Let's begin with a hymn that firmly puts our trust in God's kindness and thank Him that it often reaches us through our friends.

HP 67    Lead Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, lead Thou me on

Readings: Exodus Chapter 20 verse 16 and Luke 6 verses 37 to 39

You know the saying about the blind leading the blind, it comes from this warning of Jesus reported in Luke's Gospel. What does it have to do with bearing false witness? Well none of us would admit to deliberately bearing false witness would we? but how readily we jump to the judgement of others and that amounts to the same thing, especially in situations when we cannot possibly know all the  facts. Only God is all knowing and only He can make real judgements. Of course we have to make our own choices and take responsibility for them, but other people make different ones and we must be careful when we accuse them because their sins differ from our own. Jesus is perfectly clear. If we condemn others God will condemn us by the same rules,  a frightening straight deal. But,  if we forgive, He will  forgive us even more. Remember the Lord's prayer: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Fortunately this  is not a straight deal, He will forgive us a great deal more than we forgive, because of the Cross, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. As we praise Him for that, we do well to remember that He said that we too must take up our own "cross" in order to follow Him. I came upon this hymn only fairly recently, it could be called Not the 23rd Psalm.

HP 436     Father hear the prayer we offer, not for ease that prayer shall be

Prayers: We thank God for the times when we He does lead us through green pastures and beside still waters. But we know that life is not designed to be like that all the time and so we pray that, when we are called to climb the steep and rugged pathway, we shall indeed rejoice in the knowledge of His presence with us. Yet dear Lord, as we pray that in faith, we are continually reminded, through the news, of the immense suffering that others endure through earthquake, flood, fire, accident, sickness and crime and we find it difficult even to begin to understand, never mind rejoice. We cannot judge these matters, save us from judging falsely. Help us to witness for You and to our Lord Jesus, but save us from bearing false witness, for if we are blind we shall indeed lead others into the ditch. Open our eyes Lord and let us see Jesus so that we may follow Him with our feet as well as our words. Help us to help where we can and pray in all situations.  Amen