Thought for the Week with Rev Jim Rea: The word of the Lord endures forever

Jean, as she liked to be called, was incredibly interested in what was happening in deprived areas. When asked to present certificates of achievement to the young people at the homework centre, she warmly agreed to come.

At the event's conclusion, we gave her a bouquet of flowers and a Bible. She thanked everyone for the flowers, and then holding the flowers and lifting the Bible, with a smile, exclaimed: "The flowers will fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

The quote was appropriate as Jean Mayhew is a Christian; now an ordained minister of the Church of England. She was quoting a text of scripture from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 40, repeated around 600 years later in the New Testament by the Apostle Peter in his first epistle."All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever".In this harvest season, many preachers will turn to this scripture text. It is a reminder of life's frailties and the many things that are temporary and soon are no longer, including life itself.Peter quotes Isaiah when he writes to scattered and persecuted Christians throughout the ancient world who have faced martyrdom under the Emperor Nero. Watching footage of the war in Ukraine and the Armenian people's movement from Azerbaijan, and now the war in Middle East, I ask myself, what next?The world is in a mess, but we have one sure foundation. It is the enduring, indestructible word of God presented in the person of Jesus Christ.

Uncertainty is everywhere and we are not immune from it, but as the Apostle Peter infers, you need not fear. If our trust is Christ, we have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven until the last day.