colin's blog

Many people assume being meek to mean a sign of weakness. They believe the definition of meekness is someone who allows others to walk over the top of them, or to let others go before them because they are too shy to lead. However, when we look at the people in the Bible who are described as meek, we see Moses a great leader, and Jesus himself.

The Times Are Urgent God Is on the Move Now Is the Moment to ... ask God to ignite his fire in your soul! Pastor Jim Cymbala believes that Jesus wants to renew his people---to call us back from spiritual dead ends, apathy, and lukewarm religion. Cymbala knows the difference firsthand. Thirty-five years ago his own church, the Brooklyn Tabernacle, was a struggling congregation of twenty. Then they began to pray ... God began to move ... street-hardened lives by the hundreds were changed by the love of Christ ...

After a few of the usual Sunday evening hymns, the church's pastor slowly stood up, walked over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon for the evening, briefly introduced a guest minister who was in the service that evening. In the introduction, the pastor told the congregation that the guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service.

Bill Hybels' book on prayer for busy people has been widely read and appreciated for the last twenty years. During this time the urgent need for prayer has not diminished, but busyness still impedes many of us from finding space to pray. So the author once again offers us his practical, tested ideas on slowing down to pray.

This Christmas time as we think about Jesus coming into this world and as we think about salvation as the greatest gift in all the world. Pause and remember

·       salvation is greater than having your sins forgiven (though that is wonderful and it is your greatest need)

You can’t escape dealing with sin and Jesus. Either sin controls you or else Jesus controls you. It is one or the other. To hold onto sin you must reject Jesus. To have Jesus hold onto you, you must repent and be released of your sin through Jesus. If you refuse to turn to Jesus sin will run your life. Yet all the while Jesus pursues you and offers you salvation. To keep on refusing him is to play a very dangerous game with your life and soul.

I’ve been studying a course with the Irish Baptist College and a recent topic we have been looking at is idols in our lives. I automatically assumed we’d be talking about the stone statues and beautiful paintings found in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, or Old Testament stories of Moses declaring that no longer was it good to worship anyone other than God, however I got a rude awakening! When we really took time to think about it we discovered that there are so many things in our lives that become an idol.

John 1v43-51 ‘Each one reach one’ 5 points from John 1v41-51 to encourage you to tell others about Jesus

Let me remind you of the power of Jesus in your life
1.    The One who calmed the sea is able to calm the storm in your heart and give you peace.
2.    The One who cast out demons is able to remove Satan as master of your life, save you, give you his Holy Spirit and freedom
3.    The One who is able to heal the sick is able at one word to heal your diseases in this life

Historically, the Baptists never really fitted into either the Protestant or  Catholic ‘camp’.  This is because our view of the church is that it comprises people who have consciously become Christians when they responded to God's gift of salvation and then are baptised as a testimony to the inner work of Jesus.