PASTORAL MESSAGES (Page 91)

By Not Known On Good Friday we sang the words of Isaac Watt’s evocative hymn ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’. Ponder again the words of the last stanza: Were the whole realm of nature mine that were an offering for too small: love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life my all. There is no feeling quite so wonderful as to be loved and it is…

By Not Known The four Gospels are dominated by the last week of Jesus’ life. Assuming Jesus lived to 33, Matthew gives 25% of his chapters to just O.06% of Jesus’ life (one week). Within Matthew, the Easter theme starts at 1:21, is especially prominent in 16:21-28 and 20:17-19 and dominates the structure and purpose of the gospel. John gives us several…

By Not Known Worship is anything that acknowledges God’s worth: that he is God and we are not; that he is the God who created, sustains, saves and provides. Worship is a life-long activity that begins with our conversion in which we decisively acknowledge that God is God and turn from worship of self or empty man-made idols. We then move onto a life in which all we…

By Not Known This week we continue our survey of key ministy areas by looking at missions and evangelism – otherwise called ‘outreach’. Outreach should be a ‘key performance indicator’ for every church. The reason for this lies in the missionary heart of God. He promises blessings to all peoples on earth and desires that all are saved (Gen…

By Not Known The Minister’s messages this month will each focus on a key ministy area in the life of our congregation. Today, the focus is in Christian Education. Christian education can be defined as the teaching and learning of the Bible to all age groups with the purpose of helping people to grow into Christian maturity. Let’s think about that definition.…

By Not Known Proverbs speaks about the value of a friend who sticks closer than a brother and who loves at all times (Pvbs 17:17, 18:24). It is wonderful when we have a friend who comes close to this ideal. However, it is a sad reality that no earthly friendship is fully like this. Our earthly friends may lack the will and the ability to be such a person. Our friends may…

By Not Known It is natural to make friends with people like ourselves. The people who are most like us may be the people we most like. And so we often form friendships within our own demographic of age, race, gender, educational level, interests, personality and such like. These friendships are ‘easy‘ and tend to be self- reinforcing of who we are. A…

By Not Known We humans are social creatures. This is an echo of God’s own social or relational nature in the Trinity. This means that we are designed for the company of others (Gen 2:18). In good social relationships, other people complete and complement us, provide care and bring us much joy. Christian fellowship and family are important expressions of this social…