Post by JEM on Jul 8, 2012 4:04:37 GMT
JUNE 24th 2012 Saffron Walden Baptist Church
238th Church Anniversary
238 years to the day that the original foundation stone was laid
It was announced that Deacon Ged Pearce has been appointed be the new Eastern Baptist Association Treasurer
The Morning congregation was lively and downstairs being nearly full later worshippers were shepherded into the Gallery Outside the weather began sunny but within an hour heavy rain was falling again.
The Preparation Pre Service Song was “ALL TO US “ by Chris Tomlin
Chris Winfield dealt with Notices and mentioned it is our 28th Church Anniversary
Andrew Heinrich welcomed folk attending
Chris Winfield Opened with Prayer quoting Deut 31 v 8
“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you, he will never leave you, nor forsake you. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged”
We sang together the Old Hundredth Psalm “ All Creatures that on earth do dwell”
We sang “ Adoration... we bow our hearts” SHO9 92
Lizi & Matt taught us a wonderful new action song about the Church as a body including reference to follicle, bladder and bum. It went down as a great success.
We sang “Faithful One” [ 1TS89 D ]
During which the Offering was collected and presented
John Maddams led this
Prayer of Intercessions - for our MISSION of FAITH
FATHER GOD, as you will know since you witnessed it,
238 years ago today some where on this site, our founding fathers
laid a foundation stone for their new place of worship, their new headquarters for a MISSION of FAITH you called them to, which you bequeathed to us and our generation to develop and use, and we thank you, that you are a God of consistent continuance that has blessed this congregation of your people across all those years which are, but the doorstep of the years to come.
We think of HISTORY as HIS STORY, the story of your Son's work here Father, over the generations, so it is a story without ending continuing around us today, and going on into the future to the grand children of the young people here today, and beyond them also for as long as you plan.
by your Grace we make history, we are part of your story.
We thank you for all the Ministers,Trustees and Deacons,Teachers & Youth Leaders you have appointed to your work here since 1774
So we claim the guidance of your Holy Spirit for our Deacons, Church Officers and Administrator now, collectively in their deliberations and individually in their work for your Church and to the members of other groups and teams they set up to serve, review, consult and report
So we ask for the revelation to our leaders now and to us all, of the identity of the next shepherd of this flock, and pray for that person in their present ministry today and this week
and for those ministered to and receiving your message and your love today
that they will grow in grace, strength and spiritual power, and be prepared to say farewell to one they appreciate and love, and be prepared for the next chapter in their journey.
We ask for those of our own fellowship engaged in training and development on the Leadership Course including preparations for taking that further into another year with another group
Also for GAVIN as he extends his pastoral and preaching ministry and seeks your guidance for the future
and for ANDREW as he develops his training and hands on experience in youth work
Father God help, guide and encourage them all, as you prepare them for service as yet unknown,
We pray for the staff of Sunday Club this morning, for patience, and a plentiful supply of your wisdom and grace. We ask you to supply more volunteers to help in there week by week and for additional leaders for Grid able to handle teenagers wisely. We ask that you will reveal to those you wish to do this work, and reveal them to our leaders. We pray too for the leaders and staff of BB, Scouts, Guides, Brownies, and our other youth groups and activities
We pray that you will give to our young people fresh vision, new initiatives and a sense of purpose and show them how they should serve you in these days, and enable young and old to understand each other and co-operate to get your work done.
In our Eastern Baptist Association we pray this week for Halstead Baptist Church,for Clive Jones their minister, for guidance & encouragement in making the best use of their two church sites.
We pray for the forthcoming arrival of the Olympic Torch to our town when large crowds are expected and when we propose to sing the Good News to the waiting crowds and hold a barbecue, and as our neighbours at Abbey Lane prepare to do something similar and New Life Church's plans on the Common that day, and we pray for our 5 churches that you will bring into those events those you wish us to welcome, befriend, encourage and help
As the Olympic and Para Olympic Games touch our region we pray Father for all those athletes and visitors who will be staying at hotels in and around Stansted Airport and into the London area, and at Holiday Lets and B & B's where Gideons have lately been diligently placing hundreds more Bibles for the use of customers. May these guests find, use and benefit from those Bibles.
We thank you for our links over the years with the city of Kolcata formerly Calcutta, in India and for those Indians who run BMS Regional office there. For the preparation of the Action Teams going there in the autumn to serve our Baptist Churches there, and for the Christian work of Freeset Global in the Sonaa-gacchi suburb, the Red Light District, set up to provide alternative job opportunities in making Jute Bags and T Shirts, and in other ways, to the victims of the sex-trade drawn there from Rural India, Nepal and Bangladesh, through trafficking and poverty, to be abused by thousands of selfish godless men.
Give wisdom to the leaders there in marketing goods for profit, to help these women, and in developing new ways of employing them and give new hope to these women
We pray for Karl and Lynn, for their ministry here today and for their Church in Australia
and as another strand in this MISSION OF FAITH begun here,
and we pray for
Wayne Field 8 years at the Baptist Church at Australind, Australia and nominated to serve Operation Mobilisation from January as International Training Co-ordinator
along with others you called to Ministry who have been linked with our Church in recent decades who minister your word and your love where they serve you now.
Philip Webb as Ecumenical Mission Officer in Staffordshire and Derbyshire
James Grote at Oxford, in his 17th year there as pastor & as Director of the ARK art centre.
Hugh Ellis vicar at Langport in Somerset,
Stephen Heap Chaplain to Bedfordshire University & at the Yarls Wood Detention Centre.
Dane Baker at Emsworth Baptist Church in Hampshire with a tribe of 80 teenagers.
Simon Mattholie celebrating this weekend the 50th anniversary of Rural Ministries and
Richard Bending retired vicar in Norfolk. He united 5 churches in the Glaven Valley..
For them all strengthen, equip, guide, encourage and help them today.
We pray this week for the workers of our BMS World Mission in Italy where their Baptist Union has 120 churches but only 30 ministers
We pray Father that you would raise up new lay and ordained leaders, and guide wisely their BU Executive presided over by your servant RAFFA ELE. VOLPE.
We ask for protection, good health, wisdom,and compassionate sensitivity for
Alex and Huwii Anderson in the difficult Basil-licata region;
Ann and David MacFarlane leading a bilingual congregation of
Italians and Filipinos in Reggio Calabria, and
Amanda Redwood completing the first year of her ministry at Florence.
and remembering the persecuted churches we pray for our fellow believers in Nigeria this day where each Sunday for weeks the Boko Haram Sect has destroyed churches, and homes of Christians , murdered Christians, made wives into widows, and children orphans, in the name of their religion
We ask this Sunday that you will protect all the Churches in Nigeria from this mob, and that as already in areas hit,
you will raise up many more to follow your cause and be citizens of your kingdom
We pray for families of those murdered,for parents, for children
For those maimed and mutilated facing uncertain future
For the families of the suicide bombers who suffer too
For the leaders and members of the Boko Haram Sect that their ideas, aims and attitudes will be changed and they will hear you calling them to stop persecuting you,to become your co-workers
So LORD as you called some 60 odd people 238 years ago to engage in a MISSION of FAITH and to build a new meeting place right on the edge of town, a congregation since, of over 3000 people, who have served you here, so we have remembered the growth of that MISSION of FAITH today
praying also that if anyone here this day has come
seeking the salvation you offer,
seeking answers to needs, problems and questions,
that Lord you will meet them here this morning revealing to them your personal message to each one. Speak to us all a timely word and send us forth anew to serve you and expand that
MISSION of FAITH in the here and now, and in the future
We ask these things In the Power of the Name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who is reliably -
the Same, Yesterday, Today and For Ever.
AMEN
We sang “ God of Our Yesterdays “ [ SH09 104 ] as an Expression of faithfulness
and Word of Encouragement
Tracy Todd read the Scriptures
Ephesians 2 v 11 - 3 v 13 set out below
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)-- 12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit
19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
31For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--
2Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets . 6This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
7I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. 8Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord
Ian Sutherland interviewed Karl and Lyn which told us that
Karl had been born in 1963 in South Africa but his Dad was arrested and gaoled there but they escaped to Botswana abd were able to seek political Asylum in Hemel Hempstead. Herts, where they transferred to the care of the Quakers ther and the Salvation army provided them furniture
But his Dad, to escape the British weather moved to live in Australia when he was 13 and lived near Melbourne. Lyn was born in Sydney and was a Roman Catholic. She met God at a tent mission. She had a sense of call to mission, She went to college but was not very good at it and switched to another course through which she met Karl It was a match made in Heaven.
10 years later they went to Bible College and then went to serve in Egypt amongst the pottery people in the slums if Cairo. They had to move on because Karl had problems getting his Visa to Egypt continued. So they sold their business to nationals and moved to Cypress. They have 3 teenage children. All who were educated at the Hebron Christian Boarding School in India so the family moved there
The last 5 years they have been serving in Kolkuta [ formerly Calcutta ] in the red light district of Sonaa Gacchi to help some of the 10,000 women entrapped there in prostitution because of destitution in India or brought in my trafficking from Bangladesh and Nepal. Sometimes they were sold as small children by parents unable to afford to raise them . Young women mainly who are drugged and then raped The couple work for GLOBAL FREESET TRUST which teaches these women literacy, numeracy, budgeting, debt management and child care. They offer the women choice, 1] the means to leave the prostitution racket, 2] the means to live in community and for victims to be given safe accommodation. 3 ] to transform their live coupled with the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus and offering the way of Repentance, Forgiveness and Reconciliation There are about 180 women in the congregation they have helped. They themselves attend Carey Baptist Church in the city.
Karl preached the sermon from Ephesians 2 verse 11 onwards
1, DON'T FORGET WHERE YOU CAME FROM
He reminded us off his early life
and where we were, without God's Grace
outsiders and ignorant without hope.
We had no rights God in Jesus Christ gave us rights.
V 13 We were brought near
Gentiles and Jews had been separated but are no longer trespassers
We had no rights of access to God until Jesus Christ broke down the wall of division and made us together a NEW PEOPLE for HIMSELF The Kingdom of God
2 OUR BEHAVIOUR AS CHRISTIANS ARE AS MEMBERS OF A COMMUNITY
We are bought to be reconcilers
2nd Corinthians 5 v 17
We struggle to be reunited with one another
Our's is the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors
Karl and his boss Carey struggle with their relationship despite both being engaged in Mission together
Paul and Barnabas had had a row over whether to allow John Mark to continue with them on their mission. They split over it and went separate ways but years later Paul asked for John Mark to accompany him again.
3 .WE MUST BE HONEST AS TO WHO WE ARE NOT EVEN TO AVOID CONFLICT
We need to demonstrate an attitude of submission
Karl is a trustee of the 100 year old Hebron School 18,000 up in the Himalayas and that is a challenge sometimes in deciding policy. We have to help and encourage one another Our hearts of pride have to be challenged.
We have to learn to give way to other people.
The Temple of the New Testament age is the Kingdom of God
We are citizens of that new Kingdom
Christ is the Corner stone
We are the building blocks.
The Temple of God was in Jerusalem and that was where he met the people but now
it is in us.
We are the plan of the new home
God is making His home in us.
As some people entering King's College chapel Cambridge would say that is where God hangs out and the Jews felt that way about their temple but that has passed away and today Jesus is making a new Temple. This is a mystery not predicted in the OT.
Verse 8 The Commission given to Paul and to us across the years is
to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles,
to make plain to everyone that the Church is the vehicle now to all the world
We are the means he will do that
Paul recognised that he too was a sinner but was the working by the of the power of Jesus Christ
We can only succeed in doing it in the power of Jesus Christ working in and through us
Karl remarked how unfit he is for the work God has called him to do
We cannot do things on our own
God needs us to be willing to do things for Him
4. THE WAY OF THE CROSS IS THE ONLY WAY GOD WORKS
though we are defective and may face defeats
We have to submit
We have to subscribe
We have to sacrifice
We have to make sacrifices and prioritise
We have to act in community and remember Christ is a peacemaker
We must give him all the glory due to His Name,
######################################################
We sang “Hear the call of the Kingdom” SH09 30 F
Chris pronounced the Blessing
We said together THE GRACE to one another
It had been intended to hold a picnic in Bridge End Gardens but it had rained most of the night and again in the morning so it was decided to stay in the orchard, that is where we had worshipped, which 238 years ago had been an orchard, so 35 folk gathered in 3 oval shaped groups in the chapel area with the chairs pushed back and using tables and in one case a picnic cloth on the floor and ate their picnic.
Todd and Adrian climbed into the gallery for a private chat, Libby Chard with her 2 toddlers Ben and Steven, Amélie and Freya Heinrich and Elli Driscoll spent some time with Lee in the upper hall playing with the parachute while Noah Driscoll watched with his music plugged into his ears, and Joe Bond juggled 3 balls encouraged by his Mum Sue.
John observed that he was the longest serving Church member present and was seated about where he would have been for Sunday School 60 year ago.
Amélie and Freya raced each other and Ben up and down the centre aisle. Sarah McCorkell extended to those around her, her electronic tablet which can read our hands and deduce our mood. Mine was “ restless” . Ben and Steven Chard played ball with Bill McCorkell who told me how he had lived at the school house at Newport when his Dad. John was the caretaker of it, the Village Junior School and he recalls the White Stones Community Church that met there for a few years at the school before disbanding and
dispersing to Wellspring Community Church, Gold Street Evangelical Church and Debden Pentecostal. Sue Bond brought around an iced sponge cake with strawberries on that her eldest son Harry had made. He could not come as he was working.
Since Anniversary Sunday we have learned more that Wayne Field aged 44 mentioned in the Prayer of Intercession has left Australind back in February after 8 years as pastor and is on a short term contract to Queensland Rail which ends in July, he then goes for 6 weeks of intensive fund raising and then to Melbourne for training and gets on with setting up a prayer team and support group for his new role beginning in 2013 at Carlisle in England, HQ of OPERATION MOBILISATION where he is to be International Training Co-ordinator.
It is a 3 year position initially non-salaried, researching, co-ordinating training teams across 110 countries resourcing and setting up training courses and training and organising trainers to go out to countries of the Majority Church where 75% of the Christians are today, including China. India, Myanmar, Nepal and South East Asia. It will involve some travelling to some of these countries. As he has discovered and I have discovered in Africa, many Church pastors lack just about everything and in Nepal in some of the churches the believers don't know how to pray or to worship as no one has taught them, and many pastors sermons in Central Africa depend on a few tracts, having no Bibles, and many have no knowledge of the Old Testament and precious little of the New Testament, a bit like 80% of the British population, and their stipends are pitiful and in many cases they don't have any remuneration.
Wayne is the youngest son of Doreen and Arthur Field married in Jan 1963 at Saffron Walden by the late Rev'd Horace Webb. Doreen was the adopted daughter of Doris and George Coston, both old friends of mine. George was a Deacon of the Saffron Walden Baptist Church. Wayne's wife is Jodi and he has 3 teenage daughters and all will be moving to Carlisle and all regard it as a great adventure of faith. They have to sell their home and dispose of many of their belongings and leave their family and friends and make passage from hot sunny Western Australia to darkest wettest coldest England, a near pagan country in the Northern Hemisphere lapsing into the worst depression since the 1930's, it's debts rising by the day, a country no longer capable of defending it's borders
What a time to come to this sceptred isle.
238th Church Anniversary
238 years to the day that the original foundation stone was laid
It was announced that Deacon Ged Pearce has been appointed be the new Eastern Baptist Association Treasurer
The Morning congregation was lively and downstairs being nearly full later worshippers were shepherded into the Gallery Outside the weather began sunny but within an hour heavy rain was falling again.
The Preparation Pre Service Song was “ALL TO US “ by Chris Tomlin
Chris Winfield dealt with Notices and mentioned it is our 28th Church Anniversary
Andrew Heinrich welcomed folk attending
Chris Winfield Opened with Prayer quoting Deut 31 v 8
“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you, he will never leave you, nor forsake you. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged”
We sang together the Old Hundredth Psalm “ All Creatures that on earth do dwell”
We sang “ Adoration... we bow our hearts” SHO9 92
Lizi & Matt taught us a wonderful new action song about the Church as a body including reference to follicle, bladder and bum. It went down as a great success.
We sang “Faithful One” [ 1TS89 D ]
During which the Offering was collected and presented
John Maddams led this
Prayer of Intercessions - for our MISSION of FAITH
FATHER GOD, as you will know since you witnessed it,
238 years ago today some where on this site, our founding fathers
laid a foundation stone for their new place of worship, their new headquarters for a MISSION of FAITH you called them to, which you bequeathed to us and our generation to develop and use, and we thank you, that you are a God of consistent continuance that has blessed this congregation of your people across all those years which are, but the doorstep of the years to come.
We think of HISTORY as HIS STORY, the story of your Son's work here Father, over the generations, so it is a story without ending continuing around us today, and going on into the future to the grand children of the young people here today, and beyond them also for as long as you plan.
by your Grace we make history, we are part of your story.
We thank you for all the Ministers,Trustees and Deacons,Teachers & Youth Leaders you have appointed to your work here since 1774
So we claim the guidance of your Holy Spirit for our Deacons, Church Officers and Administrator now, collectively in their deliberations and individually in their work for your Church and to the members of other groups and teams they set up to serve, review, consult and report
So we ask for the revelation to our leaders now and to us all, of the identity of the next shepherd of this flock, and pray for that person in their present ministry today and this week
and for those ministered to and receiving your message and your love today
that they will grow in grace, strength and spiritual power, and be prepared to say farewell to one they appreciate and love, and be prepared for the next chapter in their journey.
We ask for those of our own fellowship engaged in training and development on the Leadership Course including preparations for taking that further into another year with another group
Also for GAVIN as he extends his pastoral and preaching ministry and seeks your guidance for the future
and for ANDREW as he develops his training and hands on experience in youth work
Father God help, guide and encourage them all, as you prepare them for service as yet unknown,
We pray for the staff of Sunday Club this morning, for patience, and a plentiful supply of your wisdom and grace. We ask you to supply more volunteers to help in there week by week and for additional leaders for Grid able to handle teenagers wisely. We ask that you will reveal to those you wish to do this work, and reveal them to our leaders. We pray too for the leaders and staff of BB, Scouts, Guides, Brownies, and our other youth groups and activities
We pray that you will give to our young people fresh vision, new initiatives and a sense of purpose and show them how they should serve you in these days, and enable young and old to understand each other and co-operate to get your work done.
In our Eastern Baptist Association we pray this week for Halstead Baptist Church,for Clive Jones their minister, for guidance & encouragement in making the best use of their two church sites.
We pray for the forthcoming arrival of the Olympic Torch to our town when large crowds are expected and when we propose to sing the Good News to the waiting crowds and hold a barbecue, and as our neighbours at Abbey Lane prepare to do something similar and New Life Church's plans on the Common that day, and we pray for our 5 churches that you will bring into those events those you wish us to welcome, befriend, encourage and help
As the Olympic and Para Olympic Games touch our region we pray Father for all those athletes and visitors who will be staying at hotels in and around Stansted Airport and into the London area, and at Holiday Lets and B & B's where Gideons have lately been diligently placing hundreds more Bibles for the use of customers. May these guests find, use and benefit from those Bibles.
We thank you for our links over the years with the city of Kolcata formerly Calcutta, in India and for those Indians who run BMS Regional office there. For the preparation of the Action Teams going there in the autumn to serve our Baptist Churches there, and for the Christian work of Freeset Global in the Sonaa-gacchi suburb, the Red Light District, set up to provide alternative job opportunities in making Jute Bags and T Shirts, and in other ways, to the victims of the sex-trade drawn there from Rural India, Nepal and Bangladesh, through trafficking and poverty, to be abused by thousands of selfish godless men.
Give wisdom to the leaders there in marketing goods for profit, to help these women, and in developing new ways of employing them and give new hope to these women
We pray for Karl and Lynn, for their ministry here today and for their Church in Australia
and as another strand in this MISSION OF FAITH begun here,
and we pray for
Wayne Field 8 years at the Baptist Church at Australind, Australia and nominated to serve Operation Mobilisation from January as International Training Co-ordinator
along with others you called to Ministry who have been linked with our Church in recent decades who minister your word and your love where they serve you now.
Philip Webb as Ecumenical Mission Officer in Staffordshire and Derbyshire
James Grote at Oxford, in his 17th year there as pastor & as Director of the ARK art centre.
Hugh Ellis vicar at Langport in Somerset,
Stephen Heap Chaplain to Bedfordshire University & at the Yarls Wood Detention Centre.
Dane Baker at Emsworth Baptist Church in Hampshire with a tribe of 80 teenagers.
Simon Mattholie celebrating this weekend the 50th anniversary of Rural Ministries and
Richard Bending retired vicar in Norfolk. He united 5 churches in the Glaven Valley..
For them all strengthen, equip, guide, encourage and help them today.
We pray this week for the workers of our BMS World Mission in Italy where their Baptist Union has 120 churches but only 30 ministers
We pray Father that you would raise up new lay and ordained leaders, and guide wisely their BU Executive presided over by your servant RAFFA ELE. VOLPE.
We ask for protection, good health, wisdom,and compassionate sensitivity for
Alex and Huwii Anderson in the difficult Basil-licata region;
Ann and David MacFarlane leading a bilingual congregation of
Italians and Filipinos in Reggio Calabria, and
Amanda Redwood completing the first year of her ministry at Florence.
and remembering the persecuted churches we pray for our fellow believers in Nigeria this day where each Sunday for weeks the Boko Haram Sect has destroyed churches, and homes of Christians , murdered Christians, made wives into widows, and children orphans, in the name of their religion
We ask this Sunday that you will protect all the Churches in Nigeria from this mob, and that as already in areas hit,
you will raise up many more to follow your cause and be citizens of your kingdom
We pray for families of those murdered,for parents, for children
For those maimed and mutilated facing uncertain future
For the families of the suicide bombers who suffer too
For the leaders and members of the Boko Haram Sect that their ideas, aims and attitudes will be changed and they will hear you calling them to stop persecuting you,to become your co-workers
So LORD as you called some 60 odd people 238 years ago to engage in a MISSION of FAITH and to build a new meeting place right on the edge of town, a congregation since, of over 3000 people, who have served you here, so we have remembered the growth of that MISSION of FAITH today
praying also that if anyone here this day has come
seeking the salvation you offer,
seeking answers to needs, problems and questions,
that Lord you will meet them here this morning revealing to them your personal message to each one. Speak to us all a timely word and send us forth anew to serve you and expand that
MISSION of FAITH in the here and now, and in the future
We ask these things In the Power of the Name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who is reliably -
the Same, Yesterday, Today and For Ever.
AMEN
We sang “ God of Our Yesterdays “ [ SH09 104 ] as an Expression of faithfulness
and Word of Encouragement
Tracy Todd read the Scriptures
Ephesians 2 v 11 - 3 v 13 set out below
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)-- 12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit
19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
31For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--
2Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets . 6This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
7I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. 8Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord
Ian Sutherland interviewed Karl and Lyn which told us that
Karl had been born in 1963 in South Africa but his Dad was arrested and gaoled there but they escaped to Botswana abd were able to seek political Asylum in Hemel Hempstead. Herts, where they transferred to the care of the Quakers ther and the Salvation army provided them furniture
But his Dad, to escape the British weather moved to live in Australia when he was 13 and lived near Melbourne. Lyn was born in Sydney and was a Roman Catholic. She met God at a tent mission. She had a sense of call to mission, She went to college but was not very good at it and switched to another course through which she met Karl It was a match made in Heaven.
10 years later they went to Bible College and then went to serve in Egypt amongst the pottery people in the slums if Cairo. They had to move on because Karl had problems getting his Visa to Egypt continued. So they sold their business to nationals and moved to Cypress. They have 3 teenage children. All who were educated at the Hebron Christian Boarding School in India so the family moved there
The last 5 years they have been serving in Kolkuta [ formerly Calcutta ] in the red light district of Sonaa Gacchi to help some of the 10,000 women entrapped there in prostitution because of destitution in India or brought in my trafficking from Bangladesh and Nepal. Sometimes they were sold as small children by parents unable to afford to raise them . Young women mainly who are drugged and then raped The couple work for GLOBAL FREESET TRUST which teaches these women literacy, numeracy, budgeting, debt management and child care. They offer the women choice, 1] the means to leave the prostitution racket, 2] the means to live in community and for victims to be given safe accommodation. 3 ] to transform their live coupled with the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus and offering the way of Repentance, Forgiveness and Reconciliation There are about 180 women in the congregation they have helped. They themselves attend Carey Baptist Church in the city.
Karl preached the sermon from Ephesians 2 verse 11 onwards
1, DON'T FORGET WHERE YOU CAME FROM
He reminded us off his early life
and where we were, without God's Grace
outsiders and ignorant without hope.
We had no rights God in Jesus Christ gave us rights.
V 13 We were brought near
Gentiles and Jews had been separated but are no longer trespassers
We had no rights of access to God until Jesus Christ broke down the wall of division and made us together a NEW PEOPLE for HIMSELF The Kingdom of God
2 OUR BEHAVIOUR AS CHRISTIANS ARE AS MEMBERS OF A COMMUNITY
We are bought to be reconcilers
2nd Corinthians 5 v 17
We struggle to be reunited with one another
Our's is the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors
Karl and his boss Carey struggle with their relationship despite both being engaged in Mission together
Paul and Barnabas had had a row over whether to allow John Mark to continue with them on their mission. They split over it and went separate ways but years later Paul asked for John Mark to accompany him again.
3 .WE MUST BE HONEST AS TO WHO WE ARE NOT EVEN TO AVOID CONFLICT
We need to demonstrate an attitude of submission
Karl is a trustee of the 100 year old Hebron School 18,000 up in the Himalayas and that is a challenge sometimes in deciding policy. We have to help and encourage one another Our hearts of pride have to be challenged.
We have to learn to give way to other people.
The Temple of the New Testament age is the Kingdom of God
We are citizens of that new Kingdom
Christ is the Corner stone
We are the building blocks.
The Temple of God was in Jerusalem and that was where he met the people but now
it is in us.
We are the plan of the new home
God is making His home in us.
As some people entering King's College chapel Cambridge would say that is where God hangs out and the Jews felt that way about their temple but that has passed away and today Jesus is making a new Temple. This is a mystery not predicted in the OT.
Verse 8 The Commission given to Paul and to us across the years is
to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles,
to make plain to everyone that the Church is the vehicle now to all the world
We are the means he will do that
Paul recognised that he too was a sinner but was the working by the of the power of Jesus Christ
We can only succeed in doing it in the power of Jesus Christ working in and through us
Karl remarked how unfit he is for the work God has called him to do
We cannot do things on our own
God needs us to be willing to do things for Him
4. THE WAY OF THE CROSS IS THE ONLY WAY GOD WORKS
though we are defective and may face defeats
We have to submit
We have to subscribe
We have to sacrifice
We have to make sacrifices and prioritise
We have to act in community and remember Christ is a peacemaker
We must give him all the glory due to His Name,
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We sang “Hear the call of the Kingdom” SH09 30 F
Chris pronounced the Blessing
We said together THE GRACE to one another
It had been intended to hold a picnic in Bridge End Gardens but it had rained most of the night and again in the morning so it was decided to stay in the orchard, that is where we had worshipped, which 238 years ago had been an orchard, so 35 folk gathered in 3 oval shaped groups in the chapel area with the chairs pushed back and using tables and in one case a picnic cloth on the floor and ate their picnic.
Todd and Adrian climbed into the gallery for a private chat, Libby Chard with her 2 toddlers Ben and Steven, Amélie and Freya Heinrich and Elli Driscoll spent some time with Lee in the upper hall playing with the parachute while Noah Driscoll watched with his music plugged into his ears, and Joe Bond juggled 3 balls encouraged by his Mum Sue.
John observed that he was the longest serving Church member present and was seated about where he would have been for Sunday School 60 year ago.
Amélie and Freya raced each other and Ben up and down the centre aisle. Sarah McCorkell extended to those around her, her electronic tablet which can read our hands and deduce our mood. Mine was “ restless” . Ben and Steven Chard played ball with Bill McCorkell who told me how he had lived at the school house at Newport when his Dad. John was the caretaker of it, the Village Junior School and he recalls the White Stones Community Church that met there for a few years at the school before disbanding and
dispersing to Wellspring Community Church, Gold Street Evangelical Church and Debden Pentecostal. Sue Bond brought around an iced sponge cake with strawberries on that her eldest son Harry had made. He could not come as he was working.
Since Anniversary Sunday we have learned more that Wayne Field aged 44 mentioned in the Prayer of Intercession has left Australind back in February after 8 years as pastor and is on a short term contract to Queensland Rail which ends in July, he then goes for 6 weeks of intensive fund raising and then to Melbourne for training and gets on with setting up a prayer team and support group for his new role beginning in 2013 at Carlisle in England, HQ of OPERATION MOBILISATION where he is to be International Training Co-ordinator.
It is a 3 year position initially non-salaried, researching, co-ordinating training teams across 110 countries resourcing and setting up training courses and training and organising trainers to go out to countries of the Majority Church where 75% of the Christians are today, including China. India, Myanmar, Nepal and South East Asia. It will involve some travelling to some of these countries. As he has discovered and I have discovered in Africa, many Church pastors lack just about everything and in Nepal in some of the churches the believers don't know how to pray or to worship as no one has taught them, and many pastors sermons in Central Africa depend on a few tracts, having no Bibles, and many have no knowledge of the Old Testament and precious little of the New Testament, a bit like 80% of the British population, and their stipends are pitiful and in many cases they don't have any remuneration.
Wayne is the youngest son of Doreen and Arthur Field married in Jan 1963 at Saffron Walden by the late Rev'd Horace Webb. Doreen was the adopted daughter of Doris and George Coston, both old friends of mine. George was a Deacon of the Saffron Walden Baptist Church. Wayne's wife is Jodi and he has 3 teenage daughters and all will be moving to Carlisle and all regard it as a great adventure of faith. They have to sell their home and dispose of many of their belongings and leave their family and friends and make passage from hot sunny Western Australia to darkest wettest coldest England, a near pagan country in the Northern Hemisphere lapsing into the worst depression since the 1930's, it's debts rising by the day, a country no longer capable of defending it's borders
What a time to come to this sceptred isle.