{"id":15316,"date":"2015-03-02T10:42:22","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T23:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=15316"},"modified":"2015-03-03T22:18:47","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T11:18:47","slug":"jesus-loves-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2015\/03\/02\/jesus-loves-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus loves me!"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the\u00a0President of The Bush Church Aid Society Australia\u00a0(BCA), I was invited to submit an editorial for the BCA\u00a0Autumn\u00a0Prayer Notes –\u00a0 and here it is! <\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus loves me!<\/p>\n

I had just announced our song, \u201cJesus loves me, this I know, and the Bible tells me so\u201d, when a parishioner walked quickly down the aisle, stood in front of me and presented me with a red rose. I accepted the rose with a light heart and a wide grin. Anglican life is rarely dull!<\/p>\n

However, the best was yet to come! As I accepted the rose, she asked in a loud voice, \u201cBishop, do you love Jesus?\u201d To the unexpected question I quickly affirmed, \u201cYes, I love Jesus!\u201d The congregation was all smiles as I stood there in all my Episcopal glory, holding a red rose.<\/p>\n

Expecting the parishioner to return to her pew, I announced our song for a second time. But the woman (who had remained standing in front of me) repeated her question in a booming voice, \u201cBishop, do you love Jesus?\u201d \u201cYes\u201d, I replied in a loud voice and again with a wide smile, \u201cI love Jesus!\u201d<\/p>\n

Satisfied at last, she then walked back to her pew and turned to face me as I finished announcing for the third time our song, \u201cJesus loves me, this I know, and the Bible tells me so\u201d.<\/p>\n

At this point I confess that I was feeling a little relieved as I was not sure where the previous questions might have led. But just then, she shouted out for the entire world to hear, \u201cBishop, I love Jesus too!\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, you can imagine, the congregation erupted with joy, laughter, clapping and enthusiastically affirmed our forthright Sister. This was an undoubted \u201cGod-moment\u201d and the angels in heaven would have danced wildly!<\/p>\n

Our celebration of \u201cJesus loves me!\u201d is central to our great Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter. The joy of the coming of Jesus Christ to a humble stable in Bethlehem, the unjust and cruel death of the Preacher of the Sermon on the Mount, the world changing resurrection and glorious ascension, all sound out \u201cJesus loves me!\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the Good News that we proclaim. And like the Anglican parishioner in Tasmania, we look for the response, \u201cYes, I love Jesus!\u201d<\/p>\n

BCA Missioners and supporters, let us all work and pray for the positive response of every heart to God\u2019s glorious act of love in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 There is no greater task!<\/p>\n

May the Holy Spirit empower and bless our mission.<\/p>\n

The Autumn Prayer notes can be found here<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

You can access The Bush Church Aid Society of Australia website here<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the\u00a0President of The Bush Church Aid Society Australia\u00a0(BCA), I was invited to submit an editorial for the BCA\u00a0Autumn\u00a0Prayer Notes –\u00a0 and here it is! Jesus loves me! I had just announced our song, \u201cJesus loves me, this I know, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15316"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15316"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15366,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15316\/revisions\/15366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}