but only two or three people availed themselves of the opportunity.

We will require volunteers to be present on open days, possibly for two hours on certain weekday mornings. We need to be assured that we can cover the opening hours both in terms of volunteers who can be present to supervise the distancing and cleaning requirements involved, and a worthwhile number of persons wishing to use this facility.

To help the Kirk Session make the decision, if you would be willing to use this facility regularly, say once or twice a week, or to volunteer, please indicate to me or Moira Lamont by email by Saturday this week.
calston@churchofscotland.org.uk; moiralamont@aol.com