Mapperley Monday Mail, 10th December 2012

By -


Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community

Good Morning!

It was great to see so many folk at St Jude's yesterday, including a few new faces. An old friend of mine was visiting us with his wife, and commented on what a friendly church it was, so thank you everyone who spoke to them and to all who put the effort into welcoming new folk! It's a really important part of being church and of loving those around us.

We finished our series in Colossians yesterday morning, and I spoke particularly about how valuing other people fits together with recognising that Jesus is Lord over everything, and that when you put those two truths together, you end up praying passionately for people, because you care about them and realise that God can open blind eyes so that people can see him, that he can soften hard hearts so that people can love him and he can open our mouths so that we can praise him to others! It also flows out into having conversation that is always full of grace and seasoned with salt, so that we know how to point each person to Jesus in a way that is loving and also faithful.

After Colossians, we're moving onto a morning series on the first few chapters of Luke, just in time for Christmas! I've put a copy of the new termcard online - click here to download it – it will probably be available in church next Sunday...

It's traditional to remember John the Baptist around the second Sunday in Advent too (I was named after him!) And John's ministry was all about pointing people away from himself and towards Jesus. He summed it up by saying "Jesus must become greater; I must become less." (John 3:30). Let's have that attitude today as we seek to live for God in this world!

I'll finish with this prayer from the Anglican Morning Prayer service for today.

Blessed are you, Sovereign God of all,
to you be praise and glory for ever.
In your tender compassion
the dawn from on high is breaking upon us
to dispel the lingering shadows of night.
As we look for your coming among us this day,
open our eyes to behold your presence
and strengthen our hands to do your will,
that the world may rejoice and give you praise.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Blessed be God for ever. Amen


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mapperley Monday Morning Mail, 18th March 2013

By -
Image
Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community Good Morning! It's been another busy week at St Jude's. Many thanks to all who came along to the men's breakfast on Saturday, and even more thanks to those who brought friends! One of the things I'm really passionate about for the life of St Jude's is that we get better at building friendships and inviting folk along to events where they can meet other Christians and hear more about Jesus. But more of that anon... If you'd like to hear the talk I did on "Does Jesus fit with science?", there's a link here or listen via the church website . Yesterday morning we finished our morning series on Leviticus 1-7 with a look at the instructions for the priests in Lev 6-7. If we ever have the privilege of meeting the Queen, she has the right to say how we should dress, bow and so on. And in the same way, when we come to worship God, he has the absolute right to say how we s...
Read more

Mapperley Monday Morning Mail, 4th August 2014

By -
Good Morning! Yesterday, all three services in different ways pointed to the way that we can trust God to provide for us. In both morning services, we were looking at the feeding of the 5000. Jesus is exhausted and wanting to grieve after the murder of his friend and cousin; his disciples are tired out after having just been on a mission trip, and the crowd are hungry and tired having been following Jesus all day and found themselves in the wilderness late in the day. In all three cases, they give what they have to God and seek to serve him even when tired, and he provides more than abundantly for them. That's also similar to what we saw in Psalm 11 last night. David was facing an uncertain situation, with secret plots against him, and his friends were "encouraging" him to run for the hills. When we are in difficult situations, we always face a choice between faith and fear. Faith for David meant looking to God, remembering that God is on...
Read more

Resources for Daily Bible Reading

By -
Image
Here are some of the best online resources for daily Bible reading... Explore do a free app for iPhone / Android. The King's English works through famous phrases from the King James Bible Robert Murray M'Cheyne's Bible reading plan is a good way of working through the Bible in a year (New Testament twice). Or you can do it at half speed and cover the NT once a year and the OT once every 2 years. For the Love of God is a brilliant series of books which provide helpful devotional thoughts on one of the passages from M'Cheyne's plan as a blog. It lets you do the plan at either full speed or half speed. You version is a Bible reading app for mobile phones with built in Bible reading plans. I don't use any of those. Personally, I find internet-enabled devices too much of a distraction when trying to read the Bible. But I know some people might find them helpful...
Read more