What we should remember
Who God is
Paul urges us to ‘remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David’ (2 Tim 2:8)
We looked at names of God:
• Abraham’s shield and very great reward (Gen 15:1)
• ‘I am who I am’ to Moses (Ex 3:14),
• our Shepherd (Ps 23:1, John 10:11)
• Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our Healer (Ex 15:26)
• Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider (Gen 22:13-14)
• Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our Banner (Ex 17:15)
• Jehovah Shammah, the Lord who is the there, ever present with us (Ezek 48:35, Heb 13:5)
• Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our Peace (Judges 6:24)
• Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6)
• The Author of Life (Acts 3:15)
• Alpha and Omega (Rev 1:8, Rev 22:3)
• God Most High (Gen 14:17-20)
• Mountain Maker (Ps 65:6)
• Ancient of Days (Dan 7:9)
• Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Is 9:6)
• Our Father, Abba (Matt 6:9, Rom 8:15)
• Consuming Fire (Deut 4:24, Heb 12:29)
• High Priest (Heb 3:1, Heb 6:20)
• King of Kings (1 Tim 6:15)
• Lamb of God (John 1:29)
• Light of the World (John 8:12)
• Messiah (John 4:25)
• Redeemer (Job 19:25)
• Rock (1 Cor 10:4)
• Saviour (Luke 2:11)
• Word of God (John 1:1, Rev 19:13)

What God has done
God has acted decisively and comprehensively in history and in our lives. We see Him acting in Creation, in the Flood, in making a covenant with Abraham, in manoeuvring Joseph into Egypt so that he could rescue Israel from famine, in delivering Israel from the bondage of Egypt in the Exodus, in leading Israel through the wilderness wanderings, in leading them into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, in providing judges and kings for them, in allowing exile into their lives as the consequence of their disobedience and forgetfulness, in bringing restoration and renewal through the prophets. In the New Testament we see His decisive actions in history as, when the time was fully right, He sent His Son into the world to save us: we see the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church, the missionary journeys of the apostles, the growth of the church. Our Bibles are absolutely packed with examples of what God has done.

But, as Psalm 78 and Nehemiah 9 clearly demonstrate, the Israelites had a decided tendency to forget all that God had done. Paul tells us “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Cor 10:11-12) We need to be careful to remember what God has done for us in the past.

What God has promised
All God’s promises are ‘Yes’ in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 1:20), but we have to speak the ‘Amen’, agreeing with God. We have to consider Him faithful who has promised (Heb 11:11). We have to wait patiently with hope for God’s promises to be fulfilled (Rom 8:15) Our confidence rests in who God is and what He has done; these are spurs to trusting Him for what we have yet to see fulfilled. We need to keep holding on to God’s promises, secure in His character and in His ability to fulfil those promises.

We started the evening service with an age-old memory game: how many of these objects could you remember in two minutes?

People worked hard to remember:



In the end, the winning team remembered 20 of the 25 items, which is pretty good!

The object of the game is to remember things, leading in to a sermon on remembrance. Julie looked at what we should remember and at ways to improve our spiritual memories.

What we should remember
Who God is
What God has done
What God has promised

How we should remember
By meditating on God’s Word
By dwelling on truth
By using visual aids to help us remember
By doing what God says

So… how good are you at remembering?

Stephen continued our journey through Genesis yesterday morning, by looking at Genesis 4. Having looked at the perfection of Creation (Genesis 1 & 2) and at what happens when sin enters (Genesis 3), now it was time to see the consequences of sin.

In Genesis 4, the story of Cain and Abel, we see how men are fulfilling the Lord’s commands. Adam and Eve have obeyed the command to go forth and multiply and their children are working the ground and looking after the animals (see Gen 1:28-30). Sin rears its ugly head between the two brothers, however, when both offer sacrifices to God, but only one sacrifice is accepted.

Abel’s sacrifice is accepted; Cain’s is rejected. Abel gave of the firstborn (Gen 4:4), but Cain only gave some of the fruits of the soil. In effect, his sacrifice was second best. God gives him a second chance, showing him the problem that lies with sin crouching at his door, but Cain’s sin grows as he lied to God (Gen 4:9) and became angry with Him (Gen 4:13-14).

God still has compassion on him (the mark of Cain is actually to protect him), but there are consequences to his sin – further alienation and estrangement.

We need to walk the narrow way if we are to avoid Cain’s sin. God wants the best for us, but He also wants the best from us.

Last weekend many of us were invited to supper after the evening meeting. It’s always great to spend relaxed time with each other and the weather was so good, we even got to be outdoors most of the time!




Our thanks to our hosts for their hospitality!

Some people will go to great lengths to avoid the birthday box (even being on a cruise on their actual birthday), but we usually manage to catch up with them eventually…

Others have the privilege of actually having their birthday on the Sunday itself:

Either way, we enjoy celebrating birthdays!

Last night’s family service was on the slightly unusual theme of beans!

We had a quiz about beans, naming various brands:




Then Mark preached on Psalm 133, using food as a visual aid:


If you look carefully at the pictures, you’ll see that the beans on toast were not evenly distributed between the two plates. One plate had quite a lot of beans on it; the other didn’t. Mark talked about how the church needs to dwell in unity, not isolation and how we are called to live together as Christians, not ‘going it alone’. God wants us to be united in our:
1) worship
2) love for God
3) vision and purpose

So, the next time you eat beans, think about Psalm 133 and the unity of fellowship in Christ!