I feel like I’ve not been away from the church this weekend but that’s not a bad thing. On Saturday I helped Lynn with the IT for the Level 3 Safeguarding course she ran for leaders from across the Northern Baptist region. Even though I’ve spent a large part of my career in safeguarding I still learnt a lot, with a different focus on churches rather than schools. One memory aid that can stand us in good stead whenever we’re trying to find out what is troubling someone is Little Ted. Lynn used a Little Ted to remind us all of the best type of questions to ask that don’t assume or lead people.
Tell me about….
Explain what you mean….
Describe what happened when…
All of the course participants were given a lot to think about and now have the tools to make their churches safe environments for children and vulnerable adults.
On Sunday Jonny (aka Jacob!) led our worship and Amanda supported him with singing.
Jonny used the image of a Prayer tree to encourage people to think about issues to pray for.
Matty shared his thoughts on the importance of reading the bible from 2 Timothy 3:16 word for today. He drew on Paul’s teaching and cautioned us against the temptation to change scripture to fit today’s society. His conclusion was straightforward and direct. “Preach as it is written.”
Yvette brought the Word today, drawing from 2 Corinthians 4:13 to 5:1.
We know that if this earthly temple is destroyed we have an eternal house in heaven, one not built by human hands.
1 Corinthians dealt specifically with gifts . Paul wrote this letter to combat false prophets. Corinth was a busy port worshipping Greek and Roman gods. Anyone threatening these religions threatens the economic stability. Paul was threatening that stability.
We do need God we can’t do things on our own. Paul in his teaching was threatening the people making money. Just like in today’s society we should be an example of difference. We don’t get even we forgive, love your neighbor live according to His Word glorify His Word.
We have a society of young people with health problems and image disorders . True beauty’s letting Jesus shine out. We simply need to realise that Jesus thought that we’re worth dying for.
The world says don’t rock the boat. Jesus says don’t conform to society . The Corinthians were struggling so Paul writes to support them. Bizarrely though Paul boasts about his weaknesses and faults .
He refers to clay jars, to poor pots, the sort that your average Corinthian householder would use to hides jewels. Paul is calling us cracked pots filled with the treasure of Jesus.
Darkness flees from us simply because we didn’t arrive on our own. We bring the light of Jesus . Darkness has no choice but to flee. Jesus is the light a
t the end of the tunnel. We need to keep going and persevere.
If we’re honest about ourselves, about our cracks and chips, that’s where people see light of Jesus shining through those cracks. That’s when it’s clear to people what we believe in.
Yvette shared that the more she learnt about how much God loves us the less she worries about what other people think. Put our trust in God. We need true belief so it shows in our face, in how we talk to other people.
Yvette also shared how she keeps track of scriptures that speak to her and mean something. She writes the Scriptures on cards and keeps them in a tin. We need to be aware of signs and wonders. Holy Spirit moved when Paul preached. Faith without doubting only comes when you believe it.
God can use you to speak to someone, if you’re nervous or unsure say it in prayer, or ask leader or a friend in church.
Some have the gift of praying in tongues. Yvette encouraged us to ask for it , it’s your private prayer language.
Pray the bible, speak the words in prayer. Jesus didn’t go in for dramatic actions all the time. He often simply spoke and people were healed, demons were cast out.
Yvette said that as usual her message would include mention of her mum. She recall a time when some atheists asked Yvette’s mum to pray for them . They could see she was God’s friend . She believed and that belief shone throughand touched them.
Paul in chapter 11 23 lists his momentary troubles. Let’s be honest to us this doesn’t sound momentary yet despite all of that Paul continued to travel and to preach. He believed in God;s promises, he kept going, kept preaching, kept trusting. God never intended church to be stationary, he wants us all outside, so walk along your street, pray over your street, take a photo we’ll put it up pray about it, use it as a backdrop to sing praise over.
When we get to meet him we will all want to get told well done good and faithful servant.
Yvette also shared what she thought her aunt Alithea and her mum would be doing in heaven, singing and dancing.
She also thought her mum would have a Zoo rather than a mansion! Glory waits for us in heaven and will be worth all the struggles and pain. God sees us as we can be. We cannot disillusion god. Who we are belongs to God. One day these cracked pots will be stunning vases. Join with us in making earth a little more like heaven.
Ian concluded our service by leading us all in communion.
cakes in the middle rather than at the end. Ian and Amanda led with the 
music for us and Esther led on the scriptures and activities for our children centred service. Our focus today was on the table of hospitality and the invitation to share the feast that is what God invites us to share. Esther took us through Romans 12 v 1 – 2 and v 9- 21.
m 23. V 5 -6 and Isaiah 25 v 6-8. We encouraged all to do something different by inviting them to draw 0n their tablecloths and share their ideas on what they would like to see as part of a feast. Esther shared a number of photos showing family and church family celebrations and the street party held for the recent royal wedding. She also shared her own recent experience of finding herself almost looking for excuses when she was asked to provide hospitality and accommodation for a visitor. This is a danger we all face either in responding to an invite or indeed in offering an invitation or hospitality ourselves.
are still angry.
).
eam got the children in church to move from one end of the church to the other standing on a sheet of paper each to keep them safe from lava. After we lost a few to the lava flow, they got the idea that they all needed to stand on a sheet of paper and pass another sheet or prayer provided by the action team down the line. By working together they all got safely out of the lava flow. This exercise with the sheets demonstrates us praying together as a team. Sharing problems is like asking for prayers for each other and for others. God answered all those prayers prayed together. The extra prayer in the exercise enabled the team to move forward. The prayer from home enables BMS people to move forward.
beads and indeed when pressed cannot remember a time when he did not wear a cross of some description. I left him with a simple message, pray about it and then decide. Put down the cross as something he does not believe in or alternatively embrace the cross and everything the cross stands for. No prizes for guessing which outcome I’m praying for. Join me and pray that the way is made clear for this troubled young man.
rship was led by Jonny with music provided by The Apple Tree. I was lucky enough to join them for a worship night earlier in the month and found the music and worship very uplifting. Today they brought us a mix of more established and newer worship songs, providing a louder worship experience which fitted very well with what Judith was preaching on.
wing the glory cloud of God. This them being delivered out of the hands of the Egyptians. It looks to the present and the literal sense of where they were gathering the harvest and looked to the future the coming of the messiah.
Jesus just wants to just sit with us sometimes and hold our hand and say it will be alright, it builds us up when we connect to God. If you swim in a river for a day can you say you’ve experienced the whole river? Think about all the explorers who map a river from its source to it’s estuary. Sometimes we need to go to the source, Ezekiel says our job is to get in and swim. If you take water away from the flow it becomes stagnant. You can react in a good way in the workplace, thank god that we can do our best to shine for him where we are. We know when we don’t make time for him. Come back to him he’ll give you rivers in a dry desert. Judith shared that she’s never content, never assumes she knows. Are you divinely dissatisfied? The Holy Spirit gives power to disciples to be witnesses. You might believe you know the letter of law but without water of the spirit becomes difficult to swallow. How to stay in river? Pray, ask for more of God. Need to honestly ask “Have you got all of me, God?” We need to obey prompting, and keep our sin account short. Ask God “Let me know” and then obey. We either progress or we regress. We don’t stand still. Keep your roots in the streams of living water. Psalm 1 reminds us of the need to be a tree planted by a stream of water.
Judith moved on to the faith of the woman with issue of blood who’d been a pariah all her adult life. She wanted to reach out and be healed. She should have been at home, a pariah… yet she ignored society , she knew she just wanted to touch the tassels of Jesus’s tallit or prayer shawl. She pushed through the crowd with desperation to touch in faith, to risk stoning, so hungry and thirsty for a touch of god. Jesus always responds to the touch of the hungry heart. Isaiah 41:17 states that the poor and needy search for water . Judith urged us all to get into the river, get into the presence of God, don’t get stagnant, don’t block the river with boulders. Time to step up and step out.