This page displays messages, notes and articles written by our Pastor and our Leadership Team.
You’ve probably often heard the song “Feeling Good” with its lyrics: “It’s a new dawn, It’s a new day, It’s a new life for me, And I’m feeling good.” It seems that this song is particularly about the joyful experience of freedom, liberation from oppression. But what about if the new day actually seems darker than the day before? This was clearly…
This morning we will be looking at the most famous – and one of the most remarkable – conversions to Christianity in history. On the road to Damascus Paul ‘saw the light’ in more ways than one – a blinding light brighter than the sun flashed around him and he actually saw in some form the risen Lord Jesus Christ – the…
I was recently reminded of the quip: “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans.” (What I didn’t realise was that this was a quote by Woody Allen!). However, how often is it that we decide what we’re going to do and then look for “a word from the Lord” to confirm what we’ve already decided? Whilst we…
The apostle Paul issues a series of brief, staccato commands in the closing verses of 1 Thessalonians 5 including in verses 16 – 18: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” All three commands are, therefore, to be obeyed all the time and in all circumstances – and we…
The above sentiment is the final misstep in this series of bulletin articles drawing from Ed Shaw’s book, “The plausibility problem – the church and same-sex attraction.” This misstep is, perhaps, the greatest plausibility problem in today’s world and has been ‘swallowed whole’ by many Western Christians. Basically the mantra is – don’t think about denying yourself, rather be yourself and, at…
turn to another of the missteps in Ed Shaw’s book “The plausibility problem – the church and same-sex attraction”. This misstep, frequently taken by the Christian church, is to state or to infer that celibacy should be avoided, essentially that singleness should be seen as a temporary problem to be overcome by marriage. In fact one of the most insensitive questions that…
Today is our Harvest Thanksgiving service and we celebrate and give thanks to God for all His goodness to us throughout another year. Although giving thanks to God should ‘come naturally’ to us – praising Him for who He is and all He has done – we are still, throughout the Bible, reminded / commanded to do this – for example, in…
Our next ‘misstep’ in these articles drawing from Ed Shaw’s book ‘The plausibility problem – the church and same-sex attraction’ is the assumption that ‘Godliness is heterosexuality’, with the corresponding thought that same-sex attraction (SSA) and Godliness can never exist together. As a consequence, if someone does experience SSA it is assumed that every effort must continually be made to change their…
The world around us increasingly considers the above statement to be self-evident – men and women are the same and sexual difference is irrelevant – hence, for instance, same-sex parenting and marriage. But this is another of the world’s principles that run counter to Biblical truth identified by Ed Shaw in his book ‘The plausibility problem – the church and same sex…
The above statement is another of the ‘missteps’ that Ed Shaw highlights in his excellent book, ‘The plausibility problem – the church and same-sex attraction’. The world around us wants – and adverts everywhere promise us – happiness. Doesn’t God also want us to be happy? Surely, then, if someone experiences same-sex attraction (SSA) shouldn’t they act on it and find happiness,…