{"id":500,"date":"2025-04-06T12:21:51","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T11:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/?p=500"},"modified":"2025-05-16T20:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T19:16:07","slug":"sunday-6th-april-2025-lent-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/2025\/04\/06\/sunday-6th-april-2025-lent-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 6th April 2025 &#8211; Lent 5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mia is a pedigree Vizsla.  She has a Kennel Club record proving her pedigree.  (Amba may have a pedigree, we\u2019re not sure\u2014she\u2019s just a bundle of youthful energy in a wirey coat!)<br>In terms of church attendance, I have \u2018pedigree\u2019.  My \u2018mother\u2019 church had, and still has, strong links with Oak Hill Theological College, with many students and staff choosing<br>to attend Christ Church, Cockfosters.  My parents were PCC members and Sunday school leaders.  Dad was a verger, sidesman, and regular attender at Keswick Bible Week.<br>Mum sang in the choir, was Overseas Missionary secretary, and attended Billy Graham rallies in 1954 &amp; \u201955.  My birth nearly interrupted a Sunday School leaders meeting. I first went to church aged 2weeks, was baptised on 3rd February 1963, and confirmed on 4th May 1978.<br>As I grew up, I attended Climbers, Explorers, Pathfinders, Koinonia and Sunday Fellowship. I still have my BCP, presented for 40 consecutive Sunday attendances at Explorers.<br>I can\u2019t remember a time when I didn\u2019t know about God or Jesus. After listing his \u2018pedigree\u2019 in his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes:<br>\u2018I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord\u2019<br>What mattered to Paul was not his past record but his present knowing \u2018Christ Jesus my Lord\u2019. He wanted to \u2018know Christ, to be \u2018found in Him\u2019, to \u2018gain Christ\u2019.<br>Like Paul, I can claim \u2018pedigree\u2019. And like Paul, for me my pedigree isn\u2019t important. So I can join with him in saying:<br>\u2018Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-7f5f25f1e6c30e7c80026556808cd1db\" style=\"color:#02507d\"><em><strong>Rev\u00a0Phil<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mia is a pedigree Vizsla. She has a Kennel Club record proving her pedigree. (Amba may have a pedigree, we\u2019re not sure\u2014she\u2019s just a bundle of youthful energy in a wirey coat!)In terms of church attendance, I have \u2018pedigree\u2019. My \u2018mother\u2019 church had, and still has, strong links with Oak Hill Theological College, with many [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":585,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersbromyard.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}