This Sunday

After a number of quiet Sundays it was good to be a little fuller yesterday. It was a great blessing to welcome Erika back from the States. She is working with a mission here in London and needed a new visa to return. An answer to prayer that she was able to return so swiftly. She had with her Christine who will be with the mission for 6 months or so as well.
We are aiming to start homegroups in February. Will likely be just one to start with, but the plan is to try and grow that group until we can split it and make 2. We're also hoping to start a new Christianity Explored group in Feb. Haven't done one for a while so praying we will get a good group up and running.
Was preaching on Mark 11v27-12v12 yesterday - God's great reversal. It is fairly depressing to see how the Jewish leaders would not humble themselves before God's messengers and accept their authority. An unwillingness to admit the guilt in their hearts and have their "righteousness" masks removed and a desire to retain control seem to be at the heart of their rejection. Sadly these traits are not unfamiliar to our own hearts either. Wonderfuly though God does a great reversal in Jesus. He is the last messenger and "The Son he loves", and though these leaders (builders) rejected him and killed him, God raised him from the dead. "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; and it is marvelous in our eyes!"
So now Jesus lives forever holding a message of mercy and an opportunity to return to God even for those in a state like these leaders. I wonder if a young Saul the Pharisee was around at this point? Perhaps not. But certainly the light of the resurrection and the glory of the "capstone" transformed him from just this condition. There is hope for all of us who hide behind masks of good Christian behaviour and don't want to lose control. The hope is in God's great reversal.
God's blessing to all of you.

Welcome to 2010!!!

This is just a short one to update on some news. Blogging from my phone which isn't the easiest. We had really good Christmas. My parents came up Christmas Eve, and we had Kate and Hyasmine for Christmas dinner too. Wondefully Kate heard on Christmas Eve that she was being granted leave to remain in this country, so we were very joyful and still are. Boxing Day we went up to my sister and her family in Buckinghamshire. All the kids had a great time together which is a really big blessing. The adults did alright too!

Christmas Day service was very sparce, but we had four visitors from Holland as well as a mum and daughter that we hadn't seen for a while. Small and jolly :) and certainly worthwhile. Sunday 27th was also small, but again we had a 2 new faces. Jan's daughter Shelly is over from Aus so it was great to welcome her. Then a lady called Amy. She brought her husband Kevin this week. She seems to be following the Lord, though he isn't. Both seemed interested in doing some Bible study during the week, which was very encouraging.

The boys are back to school tomorrow - so I need to get to bed. Our text on Sunday was this:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your way acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. (Pardon all the spelling mistakes in this post. Blame it on the tiny keyboard.)

Carols But Not As You Know Them

We had an excellent Sunday today. Today was, what is becoming, our annual carol service with our Brazilian friends. Community Baptist London (CBL) meets on a Saturday evening in our building; the leaders and a few others also join us on a Sunday morning. Last year for the first time we held a joint family carol service, and we did the same again this year. It is harder work to organise, but has again been a fantastic blessing. We do some singing in Portuguese and some of the Bible readings in Portuguese, though the main talk is only in English. All the kids are in. We had Nathan (a session musician from CBL) playing drums, with Ling on piano and my guitar, and made a joyful noise with traditional and newer Christmas carols and songs.

It was great to welcome a few new faces, including a lady who had been given an invite in Kilburn. No idea who was handing those out! Also a mate of mine who I have been studying Ephesians with came with his girlfriend for the first time. There must have been about 60 people there altogether and nearly 50 stayed for lunch, which Helen cooked with some help from Ling.

The message was split up to help the kids (and adults) stay attentive. We were looking at Luke 1v26-38, the angel Gabriel greeting Mary. Focussing on four points - that just as God was with Mary, so in Jesus he is "God with us" - that he is the King of God's Kingdom, the son that was promised to king David so many years before - that he is also the Son of God, not born in the ordinary way, but really God taking on human nature - remembering that nothing is impossible with God. I reminded us that often God does things that look weak or foolish, but actually his ways are far more powerful and wise than we can imagine. But God's willingness to appear weak and/or foolish in his ways shows to us the reality of his love for us, and that therefore Jesus is a Lord we can trust.

The kids sang "On That Very First Christmas" from the Colin Buchanan DVD "King of Christmas" and a group from CBL sang two Brazilian Christmas songs exceedingly beautifully.

News from the rest of the week. Sadly Pam had to go into hospital this week. We aren't exactly sure what the diagnosis is, but she may have had a minor stroke.

The kids enjoyed all their Christmas activities at school. Reuben sang "When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney" with his class and Joshua played his recorder and cello (yes cello!) both in front of the whole lower school and a large number of parents. I will try and post a bit of video later in the week.

Christmas here we come!!!!

First Carols of the Season

We had our first carol service of the season today. I came down with a cold on Friday which was still linguring - but it was an enjoyable day all the same. Great to have Yoko on the cello and Jeremy singing, with Ling on piano. Even better to have a couple of visitors including Yoko's husband for the first time.
I was speaking from Matthew 1v18-25 on the birth of Jesus. That it is the culmination of all the hopes and promises of the Old Testament. Jesus birth shows us two important things - what God is like and what God is concerned about. God is not a God who stays away but comes and lives with us. He knows what it is like to be 4 and have no-one listen! He knows what it is to be rejected and betrayed. And his great concern is to rescue us from our sin. He was so concerned to do that that he became a child who grew into a man who would be crucified. One question we are left with is, "Are we as concerned about our salvation as God?" Another is, "Are we as concerned about an unrescued world as God?"

If you are reading this fairly soon after posting, perhaps you could pray for Pam. She has got very dehydrated through not drinking enough. We are a little worried for her at the moment. Thx.
Chris

Blog Revisited

Good to be back here after so long. Going to try and update regularly on a Sunday evening and occassionally in the week. We'll see how it goes - don't get your hopes too high. Here's a pic of the kids to get us restarted.

And here's one of a fierce table football game at church last week!

Despite overtiredness the Lord blessed us today. Maria was able to tell us how the Lord had answered her and recovered her British passport. She sang with joy! Elaine, a lady we have been praying for for a long time joined us for the first time in a long time. She suffers from back pain which has kept her away from church.

The message was from Mark 10v42-46, the response to blind Bartimaeus to hearing Jesus was nearby shows us what saving faith looks like. Trusting the real Jesus, trusting him to be merciful, trusting him before everything else, trusting him to forgive us and trusting him to lead the way. Jesus question to him is turned to us by Mark - Jesus says, "What would you have me do for you?" Our answer to that question reveals whether we have saving faith, or only the faith we want to have.

Over 20 people stayed for lunch - Christmas invitations went out, with plenty more to go! We also had a good and relaxing time through Grace Cafe and Grace Talks. The evening talk was about the "Prison of Fear". It was good to be reminded that "perfect love drives out fear." And God offers that perfect love in Christ.