{"id":14,"date":"2013-11-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2013\/11\/06\/sunday-24th-june-2012-nativity-of-st-john-the-baptist\/"},"modified":"2013-11-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T00:00:00","slug":"sunday-24th-june-2012-nativity-of-st-john-the-baptist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2013\/11\/06\/sunday-24th-june-2012-nativity-of-st-john-the-baptist\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 24th June 2012 – Nativity of St John the Baptist"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"VistaPrint<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
The Word this Week:<\/font>
<\/span>
Isaiah 49:1-6<\/a><\/strong>
Psalm 139<\/a><\/strong>
Acts 13:22-26<\/a><\/strong>
Luke 1:57-66, 80<\/a><\/strong>
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<\/span>Thoughts on the Word:<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Luke 1:57-66 (NRSV)<\/span>
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Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, \u201cNo; he is to be called John.\u201d They said to her, \u201cNone of your relatives has this name.\u201d Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, \u201cHis name is John.\u201d And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, \u201cWhat then will this child become?\u201d For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hello folks! This week at Church I have been tasked with writing the children’s sermon – so guess what you get?! <\/span>Now I have to admit that I stole the idea for this one – from here<\/a> – but I have altered it to suit my own Church and it’s children.\u00a0 Whilst this is a kids sermon it has a strong message and a challenge that are for us grown ups too! I hope you get something from it!<\/p>\n

\t \t \t \t \t \t Good morning boys and girls. Today in church we are remembering someones birthday! Does anyone know whose birthday we remember today? …
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<\/span> Today we remember the day that John the Baptist was born. Can anyone tell me who John the Baptist is? …
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<\/span> John the Baptist was a special man chosen by God to do a special job. He lived in the wild \u2013 in the desert, and do you know what he ate? Grass Hoppers and Honey! Would you eat a grass hopper? …
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<\/span> But even though he ate grass hoppers God still used John to do a special job \u2013 Can you show me how you would use your finger to point at someone? We point to someone or something when it is important and we want people to pay attention to that person or that thing<\/em>. But have you ever noticed that your finger can’t point at itself? You try! Your finger just can’t point back at itself – it doesn’t bend that way!<\/em>. It can\u2019t! It has to point to something else, something other than itself.
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<\/span> And that is just like what John the Baptist did! His special job was to point other people to Jesus who is the light of the world. John never pointed to himself. In fact, he was pretty clear that he wasn\u2019t the important one. John wanted everyone to know that the important person was coming and his name is Jesus! Just like a pointing finger draws attention to something important, John the Baptist pointed out that the Messiah, the saviour of the world, was coming and that we better be ready for him. John did this by doing his best to always follow God and telling other people to follow God and stop sinning.
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<\/span> But John isn\u2019t the only one who points the way to Jesus. We have to do that too! Each of us is like a pointing finger for others to follow Jesus. We point to Jesus whenever we do good works or show kindness and love in his name. Just like John, it\u2019s our job to point others to the light of the world, Jesus Christ! Do you think you can do that? Good! Maybe you can help the grown ups to do it too!<\/p>\n

God bless you!<\/span>
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<\/span>\u00a0
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<\/span> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Word this Week:Isaiah 49:1-6Psalm 139Acts 13:22-26Luke 1:57-66, 80Thoughts on the Word: Luke 1:57-66 (NRSV)Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to … Continue reading “Sunday 24th June 2012 – Nativity of St John the Baptist”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}