Mark preached on the subject of giving yesterday morning, taking his text from Luke 21:1-4:
“As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.””

It’s relatively easy to give out of abundance, but this woman gave out of her poverty. She gave all she had. A gift’s true value is measured by what it costs the person to give it, not by the item’s value.

Giving can be a spiritual gift (Rom 12:6-8).

We tend to judge people’s giving from the outside, looking at the monetary value of what they give, but God sees the heart and judges from the inside. Moreover, giving is about more than money: God wants us to give our love, our praise, our time, our whole lives as an offering to Him as a token of our worship.

The attitude in which we give is also of paramount importance to God. 2 Corinthians 9:5-8 teaches us that God wants us to give cheerfully and willingly, out of a thankful heart. He wants us to be ‘cheerful givers’ – hilarious givers! – because He himself has given so much in that spirit.

Christmas is often associated with gifts. Let’s not give grudgingly or reluctantly, but with gratitude and thankfulness. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Cor 9:15)

When we first started work on ‘St Mark’s’ in February, there were lots of things we wanted to do with the building which needed more finance than we had available. We spent from February until June getting the building ready for services and have been so blessed already with all the work that was done in that timespan. The main worship hall was replastered and decorated; new heating was installed there; the room was re-wired; new windows and blinds were purchased for that hall and we were able to do far more than we had originally thought. We were amazed at the weekly offerings and how God provided so much to allow us to get the place ready for opening.

But with a building this big, there is always more to be done, and the recent spell of cold weather has reminded us forcefully that the windows in the community hall needed replacing. Bible studies on Thursday evenings have seen us shivering at times, with draughts from the windows effectively reducing the efficiency of the heating system. So many windows in such a large room cost a lot, however!

God continues to be gracious to us and slowly and steadily we have seen offerings continue to be so high that this week, we were finally able to have new windows fitted in the community room. These are double-glazed and should help to keep the room warm and the bills down!

Original view:


Taking out the old:

It was cold!

Putting in the new:


We are grateful to the church trustees for their wise stewardship of resources and most of all to God for His ongoing provision and care.

What do the following pictures have in common?



The answer is that all these images featured in Tony’s quiz at the family service and had to do with angels, the theme for the evening. (The first is the ‘Angel of the North’ sculpture, the second ‘Charlie’s Angels’ and the third a popular image of the devil, who was, of course, a fallen angel.)

Dave then spoke on the subject of angels, a very apt topic for this Advent season! He spoke mainly from Luke 2:8-20, but also looked at the role of angels:
(1) to magnify God (Neh 9:6/ Rev 5:11-14)
(2) to bring God’s message to people
(3) to minister to people (Heb 1:14/ Heb 13:2)

People’s reactions to angels generally involve terror. They were terrified by the messenger, and often tottered at the message brought! More often than not, angels reassured people by telling them ‘Do not fear’:
(1) Don’t be afraid of God’s purposes (Mary)
(2) Don’t be afraid when things seem to go wrong (Joseph)
(3) Don’t be afraid of the good news (the shepherds)

Our response needs to be to surrender to Christ’s leadership and to become messengers of this good news ourselves!

Stephen spoke from Psalm 5:1-3 on Sunday morning. He started with some statistics about the world’s population: 6,885,814,406 apparently and every three hours another 28,500 people are added to that total, so it is, of course, already out of date! Yet despite the number of people who may be crying out to God at any one time, God hears and answers each of us.

“Listen to my words, LORD, consider my lament. Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”

God listens to all our prayers: the sighings, the ‘moans and groans’, the prayers and petitions. He is both King and God – in a position to help us. 1 Kings 19 reminds us, though, that the answers He brings may well be in a ‘gentle whisper’. We can easily want God in a specific way or form. God is powerful, therefore Elijah may well have expected him to come in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, but sometimes God comes in ways we don’t expect.

In the film ‘Bruce Almighty’ there is a scene with post-it notes which captures this sense of the sheer number of prayers God has to deal with! Bruce may choose to answer all of these with one click of a button, pressing ‘Yes to all’ on his computer, but we actually have the security of knowing that God listens to us as individuals and gives us individual answers. Our part is to ‘wait expectantly’, to set apart that time early in the day to be with the Lord and to listen for His still, small voice.

Here are some more wedding photos:


The speeches:

In Dave’s speech, he spoke about some of the ‘four letter words’ of marriage, namely ‘work’, ‘dust’, ‘iron’ and ‘cook’!


Tidying away and making coffees:

Wedding blessings are great opportunities to share in a couple’s joy, to meet with family and friends, to learn more of how to live in God’s love. Dave, combining the job of best man and preacher with his usual aplomb, spoke from Colossians 3:12-17 about the ‘blue print’ for marriage (and for life as a Christian):

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

We start from the wonderful position of being God’s chosen people, holy and beloved. Secure in this, we are then free to ‘put on’ compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, key qualities in a marriage, qualities that require effort.

‘Love Story’ may say that ‘love is never having to say I’m sorry’, but that is untrue. True love involves saying we’re sorry and forgiving, accepting those words when offered and moving on. The love we are to put on is not the sentimental kind, but is a gift from God which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Dave reminded the couple that they begin well today, making their vows before God, but urged them to take time to be found among God’s people who are also working at their own blue prints, being thankful for all that God has done and will continue to do.

Our prayers are with the happy couple as they begin this next phase of their lives.