February is the month when Valentine’s Day is celebrated, but Christians have far more to celebrate than romantic love on its own.

Nonetheless, with ‘love’ the theme of the family service last night, we had a lot of fun with games and songs.

Mark organised a Treasure Hunt for love hearts (the sweets that have love messages on them!) which resulted in a variety of prizes:

Moving in to the Community hall to find the ‘Love Hearts’

Looking hard:


There were prizes!



Then we sang a medley of pop songs on the theme of love, which included pretending to play the harmonica in ‘Love Me Do’!


And finally we had a spirited rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You’ in the style of Whitney Houston:


For those of you who worry that we have too much fun at church (!), I’ll post about the sermon later…

There are days when we see how God orchestrates our meetings together, days when different people, without directly conferring or communicating, so obviously hear the same things from God that there is a wonderful sense of continuity. This morning was one of those occasions.

In the time of worship, we focussed on the cross. Songs such as ‘And can it be?’, ‘You came from heaven to earth’, ‘How deep the Father’s love for us’, ‘You chose the cross’ and ‘To be in Your presence’ reflected that focus. Then Dave preached from Galatians 6:14 on the cross of Christ.

The cross of Christ has always been central to Christian teaching. In Matthew 16:21-23, immediately after Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus teaches about the necessity for His death. Peter and the other disciples find it hard to accept this teaching, but Jesus made it abundantly clear that ‘the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.’ (Matt 20:28)

In partaking in Holy Communion each Sunday morning, we reflect the central importance of the Cross. Paul says that he ‘glories’ in the Cross, because it is the means by which we are saved. It is the Cross that sets us free and gives us our salvation. There on the Cross, we see the Lord – fully man, fully God, suffering death and tasting death for everyone (Heb 2:9) so that all may be rescued from the clutches of sin and death. God’s holiness is such that He could not overlook sin (in the same way that Dave’s son, when working on space satellites, has to have a ‘clean room’ in which to work), but Christ gave Himself willingly as that perfect, spotless sacrifice so that we can be reconciled to God.

Our part is to accept that sacrifice. We can’t make ourselves acceptable to God (for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, as our Bible studies in Romans have revealed) but we can accept that Jesus has done all that is necessary. “It is finished!” He cried. We are now new creations in Him; the old has gone and the new has come (2 Cor 5:17) We have been crucified with Christ; we are now free to live in Him.

I love mountains. Below is a picture of the Mer de Glace in Chamonix, part of the Mont Blanc range of mountains.

Mark preached from Hebrews 12 on Sunday night, looking at the differences between Mount Sinai (where Moses received the Ten Commandments) and Mount Zion, a type of the place of communion with God.

Mount Sinai was a place of thunder and lightning, of darkness, fire and terrifying visions of God’s holiness. Mount Zion is a type of the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Ps 125 talks about those who trust the Lord being like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken. Hebrews 12 talks about God shaking everything which can be shaken. Coming into God’s presence is not something to be taken lightly; we should not refuse Him who calls us, for our God is a consuming fire. Nonetheless, He calls us to come into His presence and to rest there. He wants us to approach Him, not content with being on the edges. Let’s draw near to God and be in awe and reverence at His holiness and majesty.

It was also time for another person to be on the birthday box!

Stephen preached this morning from Lamentations, a book that deals very honestly with a dark period in Israel’s history.

It is easy for us sometimes to think that the God of the Old Testament is different to the God of the New Testament, or perhaps to focus on God’s anger in the Old Testament and on His love in the New Testament. However, we need to acknowledge the immutability of God – He doesn’t change – and the steadfastness of His character – where love, strength, compassion, justice and wrath don’t mean inconstancy.

Jeremiah wrote Lamentations at a time when Israel had sinned greatly and things were not going well for them. Lamentations 1 chronicles the deserted city, the grieving and tearfulness of the people and the lack of comfort. There are times when things don’t go well for us. Not all churches are currently flourishing; the number of church buildings being used for other purposes these days reflect the hard times many congregations have faced.

Difficult times are made worse when we feel deserted or punished by God. (Lam 2:1-5) We are not exempt from life’s difficulties, but those difficulties seem even harder to bear when we don’t see God’s presence with us, when we feel that He has withdrawn His love, compassion and strength from us.

Jeremiah knows what it feels like to feel alone, calling himself a ‘man who has seen affliction by the rod of the LORD’s wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.’ (Lam 3:1-3). Nonetheless, the lament is not without hope, for in Lam 3:24-26, Jeremiah, reminding himself of God’s purposes, says, ‘I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.’

Talking to ourselves is not a sign of insanity; it can often be the thing we need to do to put things into perspective! God restores us even in the midst of difficult times. God is true and just. Even when we are guided by His rod, even when we face His disciplining hand, He can change our lives around; moreoever, as Hebrews reminds us, He only disciplines us for our good.

Lamentations is honest about the dark times in ways that perhaps we don’t like to admit, but it is also a book with hope, for even in the darkness, God’s light shines and the darkness has not overcome it.

Romans 3:9-31 shows us clearly and forcefully, with numerous references to the Old Testament, that no one is righteous, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. The world’s situation is summed up effectively by Paul: people don’t do what is right, they don’t fear God, they don’t seek God, they don’t follow God, their ways and words are evil and they don’t do good. This may well be at odds with society’s view of mankind (which seems to be that people are essentially good and that sociological reasons are the problem we must face, working on the reasoning that if these sociological issues can be ‘fixed’, man’s problems will ergo be fixed also.) Paul refutes this view emphatically in these verses, ending with the famous declaration in verse 23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The law’s purpose is given in verse 20: “no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” All people, whether Old Testament saints or those living after Christ’s death and resurrection, are essentially saved in the same way: “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Rom 3:21-11) It is hard for us, bound in time, to grasp the eternal plans of God, who does not inhabit time, but the fact remains (as Paul goes on to demonstrate in Romans 4, but that’s jumping the gun!) that God’s means for salvation are the same, whether for those who lived before Christ or those who lived after. We are judged righteous by faith in God, not by the good works we do.

This teaching cuts right across human thinking which works primarily on a cause and effect basis, believing that if we are good enough, if we obey the law, we will earn favour with God and will therefore be good enough to be saved. Paul teaches that even the Old Testament backs up the view that salvation is not through works alone, that faith has to be present, that we cannot ever hope to achieve righteousness by our own merits. “There is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.” (Rom 3:30) It is that amazing truth which is the bedrock of our hope and which should fuel our service and way of life.

Tony Brown preached last night on Philippians, looking at ways in which we may live pure and blameless lives (Phil 1:10).

Purity is not about sinless perfection, as John makes clear in 1 John 1:8. Rather, the pure in heart will see God (Matt 5:8); purity here refers to complete sincerity, a heart that is not distracted from God, a heart that has no conflict of loyalties, no mixed motives. Being blameless involves obedience to God, having Him at the centre of our lives and relationships, keeping a hold of His Word so that we have knowledge and insight as well as passion to guide us into all truth.

Philippians 2 talks about us imitating Christ, being one in spirit and purpose. The unity of the church is meant to reflect the unity of the Godhead. The three persons of the Godhead may have different roles (the Father is the friend who made us, the Son the friend who saved us, the Spirit the friend who guides us) but they are one. In the same way, the church is made up of different people but in unity of purpose, we can be one. This involves not doing things out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but learning to serve each other and encourage each other.

One way in which we move towards the pure and blameless life which God intends is to have nothing to do with complaining, arguing and grumbling (Phil 2:14). The Israelites were characterised in the wilderness by their complaining spirit and this led them into disobedience. Such a negative spirit leads to doubt and depression, whereas being positive – despite our circumstances or feelings – is a sign of faith. Jesus is our example, as always, in this. Even when He was being crucified, He thought of others – praying for the repentant thief, praying for forgiveness for his enemies – rather than complaining about the difficulties He was facing.

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.” (Phil 2:12-15)

Here, we see that who we are in private, behind closed doors, is what really counts. When no one else is watching us, God is. He wants us to be pure and blameless so that we shine like stars. We have a high priest in Jesus who is Himself blameless and pure (Heb 7:26) and we can be confident that He will give us strength and will help us in everything we do (Phil 4:13)