14th May 2026

14th May 2026


Pray (ACts) 


Read (2 Corinthians 4v16-18) 


Message (Scott Woodburn)


I was once asked to go and visit a man who was dying in hospital who had been my boss back in the 1990s when I was a delivery boy for my local chemist. I remember calling with him at the City Hospital late on a Saturday night and I tried to gently speak to him to ascertain why he had asked me to call, saying “are you afraid of death?” His reply took me aback but gave me great joy. “Oh no” he said. “I am not afraid to die.”


What caused this elderly man to be so categorically unafraid? He was dying whilst trusting in Christ. He did not want to see me because he needed to hear of Christ, he wanted to see me because he desired fellowship with me before he died. The Christian is not spared death and every single day our bodies are wasting away (v16). But in this we do not lose heart because we know that as the body wastes our inner self is being renewed every moment (v16b).


This process is called sanctification and it is the truth for everyone who knows Christ as their Saviour. While we age, slow and decline another work goes on which fits us for heaven and makes us more like Christ. What we are currently going through is preparing us for something so glorious that it is beyond all comparison (v17). When we consider heaven we often think about it in such poor terms. We ask “Will there be ice cream there? Will I be floating on a cloud? Will I get to speak to Moses?” Brothers and sisters, I don’t mean to belittle you, but these questions are nothing compared to the breathtaking, soul captivating eternal glory of Heaven.


So let us not lose heart (v16) and let us practice looking less to the things that we can see and more to the things that we can’t (v18a). Everything we can see is passing away, it is transient but what is promised for us in Heaven may be unseen for a little while but it is eternal and is ours by faith in Christ.


The man I went to see was called Norman McConnell and where I lived he was an institution. When I became a minister, he told my mother that he prayed for me everyday and was so proud that I would become a preacher of the Gospel. He was no fool and even as his body wasted away he set his focus on the eternal weight of glory that would soon be his. I hope I finish the course like Norman. May the Lord teach me to start looking above.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q67 Which is the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.
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