St Jude's Mapperley Archive Blog

Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community Good Morning! Yesterday morning, we came to the end of our series in 1 John, though due to issues with recording (we're still using technology from last century and I forgot to use my pocket voice recorder) the sermon may not have been recorded, so here's roughly what I remember saying from 1 John 5 ... When we are faced with all the uncertainty of life, how can we know that we will keep going as Christians – how can we know that when Christ comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead he will welcome us into his kingdom? John says that it is all down to whether we have been "born of God" - whether we have been born again and given a new life that can never die. How can we tell is that is us? John's three tests come out again... Do we trust that Jesus is the Christ? – Christ isn't a name it's a title meaning something like "God's chosen and rightf...

Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community Good Morning! In all of our services yesterday, the idea of genuine faith came out. So yesterday morning, Dom & Guy led us through 1 John 4, where John tells us that if we claim to follow Jesus but don't love other Christians, we are lying (v20-21). Genuine faith loves other Christians. The same theme came out in the evening, when I was preaching on the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:9-14. The Pharisee has almost everything going for him spiritually – he knows lots about God, lives a life that is pretty good by human standards, gives generously to those in need and remembers to say thank you to God. And yet it's the wicked tax collector who walks away right with God because the Pharisee has got so into living rightly for God that he has forgotten that he needs to come to God on his knees – that he can't earn God's love but still needs to ask for God'...

Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community Good Morning! Yesterday morning we had our All Age Remembrance Service. It was great to see so many folk there (over 150), including lots of children and young people and our Brownies as well as representatives from the Army, Navy and Air Force. The Remembering Service in the afternoon was 10% up on last year as well and had a great atmosphere of loving and supporting one another. Thanks so much to all of those who helped out at either or both services! But for today's thought I'd like to think back to the evening service, where Andrew preached on the first few verses of Luke 18. Jesus told his disciples a parable to show that they should always pray and not give up. What sometimes makes us give up praying? There are some good reasons for giving up praying for something – like if God gives us what we ask for, or if we see that it isn't what's best for us. But a lot of ...

Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community I'm not working tomorrow, so I'll send this out today! As this Thursday is Hallowe'en, here's a Hallowe'en poem from the excellent Glen Scrivener, or hear and watch him read it here : Vast armies undead do tread through the night and In hordes march towards hapless victims to frighten. They stumble in step with glass-eyes on the prizes; Bunched hither, hunched over in monstrous disguises; In sizes not lofty but numb'ring a throng; To unleash on their prey the dreaded DING DONG. Small faces with traces of mother's eye-liner, Peer up to the resident candy provider. And there to intone ancient threats learnt verbatim; They lisp "TRICK OR TREAT!" Tis their stark ultimatum. Thus: region by region such legions take plunder. Does this spector-full spectacle cause you to wonder? Just how did our fair festive forebears conceive, Of this p...

Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community Good Morning! Yesterday all our services seemed to have a theme of sin and forgiveness. In the morning, we were back in 1 John thinking about how we as Christians cope with the fact that we all mess up. We saw that a common response is to try to deny or to hide it, but that when we do so we insult God all the more. The best response when we mess up is to be honest about it and to say sorry – sorry to God and to one another. When we do that – when we confess our sins, John tells us that God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. When God "purifies us from all unrighteousness", that means that: in the past, he has freed us from the penalty of sin when Jesus took our punishment on the cross. in the present, he frees us from the power of sin as he transforms our minds by his Spirit in the future, he will free us from th...

Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community Greetings! Yesterday we began our new series in 1 John with looking at two of the big questions the apostle John tackles in his letter. The first one was the question of how we can know God. I've put roughly what I said yesterday here because hopefully most of the regular readers of my Monday mail are happy with the fact that we know God in Jesus. Incidentally, if you're worried about how we get from knowing God through Jesus to knowing him in the Bible, there are some great resources on Mark Meynell's blog . The main topic I spoke about yesterday though was John's big theme – how can we be sure that we are following the real Jesus? John gives us three tests, which we're going to spend more time looking at over the next few weeks. They're really helpful for giving us a quick spiritual check-up. Testing our mind – do we know and trust that Jesus is God himself, com...

Good Morning! It was great to see so many folk at church yesterday for our Harvest Festival Celebrations. It strikes me every year just how important it is to thank God for all the good things he gives us day by day and week by week. Sometimes when I feel ungrateful, I just start thinking through all the ways God has been good to me, and to us as a church, over the years. The General Thanksgiving from the BCP seems to sum it up well. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you most humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And give us, we pray, such a sense of all your mercies that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by ...