News

3 November 2019

We were joined by Mattie Steel who preached on 2 Thessalonians chapter 1

He shared his experience of being at Stockton sixth form college he took chemistry but he struggled about pulling together ingredients to make the final product. Other things in life are not as difficult. Fish and chips, visiting the lakes and good weather, Middlesbrough and a win makes a happy Matty.

The opening of the letter shows Paul in a good mood . Persecution is on the increase but this church in Thessaloniki is increasing.

Matty can see a similar spirit here at West View Baptist Church. But Paul’s letter shifts to those who don’t accept god. It gives Paul no joy to say this. Jesus will return and there will be a judgement. Paul shows that he knows God’s heart is that none should perish.

Our Godmay make you worthy of his calling. Paul expands on this in chapter 8 of Romans. God has chosen called or invited people to come into a relationship with him. He also provides the way for us to be made right with God.

What Paul is not saying is that there is some sort of level that people need to achieve.

In Christ you get a new identity. You are different and this is described right through the New Testament. Different audiences are called to this change, from say a little Corsa to a powerful Ferrari for Christ. Whenever there is a command you will receive the power and grace of the Holy Spirit to live up to the call as a child of god set free from the bondage of sin. You are free. Paul wrestled with this in Romans 10. We live a new life as the old self was crucified with him. Alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul prayed that God may make you worthy of his calling. Theologian Don Carson says we are to grow up into Christian maturity.

If there is any struggle you feel in bondage to, Jesus will set you free. Matt offered to pray for any one who needs this freeing from struggle.

Paul prays for fruit from this group of believers in Christ. He recognised the deeds coming from faith, but there is a need for prayer as well. We will only see new kingdom fruit with prayer behind it. Falling to the extremes of either of these camps makes it easy for the external world to dismiss us. Holy huddles, or Christians doing nice things is what we will be dismissed as.

Always offer to pray when out on the streets. Matty gave example of an addict they prayed for who felt sober for the first time in a number of years.

Take the risk and see what happens. Nothing that you can do that can put people off God’s love.

Matty related the story of the time that he was down in Brighton and there was a Zombie festival that weekend. He found himself alone in a railway station at midnight being prompted by God to go and speak to someone. That someone was dressed as a Zombie… at midnight! Matty offered help. Found out the man in the costume had been suicidal previously and following chats then and later he came to Christ and was baptised.
He also shared that our hospitality does not have to be perfect. He once offered a meal to two people down on their luck. He only had beans and bread in to offer. The two young people wanted to cook the meal and sadly they burnt the toast and were that keen on stirring the beans so they wouldn’t stick, they reduced them to mush. It didn’t matter. God still used burnt bread and bean purée to enable someone to be led to Jesus.

13 October 2019

Tim preached on Luke 17: 11-19

He asked to think about borders . Jesus was walking between the border of Samaria and Galilee. But it could be anywhere today Mexico USA, Scotland England, uk Europe. Only one of the lepers, the foreigner the stranger the outsider came back to thank Jesus. The act of healing was bigger than just healing the leprosy. Tim’s guess is the others went running to the priests to get clearance to go home to their families.

Welcoming the stranger is an important message. Would we welcome those from the other side of the wall. Jesus uses the woman at the well and the Good Samaritan to show a similar message.

No doubt the other nine headed to their family to share their good news. Luke implies that we need a whole new relationship with God.

What are we thankful for? We touched in this on our Alpha course this week. We’re quick to criticise but slow to give thanks . You can see this in Google reviews or TripAdviser. It’s easier to focus on the bad. We’re slow to recognise that the people involved are human like us. We’re slow to thank. Ephesians chapter 5 shows this. God is the source of everything, everything breathe we take (Tim resisted the urge to sing that song!)

WE need to find the things you can be thankful for our in the created world.

To get a good view requires a lot of effort sometimes. But even at sea level here in Hartlepool we can count our blessings. Use spiritual discipline to list what you are thankful for and list them before God. This seems to be a healthy thing to do.

Eucharist means thanksgiving. Let us cultivate a heart of gratitude and thanksgiving. People who are thankful tend to be lovely people.

Cultivate this as we go back into our communities.

But there’s something else here, Jesus would not have met these men if he hadn’t ventured into our borderlands. Do we do this ? Or are we reluctant to embrace people who are different from us. How might we equip people for that task.

Perhaps going to the borderlands means joining a club, a group. We may often find that Jesus is already out there.

Living without judgement. The man who came back would have been a reject in the eyes of the community even without the leprosy. God really loves the stranger, the other , the people over different faith. Today’s media love to highlight difference. Tim showed the video One Day where Israelis of different backgrounds came together to sing together to share a positive message . People from all walks of life celebrating in three languages praying for a day where peace will arrive. It’s a brave thing to do. Jesus had an annoying habit of reaching out into communities that no one loved. Tim shared the experience of a fellow minister from Burnley who on the day of the riots there was challenged to get to meet people he did not know from other faiths in the aftermath of the riots. Living on these edges is where Jesus wants us. Refugees drug users people of other faiths. Where would Jesus be nowadays? Would he be sitting here with us.

Let us live with gratitude and thankfulness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqvKDCP5-xE

Amanda and Esther met up  with Judith and travelled to the Cherish Women’s conference in Leeds. I’m going to ask them to write something for this blog so  they can share what it was like. It’s always fun and they come back to the church refreshed, empowered by the Spirit and full of enthusiasm. I knew it was going well when I got the message at work,  “Congratulations, it’s a boy!” I’ve been married to Amanda long enough to have learned to expect anything. I guessed before she even confirmed it that this would be related to the work of Compassion.  Sure enough Amanda had decided along with 999 others to sponsor a child from Kenya. A thousand children finding sponsors in just one Christian event is pretty amazing.

Amanda and Ian led today’s service and Ray Richardson  brought us the Word. Ray was described by some in the congregation as an old friend… a really old friend. He’s having trouble getting over this, but we hope he’ll come to terms with it eventually (Ray, there’s a reason why the Church calls them Elders!!).

We set aside part of our service to pray for a lady  called Melissa who will be undergoing surgery tomorrow (4 June). She’s in need of a miracle and we also sang a song called Miracles as part of the service. The song was chosen before the request for prayer was received. God’s timing is always perfect. I’ve included a link to the song at the end of this blog if you’ve not heard it before.

Ray brought today’s message in his own unique style. It is fair to say that both the children and those who are slightly older learnt a lot from today’s Children’s talk about remembering the first five of the Ten Commandments. Ray is a shrewd operator. If we want to hear the last five,  we have to ask him back again. Ray started his talk with his new Bible, a bible that really let the light of God shine. You have to see it to realise how fun it is for the kids. “How did he do that?” was the most common question. Ray taught the kids to remember the first five commandments by holding up  fingers to represent each of the commandments.  I’ll now never forget that the fourth commandment is about keeping the Sabbath day holy, simply by the fact that when holding up 4 fingers,  the thumb is resting!.

Yvette read Luke 10 verses 25 to 37 for us.

Ray highlighted the fact that only the first four of the ten commandments were about God. The remaining six were about our relationships with each other.  Ray highlighted the fact it is a good job he didn’t make the rules. If Ray were God he’d have made nine about himself and only one about relationships. The expert in the law in the Scripture Yvette read should have known the answers but he didn’t.

Ray shared the story of the two people who were going to recite Psalm 23. One was a trained speaker the other a young man simply reciting the words that meant something to his heart. The young man went first, and he stumbled and hesitated as he shared in a low voice the words that meant so,  so much to him. He finished to an awestruck silence. The professional speaker declined to recite the Psalm. He said simply “I know the words, but he knows the Saviour!”

The expert in the law in the passage from Luke was in a similar position. He knew the words of the law and indeed we all can know this if we study the first five books of the Bible. But, importantly,  he did not know the author of the law.

If we really love God we must give him our attention and keep his name holy. Ray suggested that we should all look at the differences in the emphasis of the Ten Commandments between Exodus and Deuteronomy.

One of the key points is not to do your neighbours any harm. This is equally true in business. Do  not be fraudulent, in fact be generous. Ray highlighted his own experience at Matty’s garage,  where Matty on learning that Ray needed two  new tyres paid for them himself.

Ray also shared his recent experience outside his own home. His wife alerted him to the fact that there was a man leaning oddly against the wall outside their house. Ray looked out and recognised that lean. He’d seen it amongst his own colleagues in the Merchant Navy once they had a bit too much to drink. Ray recalled once pulling a double shift to cover for someone he’d found leaning against the wall in exactly that way. Rather than get him into bother he’d packed him off to bed and done his shift for him.

The man outside Ray’s house seemed to have left,  but when they went out to check they found him unconscious in the road. Despite not knowing the man, a blanket was brought, assistance given and the emergency services were called.  Ray, Kathleen and their neighbours did not choose to walk by on the other side of the road. Imagine if you can what would happen if we live the commandments. Society would look so different.

Ray highlighted that we need to love God passionately,  We need to be sharing lives with Him and God wants to be personal with us. Ray asked us all to think on the passage about Adam and Eve and in particular how they walked with God in friendship, without shame or fear.

Ray referred to how long he’d been married.  He still remembered the first time him and Kathleen met. He recalled the silly grin everyone would see that showed he was in love. He also highlighted how his mother had taught him that she loved all her children equally and that Ray in turn found this himself in raising his own family.

Ray used the questioning between Tevye and Golde in the musical”Fiddler on the roof.” as an example. Getting confirmation that they love each other after 25 years “is nice to know”.

We need to laugh out loud with God, and sometimes we need to cry with God, it speaks of who we are and what we are.

Ray asked us “Do you bare your soul with a stranger?” The answer of course is probably not. However Ray said that there is  nothing he wouldn’t share with God.

John 3:16 demonstrates the strength of character of God. Ray stated I know god loves me because of what
He did on Calvary. He used as a way to illustrate  this the words of one of Matty’s favourite singers, Paul Wheater from North Yorkshire. Paul when asked the question “How much does God love us says “God stretched out his arm this wide and then he died!” (Imagine Jesus on the cross and you’ll get the picture.)

Do things for other people without asking permission, don’t wait just do the right thing.

Ray illustrated the story of the Samaritan as a man who’s returning with his shopping. Mrs Samaritan has sent him for a bottle of wine for their guests and some oil to finish the cooking. He’s returning feeling smug, he’s got the bottle of wine, oil and even some change in his pocket. He hasn’t spent all the money so he’s going to be in her good books. He does not realise he’s going to come across a victim of crime. Imagine our own pastor walking on the other side of the road, imagine the educated man walking on the other side. It wouldn’t happen.

Half a bottle of wine, half a bottle of oil, change given. Fast forward to after he’s used the wine and oil to treat the wounds and the change to pay the innkeeper.

Imagine the scene,  the angry wife asking “Where have you been! What have you done with the oil and the wine? Where’s the change?”  But she doesn’t .., she waits for the story because she knows her husband.

The expert in the Laws realised he didn’t love God as much as he should. Did he recognise himself as one that  would walk past?

It’s not easy to help someone in distress. It’s not easy to choose not to walk past on the other side of the road. Ray recalled a lady who  collapsed at a bus stop. A nurse was giving CPR assistance and asked Ray to do mouth to mouth. Not nice but still did it. The old lady survived and was taken to hospital. She lasted long enough to say goodbye to her family. That has to  be worth a little discomfort.

Miracles by Jesus Culture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vUvi-A75BU