Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Mr Chris Thomson, the regional manager of Samaritan’s Purse.
Presiding Officer and members of the Scottish Parliament, grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ.
This year has been a very exciting year for all of us in Scotland. I take the opportunity to thank you for all your efforts in promoting this great nation.
I was asked recently, “Is God interested in us?” Well, human beings have certainly always wanted their own way, and maybe the question should be, “Do we depend on God any more?” We desire knowledge, which breeds independence. That started in Eden, with the decision over good and evil.
Today, our desire of knowledge is vast. In the scientific realm, that has exploded into man’s pursuit of the origins of the universe. More and more these days, God is excluded from so many things. People do not see the need to involve God any more, because “man knows better”.
But has man’s knowledge solved humanity’s basic problems? Poverty, injustice, war, cruelty, disease and love of money are all still with us.
Over the years that I have been involved with Samaritan’s Purse, I have seen some remarkable things and met some wonderful, inspirational people who live in a close relationship with God and live out the message of the Good Samaritan. It is a very simple parable from the Bible. The basic message is to love, respect, care for and look after one another, no matter who they are.
In the next few months, thousands of volunteers throughout the United Kingdom will be helping with the operation Christmas child shoebox appeal. We have been challenged this year to send more than 1 million gift-filled shoeboxes from the UK to children who need them. One great part of my job is to go round all the processing depots in Scotland and meet passionate, committed volunteers, who give up their time to ensure that each individual box that a child gets demonstrates a powerful, loving message from across the globe.
As an organisation, we depend on God for guidance, wisdom and grace. Everything that we do is God centred, with volunteers demonstrating how powerful that message is.
Depending on God is not a weakness; it is a partnership, with an eternal dimension. We all demonstrate our faith differently, but giving freely and lovingly to help another person in need is something that can change the life of the recipient; it may also challenge the observant watcher to go and do likewise.
Maybe if we involved God more in our decisions, we would be able to help more people to fulfil man’s greatest need, which is to be loved.
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