It is good to wait on the Lord

Lamentations 3:22-26




22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord


Your Father loves you. He created you to have fellowship with Him. And, even though we had turned our back on Him he chose and redeemed you through Jesus for you to have fellowship with Him.


Many a time we will come to God with our requests (and rightly so) but sometimes it is good to just "wait on the Lord". To have fellowship with Him and for Him to speak to you.

A right view of the Cross

On Thursday, just before Easter break, at group we went through Isiah 53. This is a prophecy about the suffering servant foretelling Jesus' death. It is a very deep passage with lots of content. We ended the study with the reading of the song Thank you for the Cross.

Even when we turned our backs on You  
In wickedness and lies suppressed Your truth
Even then You showed Your love for us
Giving up Your life upon the Cross

Jesus thank You for the Cross
For the blood that sets us free
The crimson stain of all our sin
Washed away in Your mercy

Enemies of God with no excuse
Knowing what was right we turned from You
Given up to sin condemned to die
Even then You chose to give us life

Everyone of us deserves to die
But You save all who hope
In Your great love.

Brenton Brown Mercy publishing ccli 3447356

Life can be so busy that unintentionally we can get a little complacent about the cross and what it truly mean for Christians.

It was the cross that showed how much God loved us.

I really recommend we have another look at Isaiah 53. As you read, allow the Holy Spirit to talk to you.

When we have we have a correct view of the Cross we no longer fear God has stopped loving us.

Work Place Evangelism

The Public Side of Our Faith

Much of the Christianity that has come down to us today dwells on private spirituality- prayers, private devotions and Bible reading, self-examination and confession, personal holiness, individual acts of charity, and so on. This is all to the good, in as much as Christ is a Person who seeks a relationship with individuals.

But what about the public side of our faith?

· How do we as believers live as Christians in the public arenas- work, community, relationships, civic responsibilities, and so on?

· What about our communities of faith, such as our churches? How vibrant and strategic is our collective witness as God’s people to a watching world?
· In what ways do we as believers influence our society as a whole - its institutions, its needs, and its values? Matt. 14:13-14 TWILSB pp1661

v Daniel 6:5
5 Then these men said, “We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.” NKJV – 060312


v Matthew 14:13-14
13 When Jesus heard what had happened to John, he left in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. But the crowds heard about it and followed him on foot from the towns.14 When he arrived, he saw a great crowd waiting. He felt sorry for them and healed those who were sick. NCV

v 2 Timothy 2:1515Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. NKJV

v Ephesians 3:20Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

How does our flesh affect the harvest into the Kingdom?

Anthony U. Eradiri
08032012

The Faithfulness of God

Today, at group, we discussed the faithfulness of God.

On the internet is a great website on the subject.

http://whatthebibleteaches.com/wbt_120.htm

A Letter from Christians Against Poverty

During the Christmas Carol Service we took up a collection for Christians Against Poverty. We collected £60.00! To find out more goto http://www.capuk.org.

A Letter of thanks for the gift is below.

THANK YOU

Thank you for your gift!

Below is a thank you letter from one of our clients:

Dear Christians Against Poverty How can we begin to explain the difference CAP has made in our lives? Before CAP I spent every month juggling credit card cheques to pay different debts, and I felt physically sick at the thought of how I would cope. I felt so ashamed that someone like me could ever have allowed our finances to get into such a mess. I had faced three redundancies and each new job meant a drastic reduction in salary. My husband also took early retirement due to ill health so our income dropped even more. I felt an absolute failure; incompetent and unworthy of help. Since we contacted CAP we see a light at the end of our tunnel. We know that we will be totally debt free, an experience I have not known for many years. We know what we have to pay each month and we know our bills and debts are getting paid. The shame I felt about these debts has faded because of all of the wonderful people at CAP. They have shown love, support and understanding without a hint of condemnation. We believe that we were guided to CAP not just to help us find a way out of debt, but to find the loving God who really does love us as we are, debtors and all. Thank you to all at Christians Against Poverty for making it possible for us to enjoy the present and enabling us to look forward to the future. Our love and prayers are with you for your continued success, Mary x

'....and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.' Isaiah 58: 10

Christmas Carol Service Talk

What would you do? Many a time you try and help and make friends with someone and they spurn your help?

What if you knew a better way to do things but you were constantly rebuffed.

Well, so it is with God! He created the world and the world turned its back on Him.

But instead of turning His back on the World, He declared His love and favour! Favour that was undeserved!

It was to shepherds the Good News was first declared. Not Kings, not nobles but down to earth, hard working shepherds.

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.”, was the cry of the angels. They were excited.

The Angels declared a Saviour. “A Saviour who is Christ the Lord.” He said.

When Mary was told to name this child Jesus “for he will save His people from their sins.” He would get us out of our mess.

What does favour from God to man look like? It is a gift of unmerited and constant love. Constant love when we mess up.

For unto us a Son is given. This is the gift of love. And isn’t that what real giving is all about. Giving even to what is undeserved.

And that is what God did: He gave of his very own to those who did not deserve it. I know I don’t deserve it.

The often quoted Bible verse says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”John 3:16
.
And so the offer is open to everyone. Like the Christmas story those that heard it were working class shepherds,. What was their response? Let us go, they said.

So what is our response? Shall we go and discover more about who Jesus is? There is a present waiting for us. : “He came to the world that was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God.

Jesus:He is Head of the Church

Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church.

Foretold of old Ps 118:22-24 22 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 23 the LORD has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes. 24 The LORD has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.

Jesus knew it applied to Him Matt 21:42 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes’?

Who is the church? John 1:12 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

We are His body 1Cor 12:27 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

He Loves the Church and gave Himself for her Eph 5 25-27 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Jesus prays for His church Hebrews 7:25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

He wants us where he is. John 14:1-3 1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

We have a Glorious future with Him Rev 21 1-7 1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

We have a responsibility Col 3:12-14 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.