Saturday, 29 May 2010 | Subjects, Weekend Reflections
It’s only Saturday and I already know what the preacher is planning to preach on tomorrow morning – how? Because it’s Sue’s (my wife) turn to preach tomorrow.
When you see someone preparing a sermon you start to realise the amount of effort that they put into it. It’s not as simple as just chucking some words down and hoping that it’s what God wants you to say.
There are times at work when I could present for an hour without needing any preparation, I know my subject and I know what needs to be said in a given context. Preaching isn’t like that, preaching is about hearing something from God and bringing that.
Even when we are doing a series I know that the preachers are all trying to bring the thing that they believe God would want them to say.
There’s a challenge in this preparation to those of us who are going to sit and listen. If this person is going to say something that God wants to be said; is that the way in which we listen to it. I am sure that if I knew that God had sent a special envoy to say something specifically to me I would take full attention of what they have to say. Is that the way we treat the preachers?
Jonah was given a message to bring to Nineveh. He hated the people from Nineveh, and with good reason, they were awful. But God had a message for them and he wanted Jonah to deliver it.
Jonah ran away, but God had other plans and eventually Jonah was back in Nineveh.
From the accounts in the Bible it doesn’t sound like Jonah was a great orator, he wasn’t funny, he didn’t soften them up with a witty story, he just brought God’s message.
"Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned."
Jonah 3:4
That’s apparently all he said, not that great a sermon really, but it was a message from God and the people heard it and changed.
If you are going to church tomorrow who are you expecting to hear from?
Friday, 21 May 2010 | Subjects, Weekend Reflections
On Sunday evening the rest of the family all needed to be at church early for one reason or another – I didn’t so stayed back.
We’d had friends around for Sunday lunch and had spent all afternoon talking and enjoying the fine English spring weather. This meant that we hadn’t done the washing up, so that was my job while everyone else was out.
About half way through the washing up a started to wash one of the cooking dishes, but instead managed to break it, and in so doing put quite a nasty gash across my thumb.
While trying to stop it bleeding I wondered to myself whether I should just patch it up, or whether a trip to A&E was in order. Knowing that A&E gets busy on a Sunday evening later on I decided that I’d go early, rather than leave it and wait even longer. I’d managed to stop the bleeding enough to enable me to drive, so off I went.
Having checked in I sat in the reception waiting for my turn to see the triage nurse.
As I looked around I wondered about each of my fellow casualties story.
For some it was obvious what they had done, but how did they get that gash on their head.
For other’s it was obvious that alcohol had played a significant part in the story.
For the couple in the corner she’d clearly had something to do with his cut hand, and he wasn’t happy about it.
There was another couple and he was getting more and more frustrated with her lack of understanding of how Sudoku works.
There was the lady who was struggling with stomach pains for more than three days.
I whole mix of society.
There were those who you could tell were well paid and then there was the bearded man who looked like he was carrying all of his earthly belongings.
I couldn’t imagine any of them went to church, or that Jesus was even a consideration in their life – but I heard a sentence in my head over and over again:
“I love these people”
I had my thumb x-rayed and dressed and then drove home wondering…
Wednesday, 27 January 2010 | Weekend Reflections
I was going to try and write a reflection on this weekends services, but someone else has said it better than I ever could.
Some reflections on Psalm 3 – Conquering Fear:
Hi Andrew
I know I’m probably stating the obvious but thought I would send these thoughts.
Absalom and David: How not to deal with anger and the importance of forgiveness.
Absalom was angry because David did nothing to help his sister Tamar after she was raped by his half brother. This anger led Absalom to murder his half brother and plot against David. A good example of how anger can lead to sin and the consequences for Absalom was his death and David, as said last week, was upheld by God because he turned to God in humility and submission.
Absalom allowed his anger to fester, he became bitter and resentful and sought revenge but his revenge did not bring peace and happiness quite the opposite, it gave him grief, misery and ultimately death.
Our way to life is to bring our hurts to the cross to the only one who has the power to heal giving it to God and having a forgiving heart towards those who hurt us and leaving God to "punish" the aggressors as He is the only one who truly knows all sides.
As Absalom allowed resentment to colour his feelings it destroyed his relationship with his father which he was never able to restore.
Absalom’s life is an example of wasted years and broken hearts that can result when communication breaks down within a family and major issues are not dealt with effectively and decisively. It also shows the consequences of allowing anger to turn to bitterness are hurts can never be healed while we harbour resentments.
As you might imagine I find the relationship between David and Absalom and the dysfunctional family of David very powerful but I do feel that it has a clear message of the damage of unforgiveness and the consequences of acting in anger and how destructive anger can be.
Anger has to be expressed safely so it can be used in a constructive manner as Ephesians 4 v26-27 says "Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry for anger gives a mighty foothold to the Devil"
Circumstances or events can make us angry and we need to find ways to let go of the initial anger so it does not fester to destroy relationships
Again Ephesians 4 v31-32 Get rid of all bitterness rage anger harsh works and slander as well as all types of malicious behaviour. Instead be kind to one another tender hearted forgiving one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
Just imagine how different Absalom and David’s relationship could have been if Absalom had been able to communicate effectively with David and David had listened and taken the appropriate action with his half brother and again though we aren’t told much about Tamar no doubt she felt rejected by David’s apathy!!
As you can probably tell David’s family strikes a deep chord in me.
Heather
Thursday, 14 January 2010 | Weekend Reflections
This week we started out on a whole new series in or morning services looking at the Psalms. We’ve called it Life Stories because it links a Psalm with a particular moment in the life of those that wrote it.
know real joy from Psalm 18.
I love reading the Psalms, I love the wonderful mix of emotions. They aren’t a set of sickly nice platitudes, they deal with real situations, real struggles, wonderful exaltation, glorious highs and desperate lows.
Personally, it was great to be reminded that joy doesn’t depend upon the situation, it depends upon the person in who you trust.
We’re not having a set series in the evenings this term, we’re just going where the Spirit leads us. Our normal motto for evening services is Worship and Word, it’s a time of worship in which the word of God is allowed the time to speak to us.
Facing Life’s Giants series looking at the issue of debt.
I’ve just been listening to the radio where an economist was talking about the debt that each household in the UK is carrying around. The numbers are eye-watering.
There are many reasons that people are in debt, some of them self-inflicted, but many are as the result of circumstance or the greed of others.
God doesn’t want us to live in debt – and it’s good to know that He has an answer and the means to redeem our situation. That doesn’t mean that redemption is going to be easy, sometimes God does change things in the blink of an eye, at other times He wants us to walk a journey with Him.
If you are struggling with debt then there are things that we can do and people who can help you. Don’t struggle alone, reach out to the church office and someone will walk the journey with you.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts and stories so please do leave a comment letting us know what God is doing in your life.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 | Weekend Reflections
One of the thoughts that occurred to me this weekend was how our relationship with Jesus is relevant to every part of our life. We divide our life into boxes – physical, spiritual, mental – but Jesus wants to be in all of them.
Chris looked at the practical Christian living that the letter to Philemon tackles. The background to this letter is that Paul is writing to his friend Philemon about one of his slaves who ran away and has since become a believer. A practical issue to which Paul gives practical advice in the name of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit has sometimes been called the Cinderella of the Trinity. Andrew used an encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3 to highlight the importance of the spirit in each and every new birth. Jesus often spoke in parables, but sometimes he spoke in graphic illustrations. When Jesus was talking about birth in spirit he wasn’t using a parable, he was using a graphic illustration where the parallels are deliberate.
For me personally Sunday evening was a significant time. I tend to be involved in some many practical things on a Sunday that sometimes it’s difficult to focus on worship. It was really nice to be in a God place.
Thursday, 1 October 2009 | Weekend Reflections
Last weekend we were involved in the national Back to Church Sunday campaign and it was great to have some people join us who we haven’t seen in a while.
A special thank you to everyone who invited a friend or a family member to come along. It’s not always an easy thing to invite someone to come back to something they’ve left.
And a special thank you to everyone who made the decision to come. It’s not always easy to return to something you’ve left.
The theme for Back to Church Sunday was “Come as you are”. Jesus had a wonderful way of including everyone; rich, poor, old, young, high society, low society. The people of Jesus are instructed to do exactly the same.
There is always a way back with Jesus and I hope that we will always reflect that in the way that we treat people. If your reading this and wondering whether you could return to church, I’d like to encourage you to give it a go, there’s a welcome waiting for you.
know real joy
Facing Life’s Giants