Mark preached on the Beatitudes on Sunday morning from Matthew 5:1-12. Jesus had spent time healing many people and here He moved from the physical realm to attending to people’s spiritual and emotional needs.

The blessings that Jesus talks about here are more than mere happiness. As we experience God’s grace and love in our lives, we truly are blessed!

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
This is not talking about financial poverty, but about the need to look to God for help. God provides for all we need and can use all the resources at His disposal to bless us with every spiritual blessing (see Eph 1:3). There is no deficiency or shortage in God!

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted
God comforts us in every situation and is able to bring succour to all who mourn.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Meekness is not the same as weakness! Instead, there is a humility, self-discipline, serenity and calmness about those who are meek which will attract others. We should all ‘seek to be meek because it’s not weak’!

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
We need to know that spiritual hunger and thirst can be met in God. We need a passion for God, to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and we can be confident that we will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Mercy is shown by our actions – by active compassion and a willingness to love and forgive.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
The heart is the centre of all our desires and ambitions. It’s rare to find elements that are 100% pure. Malachi 3 reminds us that God is the refiner and purifier. He is the one who works in our lives to purify us.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace. One of the fruit of the Spirit is peace. By being peacemakers we show that we are children of God, that we are ‘in the family business’.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We have all known ridicule or persecution because of our faith at some point. We may not enjoy this, but we can be blessed in the midst of it because we know that such things build us up in God so that we can partake of all that God has for us, on this earth as well as in the one to come.

After a break due to bad weather and Christmas holidays, the Bible studies resumed this week, looking at Romans 2:1-15.

This passage has much to say about judgment and the law, with Paul pointing out that to judge someone and to be guilty of the same thing is obviously wrong. If someone sets themself up as a judge, it doesn’t stop them being judged by God.

The whole area of judging is one that can seem confusing and contradictory. Matt 7 tells us not to judge or we will be judged. Romans 14:10, 13 also tells us not to judge our brother. At the same time, 1 Corinthians 2:15 talks about the spiritual man judging all things, yet he himself is judged by no one.

There is obviously a difference between making a judgment about an action, the results of which may be clearly contrary to Scripture, and making a judgment about a person’s motivation. The spiritual person – one in whom the Spirit of God lives, not someone who is by their own virtue ‘better’ than anyone else! – makes decisions and weighs lots of things: ways to act, what should or should not be done, what is right and wrong to do. Yet there are so many things that we cannot and should not make judgments about, simply because only God knows the heart. We can’t make judgments about another person’s salvation or their standing before the Lord.

We tend to want everything to be black and white and have to at times recognise that God is not simply a God of the monochrome! Passages such as Romans 14 and Colossians 2 point to a diversity of opinions which cannot be dismissed; we should not condemn others, or let them condemn us, simply because we don’t agree on every single point in life. Moreoever, our hearts are deceitful and it’s not always easy to know our own motivation, let alone anyone else’s!

“Every time you criticise someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.
You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.” (Romans 2:2-4, The Message)

Let’s keep our eyes on God and make sure we take the plank out of our own eyes before we start looking at the specks in other people’s eyes!

The (in his eyes, dubious) honour of being the first person on the birthday box for 2011 goes to Tony!

Dave looked at the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha on Sunday evening, as he sought (as always) to encourage and commission us in his first sermon of the New Year.

Our first introduction to Elijah is in 1 Kings 17. We know little of his background, other than the meaning of his name (Yahweh is my God) and his home town (Tishbe in Gilead). Elisha is introduced to us in 1 Kings 19, the son of Shaphat, and he was called to his training as a prophet and successor to Elijah straight from his father’s home, probably at quite a young age.

The chapter that Dave preached from (2 Kings 2) shows us the end of Elijah’s earthly ministry and how Elisha coped with that. Elisha was already acknowledged as the chosen successor of Elijah, but this chapter looks at how he demonstrates that he was spiritually equipped to pick up the mantle.

Elijah goes on a tour of the company of the prophets: Elisha goes with him (even as Ruth decided to stick with Naomi, no matter what.) Elisha knows that faithfulness and tenacity are needed to receive the mantle of leadership and service.

Elijah and Elisha continue on their strange walking tour until they come to the River Jordan. Elijah rolls up his mantle (cloak), slaps the water, and it parts for them. This reminds us of another succession, when Joshua succeeded Moses. Elijah asks Elisha bluntly what he still wants from him and without hesitation, Elisha answers with a request that is both humble and bold: “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.” Elisha recognises that he cannot do all that is required of him on his own – he needs the gift of God’s Spirit and power.

Elijah can’t guarantee that: it’s not his to give. But he knows that Elisha needs insight into the spiritual world. More than anything, we need eyes to see the unseen, eyes that can see the invisible, eyes enlightened from above (Eph 1:18). It’s only when we ‘see’ the reality of God’s Kingdom, God’s power, God’s victory in Jesus Christ and that new heaven and new earth coming our way that we are equipped for God’s work here in the world.

Elijah and Elisha continue to work and talk, until that awesome moment when the whirlwind blows and the chariot of fire separates Elijah from Elisha. Elisha’s first reaction is abject grief. But as the tempest subsides and the fiery chariot disappears, Elisha sees the mantle of Elijah and with courage he faces the final test: does he have the faith and power to part the waters like his spiritual father?

God’s work continues from generation to generation. We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. The mantle is now on our shoulders: we have work to do. We need the same strength, courage, faithfulness, love, spiritual insight and power with which our forefathers dedicated themselves to their task. But we also need to be willing to pass on that mantle to the next generation, to train, to nurture and to develop those people within our church who will be the spiritual leaders of the future.

Just as Elisha called out, “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?”, we too need to remind ourselves that we need the God of Elijah for all we do. Without God, anything we do will not last. We need more than our programmes and plans; we need the Spirit of God with us. But we can be encouraged, because, by God’s grace, we can answer the question. Where is the God of Elijah? He is here – among His people.

Stephen preached from one of the most well-known psalms on Sunday morning, Psalm 23. In Bible days, a shepherd truly was ‘hands-on’, constantly with his flock of sheep. Nowadays, sheep seem to be left on their own, wandering on hillsides, but this psalm clearly paints a very different picture of the shepherd: we see one who cares for the sheep’s needs and looks after them in every way.

The following is a paraphrase of the psalm:
‘The Lord is my shepherd’ – my guide, my guard, my minder, my mentor. He sits us down and fills us with all we need; He puts us back together. Even when I struggle, sometimes in very hard times, You are there, covering, leading, guiding me. You make it good when all around seems bad; You fill me to the limit. You hold me above it all. What greater thing can I want than to be with You? To live fully with You forever is my aim.

This psalm, often quoted or sung at funerals, should also be part of our daily lives now – it’s a psalm for living. We have no need to live aimlessly, for we have a living, awesome God to guide us as we walk through life.

The first coffee morning of 2011 was held on Saturday 8th January.