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The Father gave you the Son

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Dear friends On Monday morning I was reading John 6 as part of my daily readings. It tied in with what we were hearing in Sunday’s message. Here the words I read from the Lord Jesus: V35 “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. He then went on to say “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day In those verses we have the word ‘ whoever’ . Whoever comes to Jesus shall not hunger and whoever believes in him will never thirst. The gospel invitation is open to whoever will come. just as in John 3:16 “ that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”.  So people should never think “Maybe I am not chosen by God, and so maybe
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What does love look like at home?

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Dear friends, Are you at home alone at the moment, or with your family? There are so many challenges we are facing just now aren’t there? I’ve been thinking there is one particular challenge we are all faced with, which can be so difficult at times. And that is having love for each other. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 tells me that even  if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. So how are we to be loving at home when we are with each other 24/7? Or for some when you are having to spend so much time alone? What does this love look like? It is such a small word and we think we know what it might mean. But what, in practice, does this ‘love’
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How to pray for our Health Workers

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The below was written by Liz Thompson - one of our Church Members who is also a Paediatrician. She's put together some helpful thoughts on how we can pray well for our Health Workers amidst the current Coronavirus Pandemic.  There's a lot of talk about NHS heroes - but essentially these workers are simply human beings placed in difficult circumstances. Most of us do not feel heroic and everyone has their own level of anxiety and frustration, and are just muddling along the best we can, trying the do the best we can for our patients. And as impe rfect Christians, we are not immune from feelings of being overwhelmed. Below are some suggestions for your prayers: 1. For those planning and making decisions about services, increasing capacity in hospitals and intensive care - that there would be wisdom and clarity 2. For adequate equipment - in particular, personal protective equipment such as masks and aprons to be in adequate supply with clarity as to when and how to
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O Death, Where is your sting?!

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Dear friends If you have been making God’s word a regular place to rest in at this time, and maybe spending a while in Psalm 91, you might have found comfort in the words “You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you”  (v5-7). Such is the experience of the one who dwells in the shelter of the Most High As believers in the Lord Jesus we need not fear. God is our defence against every kind of threat It’s true that coronavirus is bringing to the surface many people’s fears. The underlying fear of death that is in all people. As much as man has advanced in technology and medicine and thought (arguably), no one has found an answer to the problem of death. Yet in God’s word we meet Jesus Christ who is the answer to our worst fears. I was reading in E
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Reading your Bible

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Hi everyone During this time when we are not able to meet together to be strengthened in our faith, and to receive the word of God from others, there is, I believe, a great need for us to go to our Bibles ourselves, individually.    How we all need to grow in our salvation through these times! As Robert Murray McCheyne said  “Those believers will stand firmest who have no dependence upon self or upon creatures, but upon Jehovah our Righteousness. We must be driven more to our Bibles, and to the mercy seat, if we are to stand in the evil day.” It is my firm conviction that: We each need to be spending regular time each day alone in God’s word. And that as we do so it leads us to prayer and the worship of God.  This is the way to peace and joy and assurance in the Lord. It is also important to be going through the Bible in a structured way so that we end up reading the whole of the Bible in a given period of time – however long that takes. We all need “the who
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A pattern for daily prayer

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A Pattern for Daily Prayer The below in an excerpt from  Tim Keller's book, 'Prayer - Experiencing awe and intimacy with God' - to aid you in your daily time spent with God. Why not read the post  "Reading your Bible"   afterwards, for some further help with your quiet time?  Morning Prayer (25 minutes) APPROACHING GOD Ask for his presence and help as you read and pray. Choose from one of these Scriptural invocations: Ps 16:8; 27:4, 9-10; 40:16-19; 63:1-3; 84:5-7; 103:1-2; 139:7-10; Isa 57:15; Matt 11:28-30; Jn 4:23; Eph 1:17-19; 3:16-20. BIBLE READING AND MEDITATION (No one can do all of the following in any one session of meditation and prayer) Read a passage three or four times. Then make a list of everything it says about God (Father, Son and HS); list anything it tells you about yourself; and finally, list any examples to follow, commands to obey (or things that need to be avoided), and promises to claim. Then choose the verse and
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Psalm 14 - The LORD is with His people

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Dear Friends As part of my own reading of God’s word each day, I begin with a psalm, going through a chapter a day. Today’s happened to be Psalm 114. As I read, it struck me how this follows on from our time together yesterday at the burning bush, and with the verse I ended my last email to you with  “But I will be with you”  Exodus 3:12. At the burning bush the Lord called Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. Ps114 When Israel went out from Egypt,     the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, 2 Judah became his sanctuary,     Israel his dominion. 3 The sea looked and fled;     Jordan turned back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams,     the hills like lambs. 5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee?     O Jordan, that you turn back? 6 O mountains, that you skip like rams?     O hills, like lambs? 7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,     at the presence of the God of Jacob, 8 who turns the rock into a pool of w
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