April 2011

To know God and to make Him known

Dear Friends,

I wish you all a very Happy Easter. 

The chocolate manufacturers will be glad of this boost during the recession, but for us it is an exciting time of year when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  The significance of this event is huge in that it represents the victory that Christ gained over death as he put all his enemies under his feet ( see 1 Corinthians chapter 15) and also that he paved the way to heaven as the firstfruits of those who have died in Him. Paul reminds us that if Christ has not been raised from the dead then our faith is futile. There are some wonderful vital truths bound up with the events of the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

As I shared with Church Meeting the passage from Luke 5 verses 1 – 11, the significance of the resurrection became even clearer to me in that the Jesus we were reading about, is here now and is the same as he was in Luke’s day. Jesus was talking to his disciples and challenged Peter to “put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch”. Considering they had tried everything they knew to catch fish but to no avail, and they had worked very hard all night and were probably exhausted and disillusioned, Simon Peter’s response is a challenge to us. -  “..because you say so, I will let down the nets”.  He put his faith in Jesus and his guidance even though his expertise and recent experience questioned its wisdom. 

Over the past year we, as a church, have been led more and more to seek the Lord for guidance and to trust that his ways are better than our ways. Our strategies for attracting families and young children have proved to be hard labour without really tangible results.  But the Lord has graciously brought 3 families to join us and we are delighted with the encouragement that that has given us. I invite you to join us in asking God to bring more families, during this coming year, to be part of our worshipping community and grow with us in our knowledge and love of Jesus.  Just as Simon Peter had to call on others to help with the large catch of fish, so too we will be looking to others for help. We are looking forward to working with our fellow partners in Christ from the Baptist Church as they consider giving us practical help.  Please pray for them as they seek God’s guidance over this.

The development plans that we have looked at are very deep water to put out into, and we will need to trust that God will provide the means of realising this scheme which plans to provide a more effective dialogue with the community as we seek to serve those around us. Pray that we will know God’s guidance and wisdom as we week to know Him and make Him known.

Our love goes out to all who read this magazine and we pray for any of you that need the comfort, peace and reassurance to be found in Jesus. We pray regularly for all those of you whom we know are housebound or ill and we also remember those of you who have moved away to live elsewhere.

God bless you all.  May you experience afresh the excitement of knowing the risen Christ living in you day by day.

With my love,

David