MPs and Peers gathered at the National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast have been invited to accept the gift of new life in Jesus Christ.
Drawing the breakfast to a close, Tim Farron MP picked up on the event’s theme, ‘Hope for the Future’, as he directed parliamentarians to the hope that is to be found in the person of Jesus.
Organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group Christians in Parliament, the annual prayer breakfast is held in Westminster Hall and includes prayer, music, singing, and a topical talk by a keynote speaker.
The only way of salvation
Farron, who is Chair of Christians in Parliament, said: “If we place our hope in this party or that, in this leader or that, we are going to be disappointed, crushed even. Everybody’s term comes to an end. Every Government is finite. Every regime, kingdom or empire ends up in dust one day.
“But there is one in whom you can place your trust, whose rule lasts forever and who is not just awesome and reliable, but also loves you.”
He explained: “Jesus’ claims are completely clear. Jesus says this: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ He could not be any clearer.
“Jesus says, we do not need to strive to be saved, but simply to accept his gift which cost him everything on the cross, but which is completely free to you and to me.”
Hope of the world
The Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale concluded: “Every time an election looks like it’s going the wrong way, every time some awful tragedy unfolds on our TV screens, there’s always hope.”
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful, so unspeakably wonderful, if in this messed up world of heartbreaks great and small, if there really was hope?
“You see, hope isn’t a party. Hope isn’t an ideology. Hope isn’t a philosophy. Hope is a person. And his name is Jesus. If Jesus is who he says he is, then literally everything changes.”