Church Dates And Events

What has God been saying?

Love never fails

On 31st January Lewis Pearson preached from 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Spiritual gifts are given so that we can be a blessing to others. If we showed Christian love, people could simply look at our lives and see Jesus, but so often it is “me first”. Paul wanted the Corinthian church to progress from childhood to adulthood. It is easy to get static and stay on a plateau when we should move on. Where are we in our relationship with God? Very often it is at painful times when we are closest to him. Anything that we do with love will not be destroyed. What we do on earth is significant and we play a role in helping God’s Spirit break into people’s lives.

Going Fishing

Fishing was the theme of our parade service on 7^th February. John Burridge gave an entertaining interview about his hobby of fly-fishing. (See him also on the Lent blog.) Andy said that Jesus went fishing with his disciples. This was not a hobby, but their livelihood, and they had not caught anything all night, but when accompanied by Jesus they caught a vast, extravagant catch. Jesus was not really in the fish business, but in the people business, catching people for God, so that they would know that God loved them and that the best way to live is to love God and others and to live life God’s way. The most amazing thing is that as Christians God wants us to help him. God trust us and wants to work with us. Each day we should pray “Where can I bring life and hope and healing?” God wants to mend broken and hurting lives and he wants us to be part of it.

Blessed are the poor

Preaching from Luke chapter 6 on 14th February, Andy said that in Jesus’ day the “blessed” were the elite in society and riches were a sign of God’s blessing. The word used for “poor” in this passage refers to people who were destitute, at the very bottom of the pile, seen as lazy or “scroungers”. Here Jesus turned the received wisdom around. He actually talked a lot about money. He was not anti-wealth; it’s just that the “good life” can be toxic to one’s spiritual life. Our society is addicted to consumption. We become unblessable, we don’t look for what really matters. Jesus was here shocking us out of our complacency by turning things upside down, or rather the right side up. God hears the cries of the poor, vulnerable and hurting and is not impressed by the posturing of the rich, or by “celebrity culture”. The best things in life are not things at all; being blessed is about doing God’s work in the world.

Celebrity or servant?

The much publicised yielding to temptation by the golfer Tiger Woods was used as an illustration by Andy on 21st February when speaking about the temptations of Christ. Temptations differ from person to person, but to be human is to be tempted. When considering Christ’s temptations we usually think of the three specific ones, but we forget that he was tempted continuously for 40 days. Andy contrasted the temptation of Christ with that of Adam and Eve. He was being tempted to be a “celebrity Messiah” rather than God’s suffering servant but he did not give in. Lent is when we journey with Christ to the Cross; we follow him in his strength and in the power he has given us.