Upton Baptist Church - News

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 ...

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. W...

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 an...

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 prese...