St Jude's Mapperley Archive Blog

Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community Good Morning! It's been a really encouraging weekend for me. It was great to see (and hear!) so many people at church for Lizzie & Ben's wedding on Saturday, and there was a good crowd there on Sunday morning as well for Jasper's baptism. Wouldn't it be great to have that many people every week (of which more later)! Yesterday morning, we were thinking again about the kind of character that God creates in Christians, which we are called to wear. At the 9:15, Dennis picked up on the lovely picture of harmony – all singing from the same hymn sheet, all singing together and for the glory of God, but not all singing the same notes at the same time because we have been given different gifts and different callings at different stages of life. At the 11am service, I somehow managed to apply Colossians 3:12-4:1 to the characters in Downton Abbey, but what is really on my heart from yesterda...

Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community Good Morning! Yesterday morning, we were looking at Colossians 3:1-14ish and thinking about how God has given us the "new shoes" of being free to love each other and knowing that we are God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved to replace the smelly old shoes of feeling that we have to defend ourselves and make our own lives significant. One thing that really came out in chatting to folks afterwards is that it can be really helpful when we get angry (for example) to use that as a way of seeing where in our lives we still feel that we need to defend ourselves, and to spend the time praying in the glorious truths that God is for us and not against us. A really helpful thing I heard last week is that God often uses fear the same way. When we are afraid (or anxious, or concerned, or stressed, or any of the other words we use instead of afraid), it is God calling us to put our trust in him on...

Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving Our Community 12 th November 2012 Loving God There has been lots to give thanks for in the last week. Here are just a few things: The announcement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. I don't think we could have hoped for a better appointment. He's good friends with Ian Russell's son (which will mean quite a lot to some of you); he's a man who clearly knows and loves Jesus, believes the Bible and has the wisdom and courage to make needed changes to the way the C of E does things. I've written a bit more here . Our services yesterday seemed to go really well. We had about 150 people for the Remembrance Day service, and then another 30 or so for the Remembering Service in the afternoon. Lots of people seemed to find both of them helpful, and it seemed that God really was speaking there, so thank him! Loving Each Other This week sees a couple of big meetings I'd appreciat...

I was delighted to hear of the appointment of Justin Welby as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. I was even more delighted to hear it confirmed on Friday! I don't know Mr Welby personally, but I've got quite a few friends who do know him from various places, and none of them has anything bad to say about him. He seems to be thoroughly committed to Jesus and his word, to be wise in the way he acts towards people and to be bold enough to try new things. I couldn't have asked for a better choice for Archbishop. At the same time, we need to be careful not to get our expectations up too high. Justin Welby isn't the "head of the Church of England". He isn't the leader the Church of England needs. That is Jesus Christ - we should pin our hopes on him and pray to him for revival in this nation. Justin Welby faces a horribly large task. The Church of England is a huge organisation (or 42 organisations, or 8000 organisations), and it will take a lot of effor...

I'm experimenting with putting the Monday e-mail straight onto my blog - this is from 5th November Fewer Ms this week - unexpected busy-ness on Monday Morning means I'm running a bit behind. Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving Our Community We're in the middle of a season of remembering at the moment. In the last week, we've had Reformation Day when we remember all those who struggled to bring the church back to the truths of Scripture and All Saints Day when we remember all those who have gone before us in the faith – that "great cloud of witnesses" in Hebrews 12. Today is November 5 th when we remember the Gunpowder Plot, and this coming Sunday is of course Remembrance Day. Loving God Yesterday morning, Andrew Stewart reminded us that God remembers us, as symbolised by the rainbow, and that he remembers us in Jesus. In the evening service, ably assisted by Ade, we were looking at the book of Micah, and I came back to the last ...