St Jude's Mapperley Archive Blog

I found this Christmas hymn in an old hymnbook; I can't find a tune that is even vaguely singable for it, but the words are gorgeous and well worth praying through this Christmastime! Come and stand amazed, you people, See how God is reconciled! See his plans of love accomplished, See his gift, this newborn child. See the Mighty, weak and tender, See the Word who now is mute. See the Sovereign without splendour, See the Fullness destitute, The Beloved, whom we covet, In a state of low repute. See how humankind received him; See him wrapped in swaddling bands, Who as Lord of all creation Rules the wind by his commands. See him lying in a manger Without sign of reasoning; Word of God to flesh surrendered, He is wisdom's crown, our King. See how tender our Defender At whose birth the angels sing. O Lord Jesus, God incarnate, Who assumed this humble form, Counsel me and let my wishes To your perfect will conform. Light of life, dispel...

Hi all, Yesterday morning, Philip led us helpfully through thinking about John the Baptist in John 1. I'm not going to repeat what he said, though it's well worth a listen... Instead I'd like to pick up on one thing that jumped out of the passage for me that I thought was interesting. In John 1:19-23, the Jewish leaders send people to ask who John claims to be. They try to fit him into various boxes – Messiah, Elijah, Prophet, and John denies all of them. The odd thing is that Jesus in Matthew 17:10-13 tells the disciples that John was Elijah. The disciples asked him, 'Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?' Jesus replied, 'To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognise him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.' Then the disciples understood that he ...

Good Morning! Yesterday, we finished our mini-series in Matthew 25 by looking at the famous (and controversial) section often entitled The Sheep and the Goats . (You can find it here for easy reference) . One way of looking at it is that the passage works on at least three levels. The first level is as a general encouragement / warning to help those who need it. The writer to the Hebrews says that in welcoming strangers, some people have entertained angels unaware. The second level is by noticing that the specific people Jesus talks about the importance of welcoming are "these brothers and sisters of mine, even the least of them". The only people in Matthew who Jesus ever calls his brothers and sisters are those who follow him (Matt 12:47-50 is a good example). Ditto with those Jesus calls "little" or "least" - it's always those who follow him. Jesus is talking specifically here about the importance of helping...

Good Morning! Yesterday morning, we started a short series in Matthew 25, looking forwards to the day when Jesus comes back. Guy and David both did a great job of helping us to understand the passage and see how it affects us. I'm not going to go over what they said, but it's well worth a listen on the website when the talks are up. Matthew 25 is in the few days before Jesus is killed. Conflict with the religious authorities has escalated through Matthew 21-23. In chapter 24, Jesus talks to his disciples about the future - about the destruction of the temple (which happened in AD 70; Christians got out in time because of Jesus' warning) and Jesus returning as king (which obviously hasn't happened yet). Matthew 25:1-13, which we looked at yesterday, is a story helping us to understand what this waiting is like. Here's the story in a less familiar translation: Jesus: Or picture the kingdom of heaven this way. It will be like ten bridesmaids who each picked up a lante...

Good Morning! Yesterday morning, we finished off our series "In the Wilderness" by looking at the time Jesus went into the wilderness – Matthew 3:13-4:11. Matthew is very clever in the way that he tells Jesus' story. Especially in chapters 1-4, he emphasises the bits that show that Jesus is the True Israel – he is the embodiment of the perfect People of God. Israel failed in the wilderness in Numbers 11-14. The devil tempted them, and they fell. But Jesus didn't. Just like Israel, he came up out of the water having been assured that he was God's Son, and was then led by God's Spirit into the wilderness. Israel survived on their own food for 40 days or so, then complained and accused God of leading them into the wilderness to die (Ex 16). Jesus went without food for 40 days and nights, was within a week or so of starving to death, and yet would not take the devil's temptation of using his powers to turn stones to brea...

With yesterday being Remembrance Sunday and tomorrow being 11th November, I think it only right that I should let poet and evangelist Glen Scrivener take this morning's Monday Mail with his new Remembrance Video. See it here on youtube. Here's the text: If I should die think only this ... A bullet flew by that did not miss... What story of the war is told? Romance bright or horror cold? Triumph's tale or tragic loss, the iron or the wooden cross? Lost lament or victor's boast? Full brass band or lone last post? Heroes, villains, cowards, kings? It's war... it's all these things. It's us unleashed for good and ill, the gallant heart, the savage will. A Kaiser's pride, a nation's fear, a global greed, it's all in here. What causes war, the old book asks? Beyond the history, beneath the masks, There grows a want, becomes a will, demands our way, prepares to kill. The war we mark as long ago, is close to home, it's all we know. What ceases war? ...

Greetings! Yesterday, we finished our series in Exodus and Numbers, looking at the people's journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. We saw the people reach the Promised Land in Numbers 13 & 14, and how they failed to enter it. It started well, with the people reaching the edge of the land and Moses sending scouts out to explore it, but it all went horribly wrong. We saw 5 stages in the disaster that unfolded as the scouts reported back in Numbers 13:24-33 . 1. They ignored God – they didn't see the land as the land that God was giving them or the Promised Land – it was just the land Moses had told them to look at. 2. They looked at the opposition instead of God. They saw lots of people, and fortified cities. 3. They were afraid. 4. They let their fear distort the facts. By v31-33, they are contradicting themselves with the land eating its inhabitants, but the inhabitants being giants. 5. They let their fear affect their sense of self-wort...