Sunday 27 February 2022

So I have started preaching and taking services again after a long abscence. 

We have moved home, decorated and settled in. 

This coming Sunday I will be preaching at Minehead United Reformed Church, leading a Cafe Style service in the church hall. They are a small congregation with a mixture of retired folk and working folk. 

I have chosen to follow the Lectionary reading of the Transfiguration from Luke 9:28-36.

What stands out to me for focussing on, is that God says "This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to Him."

So my service is structured like this: 

O for a thousand tongues, to sing

 

I heard the voice of Jesus say 

 

Talk 

 to include a pause (at 4:57) for tea and coffee and chatting about Listening to Him.

 

Open our eyes Lord Song/Prayer 

Our final thought 

 

Waiting

January has been very challenging. The weather has been quite inclement and we have had another National Lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It started in 5th January and we don't know when it will end yet.

I managed to get out for a lovely walk with my friend Renee. She and her husband Terry would normally be out in Nepal working with a local community providing schooling and water wells. We walked down to Lee Abbey and during our walk chatted to two of the nuns from Lynton, Sister Rebekah Marie and Sister Johannes, and a bit further on we cahtted to a lovely man who worked at Lee Abbey. 

We continue to await the next steps for the purchase of our new house. 

Then we have had the longest four weeks waiting for the mortgage offer to be approved. They asked so many additional questions and with the back and forth with more questions and our responses it has been a rollercoaster of  a time. One moment one thinks the approval is going to happen and then a few days later another question.... and on it goes. 

Now February 4th the Mortgage Offer is through at the Solicitors. Now we wait to see how quickly Exchange of contracts and Completion can happen. The optimistic answer is Friday 12th February, but it may be the following week. 

1st Janaury - New Year Plant Hunt

Roger and I get out for our daily walks and we are getting fitter every day. 

We walk up Station Hill, Lynton all the way to the junction with the B3234 and then we turn left, walking through Lynbridge and then back into Lynton passed Castle Heights and home again. It usually takes about 45 minutes. 

There is a National Plant Hunt to see how many flowering plants there are over the weekend of 1st Janaury. We photograph as many plants as we can see which are in flower. 

There are an amazing number for this time of year. How many can you name?

Farewell to Lynton

On 6th December we told our church family that we have resigned. Our responsibilities will end on 31st December 2020. 

With much prayer we have decided that this chapter of serving as your voluntary Church Leaders has drawn to a close and we have recently sent our resignation to the Synod in Taunton. Our decision has been prayerfully considered and thought through. 

Over the last four years we have faithfully taught the gospel of Jesus, both on Sundays and through the Home Group. It has been a privilege and honour to serve as your Leaders. 

Our last word to you all is:

"Keep Jesus at the centre of your lives: Its all about Jesus."

As we walk through each new day, facing whatever life throws at us, may this thought be in our hearts:

"The very One who died for us, and who was raised to life for us,is the presence of God with us. He is supporting, protecting, and guiding us through the peaks and troughs of each day. 
Absolutely nothing can separate us from that love, who is God's gift to all who walk with, and serve Him daily in this world, His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord." (Romans 8:1-39)

We have received some amazing responses from local folk:

"You have done so much for our community."

"We will miss you"

"I write to tell you how sad I am that you are leaving Living Waters.Though I do not worship at your church,being a member of the local Anglican church,you have always made me feel most welcome at the events I have joined you for. It is because of your ministry that I have become a more confident Christian,being more prepared to share my faith with others,and to witness to it.I have so enjoyed the Wednesday morning multi denominational group,and have learnt a lot through it.Thank you Roger.I will miss it,as indeed I have since March this year. Your generosity in letting our choir practise in the hall for a nominal fee has been invaluable ,and given us a warm space to practise in for 2 years. I am grateful for the Alpha group,and I applaud your running of several more,and your comittment to helping individuals on a one to one basis,using Alpha. I am aware of several people in the village who have come to know Jesus through you,and that is a wonderful thing you have done for them. And who knows, Jacquey,what seeds you have sown in your street conversations with countless others over your time here. Your prayer walks,your quiet evening songs of praise,your Carol-singing on Late Night Shopping nights,and your increasingly well attended Christmas Carol services, have all been ways of reaching out to others in the community,including children,and facilitating shared multi denominational  worship opportunities. From my perspective, Roger and Jacquey,your ministry here has been a blessing to me and to others,and I am truly sorry you are leaving."

"God is in control of the situation, we find it hard to see what is before us But our God knows, just trust (easy to say, but hard to do). The church, well that remains to see what the urc do. On a personal level well my wife and I served the Lord here for many years, and enjoyed it in the main, and it was a fruitful time. People found the Lord here that was what it was all about. God bless you and I assure you that each night I pray for you both. He's in charge."

"I am so sorry, and deeply saddened, that you are going to be leaving us. The service and dedication and help that you have given to our community has been incredible and I know you will be sadly missed by all of us. You have also, on a personal level helped me back into the church and for that I will always be grateful and forever in your debt. You have so much more to give and I pray that your future challenges are what you want. "

"Thanks for your news, and so sorry to hear you are leaving. Whatever else the past few months must have been really frustrating and tough. Thank you for all you've done over the past few years, and for your caring both inside and outside the Church Fellowship. You and they will be in our prayers for the future."

"Thanks for your email and the opportunity to be a small part of your life and ministry at Living Waters. I do hope that the next chapter starts and goes well for you. God bless you both for your faithfulness to Him."

Meeting Jesus

What kind of God would choose to be born in a barn - a barn in one of the tiniest little towns in the ancient world? What kind of God would choose a peasant girl for His mother and a no-name manual worker for His father? What kind of God would choose a feed trough as His first resting place, farm animals as His first companions?

 
What was it like that night 2000 years ago? – What was it really like?
 
Think of Mary, a woman – possibly just a girl – eight plus months pregnant on the back of a donkey; dirt roads; mountain passes; sun, wind, cold; no shelter, no escape; just miles , miles and more miles; pain, pain and more pain.
 
Less than a year before she had been surrounded by family. Laughing with friends in the streets of her beloved Nazareth, a young woman betrothed to a gentle, godly man with a good trade, the whole world lying at her feet. And now, here she is, a nameless face in the throng of oppressed migration, trekking across merciless terrain, alone except for the kick in her belly, a man as worn as she is, and a promise that the tiny heartbeat within her is that of the Son of the Living God.
 
Think of the sweat dripping down her face, the trail-dust clinging to her cloths, the pregnant swell of her feet and limbs, the endless pounding of every step. Think of her curled up by the night’s campfire, bundled against the cold, her mind and emotions racing: “Surely this is not the way a king is born into the world, let alone Messiah. This is not glory. This is not majesty. Did I hear the angel correctly? But I am pregnant, and there’s no other way. It has to be true… help me, Lord, it hurts!”
 
Have we greatly idealised Mary? The truth is she was a woman with one tremendous asset: a heart after God. But she was a woman no less subject to the same doubt, confusion, fatigue, and fear as any other woman. A woman who had the same choice to make as any other woman: Am I going to walk this day God’s way or my own? Am I going to trust Him – that He is who He says He is, and that His promises are true against all the evidence to the contrary – or am I not?
 
And then there’s her betrothed, Joseph. A man: Good-hearted, compassionate, and no doubt going through the same confusion as Mary, asking himself the very same questions.
 
Picture the two of them lying side by side next to that camp fire, both shaking scared, both doing their best to hide it and be strong for the other. Imagine them having that standard exchange which has been going on between couples since the beginning of time:
 
Mary                    “Are you okay?”
Joseph                 “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Mary                    “Are you sure?”
Joseph                 “No really I’m fine… How about you?”
Mary                     “Fine, fine. Really…!”
 
Think of Joseph the man. His was a very real, day-by-day life 2000 years ago. Think if his humanity, the dirt under his fingernails, the wrinkles on his forehead, the struggle to make ends meet.
 
Put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. Try to imagine that day he went home to his father and announced
Joseph       “Mary’s pregnant, but I’m going to marry her anyway because an angel told me the baby is                       Messiah!”
 
Imagine, further, the day he announced it to his friends. You can imagine that every one of them looked straight at him and thought the exact same thought: Joseph’s gone nuts!
 
You can almost hear his father exploding in a righteous rage,
Father        “Over my dead body, you’ll marry her!”
You can almost see his friends sitting him down a bit more calmly –
Friends      “I know she’s a great girl and all, but the woman’s pregnant, pal. How do you think she got that way? Open your eyes. Walk away.”
 
Joseph’s dad and friends would have had every reason to react that way. A woman pregnant out of wedlock! It would have been blatantly horrifying to their first-century culture, not to mention a crime so grievous under the law of Moses that it was punishable by death.
 
How could God, in His ultimate holiness and purity, choose to birth His Messiah in such an apparently unholy and impure arena?
 
Imagine Joseph sitting alone in his carpenter shop, mulling it all over. The day is done and the red sun is drooping low over the Galilean skyline. Mary, arrives, with a skin of water and a fresh-baked loaf, but he’s so distant today. She picks up a palm branch and begins sweeping up his wood shavings from the afternoons labour. With all the gossip, there aren’t as many shavings as there were two months ago. She notices, but says nothing.
 
He looks at her across the room. He wonders,
 
Joseph       “Did I hear God right? The whole town is laughing. They’re taking their work to other craftsmen. She’s so lovely. My father won’t speak to me. My mother she cries herself to sleep. Did I really hear God? Oh God…”
 
But somehow he makes the right choice. He presses through, day by day. Against all odds, against all sense, against all opposition, he clings singularly to God’s promise and as the days turn into months suddenly finds himself staring at the city gates of his ancestors – Bethlehem.
 
What a night that must have been for Joseph – his wife is going into labour, and he has no place for her to even rest, let along give birth to her child.
 
Joseph       “I want so much to provide for my wife, to take care of her and give her w security and comfort. But here I am and no matter how hard I try, there’s no room, anywhere and no money to convince an innkeeper to make room. There’s no any compassion for my wife and baby – just a city full of slammed doors.”
 
Can you imagine the frustration, the sense of failure? Here he is, facing his first challenge as a husband, and he can’t even put a roof over his wife’s head. Can you imagine the questions racing through his mind:
 
Joseph       “This isn’t going right! Where are you, God? Why aren’t You providing? I’m just trying to do what You’ve asked me to do! Why are You making it so hard?”
 
In a last-ditch effort, he manages to find a stable, possibly a cave. Can you imagine his thoughts, looking into his wife’s eyes, seeing her pain and discomfort as she lies in the dirt and straw, engulfed in  the smell of livestock?
 
And suddenly it’s not just her – it’s the baby - this baby boy whom he has been told to name “God saves” – Jesus – because He “will save people from their sins.” This baby of whom the prophet Isaiah had written centuries before that a virgin would be with child and give birth to a son, and call Him “God with us” – Immanuel. This baby of whom he and his wife had been told months before: He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom will never end.” Jesus.
 
Birthed in a barn, a place animals are birthed. A dubious place for one who will reign over the house of Jacob.
 
Laid in a trough from which animals eat. A dubious throne for one who will be called the Son of the Most High, whose kingdom will never end. A dubious throne for God-with-us.
 
This is Messiah – King of kings, Lord of lords! Where’s the fanfare? Where are the flashing white lights and jewelled mansions? Where’s the glory?
 
Final Thought
This is My glory, My child: that I love you so much, I gave My son – whom I love so much – to be made lower than the angels, to be made of no reputation, to be humbled, to be made nothing, for you.
A barn.
A peasant girl.
A feed trough.
A carpenter’s son.
For you.
This is My glory, child.
This is majesty.
Jesus
 
 
 
This week’s worship list is available here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHnJn7EgQjAxYIiYMSCv-lco-QGnz61rh

It's all about JESUS

So we have been reading and reflecting about who Jesus is for the last 19 weeks. Has this changed you? Has your perspective changed?

I know that my vision of who Jesus is has been enlarged, and I am better for it. I am certain that I can only preach Jesus, there is nothing and no one else I can preach about.

How about you?

I pray that we may each have been challenged, reflected and grown through this series.

My prayer is that we may be a people who can wholeheartedly say Amen.

May God have a people on this earth who are of Christ, through Christ, and for Christ.

May we be people of the cross.

May we be a people consumed with an unvarnished vision of God’s eternal passion: to make Christ preeminent, supreme, and the head over all things visible and invisible.

May we be a people who have discovered the touch of the Almighty in the face of His glorious Son, Jesus.

May we be a people who wish to know only Christ, and Him crucified, and to let everything else fall by the wayside.

May we be a people who are

· searching His immeasurable depths,

· exploring His unfathomable heights,

· discovering His unsearchable riches,

· encountering His abundant life,

· receiving His infinite love, and

· making Him known to others.

Christians don’t follow Christianity; they follow Christ.

Christians don’t preach themselves; they proclaim Christ.

Christians don’t preach about Christ; they simply preach Christ.

Christians don’t point people to core values; They point them to the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, ascended, enthroned, exalted, triumphant, glorified, reigning Lord –

Jesus of Nazareth, the King, the Messiah – the Christ beyond the tomb.

The following poem, written by Charles Wesley in 1739, and set to music by Felix Mendelssohn a century later, goes some way towards capturing the splendour of who Jesus is:

Hail the Heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings; Mild He lays His glory by Born that man no more may die Born to raise the sons of earth Born to give them second birth Hark! The herald angels sing "Glory to the new-born king"

The glorious One, Jesus the Christ, is our Pursuit, our Passion and our Pleasure.

May He be so to you also.

This weeks worship playlist is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHnJn7EgQjAz919z1h38VClCVNhwdyCbI