It was great to be together this morning and celebrate the grace and goodness of God, and join our voices in songs of praise!

Today’s sermon, preached by Peter Bowley and the second message in a three-part mini-series exploring the “One Another” commands of Scripture, is available to listen to or download from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.

It was great to be together this morning and celebrate the grace and goodness of God, and join our voices in songs of praise!

Today’s sermon, preached by Peter Bowley and the first message entitled a New Commandment from John 13:31-35 in a three-part mini-series exploring the “One Another” commands of Scripture, is available to listen to or download from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.

Tomorrow (3rd June 2011) is the next instalment of our “First Friday Fast” at Grace Church.  It’s one day a month we encourage all the people of Grace Church to set aside, to devote time to fasting and praying for our church and the advance of the gospel in our community and city.

If you plan to join us tomorrow in fasting and praying, may these specific points guide your praying:

1. There would be an increase in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our church life.

• Pray that God would freshly pour out his Holy Spirit upon us and fill us as individuals and as a church.

• Pray that God would revive us as a people, shatter our spiritual complacency and apathy and increase our hunger and passion for him, and deepen our longing for more of his power and presence in our life/church.

• Pray that God would powerfully make himself known to us in our Sunday gatherings.

2. There would be an increase of faith in God, and confidence in the gospel to save sinners in our community and city.

• Pray that God would replace our puny expectations of what He can do, with great expectations and great requests.  That we might, as the old hymn says, “ponder anew what the Almighty can do”.

• Pray that God would fill us with his Holy Spirit, so we might be bold witnesses, overcoming our weaknesses and fear in evangelism, to faithfully proclaim and represent the gospel to our city and reach the lost of our community with the world-shattering, life-transforming truth of Jesus.

• Pray that God would bring fresh new momentum to the unstoppable mission, and that the gospel might sweep through our community and city bringing many people to salvation for the glory of the risen and exalted Jesus!

As I was recently thinking through the importance of fasting, the following blog post came to my attention.  It was written by Tim Shorey, who is a pastor of Trinity Fellowship Church in New Jersey, USA.  Hope it helps as you prepare for tomorrow.

Tim Writes:
“Have you ever been so hurried and harried that when some good news or circumstaces arrived you had to stop what you were doing, pause in mid-activity, put things down, take a deep breath, and then pay attention to take it all in?

That’s something of what Christian fasting is. It’s stopping the mad rush and frantic pace to pause, stop what you’re doing, put things down, take a deep breath, get focused, and enjoy the news of all that God is and has for us in Christ! Try that out this coming week and see if maybe it transforms your abstinence from fast to feast!

Here’s what the fasting believer carries with him/her into each season of abstinence:

1. Confidence that the fast will not make God love him/her more, though it will help us to love God more. God cannot love us any more than He already does. Fasting (or not) does not affect the love of God for us; it affects only the love we have for God.

2. Confidence that our standing before God is not dependent on the frequency or quality of one’s fasts. Our standing before God rests on the finished work of Christ in our behalf, and the perfect life and obedience (which includes flawless fastings) which Jesus performed while on earth and credits to our account upon our faith in Him.

3. Confidence that our fasting is inspired, sustained and made fruitful by the Spirit of Grace within us. We need not fast in our own strength, but as with all works we do, we may fast in the strength of Christ through His Spirit.

4. Confidence that as we draw near to God through Christ in fasting and prayer, God is going to prepare a feast of grace for us as we linger in less distracted fellowship in His presence.

 

Share and Enjoy:

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PLEASE INVITE YOUR FRIENDS!*

FLYERS AVAILABLE AT INFO POINT!

*Christmas is a time when people are particularly open to coming to church, and engaging with the Nativity story.  This series is intended to be a wonderful opportunity to invite our friends to church.  The services on these mornings more orientated towards guests and unbelievers.  The messages will be shorter (undrer 30mins!), and we’ll be singing more “Christmas-sy songs” and carols, and having seasonal refreshments after each meeting!

Thanks to this week’s parent’s “Take Home Sheet”, I noticed that in “Generations Sunday School” our children have been singing, reading and learning Psalm 23 together, seeing the grace of the Lord, the good shepherd, towards sinner-sheep like us.

As this is a great Psalm to help our children understand a bit more about the nature of God’s love for us and his grace towards us in Jesus Christ, the good Shepherd, I thought I’d point out a handy resources that we stock on our book table, that can help us parents seize the moment and reinforce the wonderful truths our children have been studying.

Sammy & His Shepherd by Susan Hunt

In Sammy and His Shepherd, Susan Hunt offers families a delightful story, built around the Twenty-third Psalm, that will help children grow in their understanding of what it is to live among a community of redeemed people guided by a loving Lord.

Sammy the sheep lives a happy life as part of a flock that is well cared for by a kind and good shepherd. But when he strikes up a friendship with a sheep in the next pasture, he begins to understand that not all shepherds are so loving. Eventually, Sammy’s kind shepherd purchases Sammy’s friend for himself, and from that point Sammy takes delight in helping his new “sister” sheep get to know their shepherd and his ways.

Delightful illustrations engage and hold the attention of young readers while the eleven brief chapters unfold the Twenty-third Psalm phrase by phrase. Discussion questions and activities help parents guide their children into a deeper understanding of the biblical text.

Available to order for only £8.50!

Twice a month on Sunday nights LIFE (our 18-30′s singles and students group) gather for dedicated teaching, discipleship and small group discussion.  These times are designed to equip them with discernment and wisdom, so that they might think biblically about a whole range of issues and topics that are specific to this season of life.

To begin this year, LIFE is going to be studying Joshua Harris’ latest book, Dug Down Deep.  It’s a well written, insightful, and challenging read!

Dug Down Deep is a book about doctrine.  Josh makes it clear that everybody is a theologian. Theology is simply what we believe about God, and we all believe stuff about God. The question is, are you a good theologian or a bad one?

We’ve chosen this book to study together because theology matters.  As Josh says: “Theology matters, because if we get it wrong, then our whole life will be wrong.”

But theology isn’t supposed to be boring. On the contrary, good, biblical theology is at the heart of a vibrant, loving relationship with God. Josh comments: “I write in hopes that you’ll catch a glimpse of how good and beautiful the old paths of orthodoxy are, how firm and trustworthy the solid rock of sound doctrine can be for your life.”

For more info about Dug Down Deep you can check out Josh’s book blog, read a review, read the first chapter online, or watch one of the videos that were made for/about the book below!

Copies are available to anyone in our LIFE group for a fantastical £5!!!  (that’s over 50% off the RRP!).  Email us to get a copy now!

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.