Surely, the best way of “preaching Christ” is for Christian believers to follow as closely as possible the example of Jesus Christ, whose life gave us the supreme manifestation of how life could be lived.

In Him, we have a template by which we are able to measure our life. Not to measure other people’s lives, but ours alone; lest we venture into judging our fellow men and women, from which process the awful persecution by Christians of non-Christians originally sprang.

For us Christians, Jesus Christ is the only judge of all men. Thankfully, despite our shortcomings, He never fails to call us to Himself.

I am grateful to John Guillaumier (January 14) for reminding us of the unspeakable things done in Christ’s name, though not at His behest. (Similar, I suppose, to the terrible outrages being perpetrated in the name of Allah, the All Merciful.)

I hope that Guillaumier’s comments may inspire Christian believers to seek a closer walk with Jesus Christ as we continue our journey into the future.

Finally, in the prologue of his epic work The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, the 14th century “Father of English Poetry”, describes a poor parish priest and sums up his life in these words:

“Christ’s love and His apostles twelve

He taught, but first he followed it himself.”

Perhaps a lesson that we might all aspire to take?

Though I am not a Methodist, I commend to all readers John Wesley’s words of guidance for a Christian life:

“Do all the good you can
In all the ways you can,
To all the people you can,
In all the places you can
At all the times that you can,
For just as long as you can.”