Please join us in the church building for our Sunday morning and evening services. The services will also be streamed live on our YouTube Channel. Direct links to the streams can be found below:
This morning we consider the journey and destination of the Christian life.
This evening we look at an apparent difficulty in the Philippian church, which Paul addresses in Philippians 4:2-3.
Please join us in the church building for our Sunday morning and evening services. The services will also be streamed live on our YouTube Channel. Direct links to the streams can be found below:
This morning we turn to Acts chapter 2 and Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. We look at Jesus Christ – the main point!
This evening we study Philippians chapter 3 and Paul’s encouragement to the believers in that church to “stand fast.”
“Talking to men for God is a great thing but talking to God for men is still greater.”
E.M. Bounds
Please join us in the church building for our Sunday morning and evening services. The services will also be streamed live on our YouTube Channel. Direct links to the streams can be found below:
This morning we take a break from our study of Mark’s gospel to look at Ephesians 2:8-10. We will think about who Christians are and the purpose God has for each one.
This evening we return Philippians chapter 3 and Paul’s call to each Christian to live a holy life.
The Bible is a big book, in fact it is a library of 66 books in all.
Where should you start to read the Bible?
You can do what I did when I first started to read the Bible. I started at the beginning with the first book Genesis and the first chapter. It was great to start off with, so many wonderful and amazing stories, but after struggling through the next book Exodus I came to Leviticus and I gave up. A better way to read the Bible is to start near the end at the New testament with one of the Gospels such as Mark, it is the shortest, but any of the Gospels is a good start.
I want to give some advice about reading the Bible, because it is God’s Word, and it can seem complicated and difficult, but it really isn’t; as long as we do one of 2 things.
1] Ask God in prayer to help you read it. After all it is God’s Word and He wrote it down for us so that we can understand what He wants us to know.
2] Read it simply. What I mean by this is we must not over complicate what the Bible says. Rather whatever it says take at face value and believe it.
For example: in the very first verse of the Bible [Genesis 1 verse 1] it says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” So, what do those words tell us?
God created everything; heavens and the earth and He created us. It tells us that we have a Creator and because of that, we belong to God. We didn’t just happen by a series of happy coincidences starting from some organic chemical pool, billions of years ago. We were simply born into existence by God. If we try and over complicate things by asking “How did God create us?” then we move away from what God wants us to know. From the Bible and its simple statement of fact we can say we are created by God.
Believing that gives us a foundation of a ‘Biblical’ worldview which is very different to the views of many in the world. But seeing this statement from the Bible as truth it then enables us to believe all of scripture as being true, which it is!
Because all scripture is true and Jesus said that it is. [John 17:17; “Your Word is Truth.”] Then we know that all the promises of God are true. Such as John chapter 3 verse 16 [ God so loved the world that He gave His only Son [Jesus] that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life]. That verse is totally true.
It is important to us that the Bible is true, our whole eternity with God depends on it. Therefore, because the Bible is God’s Word to us, we must not ignore it, disbelieve it or accept only parts of it, rather we must read it, study it, know it, and meditate upon it.
As a pastor I like to see worn out Bibles.
So, keep on reading and believing.
Should Christians vote in elections?
A couple of weeks ago we had the local council elections. I was left in something of a dilemma, who should I vote for. There were 2 lists of candidates one for the regional mayor and one for the Police and Crimes Commissioner. I didn’t know any of their names or their views. I don’t think it was my fault, it was just because of the pandemic there was nobody going around the doors and no literature, coming through the post. For me I confess it was very confusing; who do you vote for?
However, this got me thinking “Should Christians vote?” Now you might think what a silly question. Of course, we should vote. For some ‘Christian’ groups the answer would be no!
What does the Bible say?
To answer that question; we need to go to Romans chapter 13. Verses 1-7, but verse 1 is the important one to note.
“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” [NKJV]
What this means is that there are 2 institutions appointed by God in this world. One is the Church and the other is the secular authority. One is concerned about the eternal salvation of the individual and the community’s spiritual well-being. The other is to be concerned about the maintenance of law and order, the health, wealth and physical well-being of its people and the protection of the Church as it seeks to go out with the Gospel and build up the Kingdom of God on earth.
Of course, both are failures in what they are seeking to achieve, that is because we live in a fallen world and people are sinful too. That doesn’t mean that both organisations shouldn’t try to do better with God’s help.
Further the role of the local church or a national grouping of churches is to be that of guardians of God’s Word and to speak out when local governments or the national government are promoting laws contrary to God’s Word.
Where then does that leave us when it comes to voting? I suggest not in party politics.
We need to challenge candidates about their views on issues directly related with “What the Bible says.” There is a whole range of subjects that the church [local] should engage in with local politicians and a larger grouping of churches should engage with national politicians.
The politicians may not accept our views but we have a right and I think a mandate from God, as the Church, to express those teachings which we find from the Bible. The trouble is that of the two great institutions that God has appointed for our world; the one [Government] has moved away from God’s Word and the other [the Church] has remained silent.
For the sake of the Gospel the Church and indeed the local church cannot and must not be silent on issues that are ungodly, the promotion of which will send many away from God to hell itself.
There is to be a great Day of Judgement when everyone will be brought before our Lord Jesus who is Judge and Lord of all. Will we be ashamed before the Lord because we kept silent and rebuked by the lost because we did not tell them?
Please join us in the church building for our Sunday morning and evening services. The services will also be streamed live on our YouTube Channel. Direct links to the streams can be found below:
This morning we look Mark 7:31-37 and another miracle performed by our Lord Jesus.
This evening we continue our study in Philippians and look at Philippians 3:12-14. We will hear from Paul about his view of the past, present and future.
Please join us in the church building for our Sunday morning and evening services. The services will also be streamed live on our YouTube Channel. Direct links to the streams can be found below:
This morning we continue to look at Jesus’ encounter with the Syro-Phoenician woman in Mark 7:24-30.
This evening we return Philippians 3 and look at why Paul has “no confidence in the flesh”.
We have a magpie nest near our bedroom window, which is absolutely fascinating to watch.
How clever do you think the average bird is? On a scale of 1 – 10 maybe a 4, compared to we humans. OK, so let’s set a competition between so called dumb birds and we very intelligent humans. Have you ever tried to make a bird’s nest? You will need some short twigs, maybe some ivy to join it all together and some nice soft moss to line the finished product. You go searching for twigs and now have a fine collection. To make it fair, I will allow you to make the nest in some sort of bucket shape to mimic the branches of a tree. How are you going to get the twigs to join together, rather than falling in an untidy heap? Perhaps you could wind some ivy round the twigs and weave a kind of basket. That might work and bird’s nests do look a bit like that. It needs to be strong enough for 2 adult birds to sit on the edge (and flap about a bit) and have several eggs, then restless chicks inside.
The problem now is that I’m not going to let you use your hands! You will have to make it with your teeth! Well, we need to make this competion fair and birds mainly use their beaks!
Have you given up yet? Thinking about this has given me a lot more respect for the inborn intelligence of birds in general. But where did this knowledge come from to build a nest every year. Probably not bird school, attended by every fledgling for two weeks full time!
Our heavenly Father has given birds an ability to just “know” how to build a nest and to get it right most of the time, otherwise we wouldn’t see many birds of any kind. We live in an incredibly complex world where animals just “do“ all manner of amazing things. God cares for birds and the rest of his creation, including you. We need to give him our thanks and praise.
You are welcome to join us in the church building for our Sunday morning and evening services. The services will also be streamed live on our YouTube Channel. Direct links to the streams can be found below:
This morning we continue our study of Mark’s gospel and Mark 7:24-31, where Jesus moves to the area of Tyre and Sidon and encounters a Syro-Phoenician woman.
This evening we return continue to study Philippians; moving into the third chapter, where Paul exhorts the Philippians Christians to “Rejoice in the Lord.” We will look at some of the reasons the Christian has to rejoice.
