More Sermons Online

More sermons are now online. The three messages from the short series on Prayer are available:

Matthew 6:5-15
Pray Like Jesus

Luke 11:5-13
Ask, Search & Knock

Luke 18:1-14
Patterns Of Prayer

Click here.

Bible Reading and The Perfect Church

Daily Bible Reading?

No, it is not a legally binding duty; daily Bible reading is rather to be seen as a personal daily delight. “When your words came,” said Jeremiah, “I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight.” (Jeremiah 15:16) We fall in love with Christ – and we find ourselves wanting to read the Scriptures, because they lead us to him. (John 5:39).

David the Psalmist said: “I rise before dawn,” he exclaimed, “and cry for help. I have put my hope in your word.” (Psalm 119:147). This sounds like a habit!

Isaiah knew it, too. “The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” (Isaiah 50:4). That sounds like every day!

The apostle Peter exhorted his readers to receive God’s ‘pure spiritual milk’ so that by it they might ‘grow up’ in their salvation. He then goes on to say, “As you come to him, the living Stone…” and the Greek of the text indicates that they were to continue coming, in this way. (1 Peter 2:2-4).

Let daily Bible reading and prayer be like the meeting of lovers for an agreed appointment. As Soren Kierkegaard of Denmark once observed, “A believer is surely a lover; yes, of all lovers the most in love!”

From ‘The Top 100 Questions – biblical answers to popular questions’
by Richard Bewes


The Perfect Church?

If you should find the perfect church
Without one fault or smear,
For goodness sake don’t join that church
You’d spoil the atmosphere.

If you should find the perfect church
Where all anxieties cease,
Then pass it by, lest joining it
You spoil the masterpiece.

If you should find the perfect church
Then don’t you ever dare
To tread upon such holy ground
You’d be a misfit there.

But since no perfect church exists,
Made of perfect kin,
Then let’s cease looking for that church,
And love the church we’re in.

Of course it’s not the perfect church,
That’s simple to discern,
But you and I and all of us
Could cause the tide to turn.

What fools we are to flee our post
In that unfruitful search
To find, as last, where problems loom
God proudly builds His church.

Anonymous

Start The Year

May I wish you all a very Happy New Year and pray God’s blessing on all of us for 2009.

A reminder that one way to start the New Year is to join with our Church Family Walk on the afternoon of Saturday 3rd January. It would be great to see you there!

Also, our Week Of Prayer is almost upon us. From Sunday 4th to Sunday 11th January we are devoting ourselves to prayer as a Church Family. This is something in which we all can participate! There will be two Church Prayer Meetings: Wednesday 7th from 8pm – 9pm and Saturday 10th from 9am to 10am. The Meeting Place will also be open Tuesday to Friday from 8am-8.30am and 12noon-12.30pm for prayer during the week. In addition to this, there will be a Prayer Chain across the weekend of 9th-11th January. If you haven’t yet signed up as an individual, couple, group or family, please do.

At the end of the month, on Sunday January 26th at 10.30am, we have our annual Churches Together in Faversham United Service in the Parish Church of St Mary of Charity. There is a Children’s Programme from 10.15am here at our Church, and the children will join the main service at approx. 11:25am. The Guest Speaker this year is Pat Gafney, General Secretary of Pax Christi. Pax Christi is a gospel-based international movement for peace, open to all. Her work is to make peace through work for reconciliation and non-violence. She has been actively involved in supporting Palestinian Christians and building bridges with Israeli groups working for a solution to the current situation in the Holy Land. For more information see www.paxchristi.org.uk.

Week Of Prayer

At our last church Meeting in November we agreed to start 2009 with a Week Of Prayer. From Sunday 4th to Sunday 11th January we will devote ourselves to prayer as a Church Family. There will be two Church Prayer Meetings: Wednesday 7th from 8pm – 9pm and Saturday 10th from 9am to 10am. The Meeting Place will also be open Tuesday to Friday from 8am-8.30am and 12noon-12.30pm for prayer during the week. In addition to this, there will be a Prayer Chain across the weekend of 9th-11th January. Watch out for details of this in the next few weeks. It is something in which I hope we will all participate!

Christmas is coming, and so we have some special services lined up. On Sunday 14th at 10.30am the children will be presenting their Bright Sparks Nativity, and then on Sunday 21st at 5pm we have our usual popular Carols By Candlelight. This year, this will be preceded by a short musicals called Wise Guys And Starry Skies. The whole thing is suitable for all the family, and is ideal for inviting friends.

The Churches Together in Faversham Carols In The Market Place is at 7pm on Tuesday 23rd December, and Christmas Morning Worship is at 10.30am at the United Church.

In the New Year, we are planning a New Year Church Family Walk on the afternoon of Saturday 3rd January. More details to follow, but do plan to join in and blow away the cobwebs!