We want to be a church who loves to read, and so to help us toward that end we are resurrecting our GRACE CHURCH “Book of the Month” Recommendation idea.

Each month we plan to highlight one book that we feel compliments and re-inforces the truths taught on Sunday mornings, and will benefit our souls and families to go deeper in believing, living out and representing God and his gospel to the world.  The books will be available to purchase on Sunday mornings – at a cracking price!

To kick us off, and to go alongside our new preaching series from the book of Daniel, we want to recommend:

Daniel (Reformed Expository Commentary) by Iain Duguid

Iain Duguid is an Old Testament scholar with a passion for the church and for the preaching of the gospel. A native of Great Britain, he initially trained as an Electrical Engineer and served as a missionary in Liberia, West Africa, before studying for the ministry. He completed a Ph.D. in Old Testament at Cambridge University, and subsequently planted a church on an inner-city housing estate in Oxford, England. He has taught Hebrew and Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi and at Westminster Seminary in California, before moving to his present position at Grove City College, in Grove City, Pennsylvania. While working at the seminary in California, he also planted and pastored a church in Fallbrook. He takes every possible opportunity to share his love for the Scriptures around the world, teaching regularly in Latvia as well as having taught in the Ukraine and in Canada.  He also currently pastors Christ Presbyterian Church in Grove City, PA.

Dr Duguid’s commentary on Daniel is the “must-read” commentary for our series. Duguid is a wonderful combination of top-class scholar and pastor, and this commentary is a rare blend of insightful exegesis and discerning application.  Full of good scholarship, with a devotional edge, it is very accessible, and will educate, edify and encourage any reader as the glories of Christ coming shining through Scripture texts that can otherwise appear obscure and irrelevant.

This commentary will be available on Sunday mornings for only £12!

It was great to be together on Sunday morning for the first time in 2012!  What a privilege to lift up our voices in praise of our great God, who’s vast, unmeasured grace has saved us!

Colin Elliott led us in singing praises to God, and rejoicing in the truth of the gospel. Peter Bowley lead us in sharing communion together.

We sang the following songs together:

• Generous King (Sovereign Grace Music, “The Gathering” album)
• You Alone Can Rescue (Matt Redman, “We Shall Not Be Shaken” album)
• Grace Unmeasured (Sovereign Grace Music, “Worship GOD Live” album)
• I Stand Amazed (Traditional Hymn, Passion arrangement)

This week we began our new preaching series for the early part of 2012, from the book of Daniel.  You can listen to or download the first sermon of the series, preached by Nathan Smith from Daniel 1:1-21, entitled “By The Rivers of Babylon ” from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.

Here’s the quote from Sunday’s sermon:

J.I. Packer:
“The book as a whole forms a dramatic reminder that [in the face of the might and splendour of the Babylonian Empire], the God of Israel is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, “that heaven rules” (cf. Daniel 4:26); that God’s hand is on history at every point; that history is, indeed, no more than ‘His Story’ — the unfolding of His eternal plan, and that the kingdom that will triumph in the end is God’s.”

Tomorrow (6th January) sees the first instalment of 2012 of our monthly “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.

Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, and at the beginning of the year we want to dedicate time to praying again for God’s grace to be lavished upon His church.  As I was thinking about preparing our hearts for tomorrow I was stirred afresh and helped by these words from Josh Patterson.  Josh is a pastor at The Village Church in Texas.

Josh writes:
“A call to prayer is a declaration of dependence.  A call to prayer is an invitation to intimacy.  A call to prayer is a corporate response to grace.  The Lord has proven Himself faithful to His people, both biblically and historically, when they have humbled themselves before Him in prayer…  We want to ask God to do what only God can do.  A call to prayer is a confession of a need and desire for greater affections for Jesus. We need Him to do what we cannot, and we desperately desire to grow in our affections for Him. To that end, we will labor in prayer as watchmen on the walls.”

As we think about the year ahead, and what God might want to do in us and through at Grace Church in 2012, let’s join together and pray for the following:

• Give thanks to God for his unending grace, mercy and faithfulness towards us as a church in 2011.  There are numerous examples we could draw from throughout the year.

• Pray that God would bless our church in 2012 and use us in mighty ways to shine the bring light of the gospel into the darkness of the world around us.

• Pray that the Holy Spirit would move powerfully among us as a church; that God would increase our thirst for him, and deepen a burning desire to see him act, and manifest himself and his power — that people would be healed, that spiritual gifts would be used to build up the church, that the Spirit would soften and pierce hard hearts by the power and truth of the gospel.

• Pray that God would stir up greater devotion and desire in our hearts for him, and for his Son.  Pray that we would grow in treasuring the good news of the gospel.

• Pray that our passion for Jesus would be freshly awakened, and our desire to proclaim the gospel to our community and city would grow, be Spirit-empowered and effective.

• Pray that he would make us a people and church who are characterised by gratitude and joy.

• Pray that our church would grow as many from our community and city come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

• Pray that God would give us a God-sized vision of what he is doing in his world, and that he would give us an increase of faith to play our small part in His unstoppable gospel mission.

Today (2nd December 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.

To encourage us in the privilege of prayer today, I want to share with you a couple of short quotes and one-liners I read from E.M Bounds (1835-1913), a methodist minister from the southern USA, who wrote 9 books on the subject of prayer.  May they help us see why prayer is so important to us as a local church.

“The power of the Church truly to bless rests on intercession—asking and receiving heavenly gifts to carry to men.”

“Prayer is of transcendent importance. Prayer is the mightiest agent to advance God’s work. Praying hearts and hands only can do God’s work. Prayer succeeds when all else fails.”

“Prayer is our most formidable weapon, the thing which makes all else we do efficient.”

Here’s a few prayer points to help us guide our praying.

GENERAL PRAYER POINTS:

• Give thanks to God for his unending grace and mercy towards us as a church.
• Pray for an increase in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our church life.
• Pray for an increase of faith in God, and 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!

Here’s some more focused points for this month:

• Pray for connections to be made as we serve our community during the “Single Parents Fayre”, and for gospel opportunities to come from those connections and relationships.
• Pray we might be able to meet the needs of the poor in our community and bless them, as we seek to demonstrate the love of God in our community outreach activities.
• Pray for people to come to the Christmas Eve Carol Service so that they might hear the gospel and be saved.
• Pray for your own heart, that you might grow in compassion for the lost and needy.
• Pray for the one or two people you could invite to the Carol Service, and for boldness to invite them!

It was great to be together on Sunday morning, to lift up our voices in praise of our great God, who’s grace has saved us!

Colin Elliott led us in singing praises to God, and rejoicing in the truth of the gospel.

We sang the following songs together:

• Before the Throne of God Above (Sovereign Grace, “Songs for a Cross-Centred Life)
• Hail the Day (Sovereign Grace Music, “Risen” album)
• We Have Been Healed (Sovereign Grace Music, “Risen” album)
• Now Why This Fear (Sovereign Grace Music, “The Gathering” album)
• In Christ Alone (Keith & Kristin Getty, “In Christ Alone” album)

This week we had the privilege of being joined by Stephen Phillips, our good friend and the pastor of Esglesia Evangelicade Vilassar de Mar (Evangelical Church of Vilassar de Mar), a church just north of Barcelona, Spain, which we have had the privilege of building links and friendship with over the last few years. (You can read more about Steve and the church here and here.)

You can listen to or download Steve’s sermon, entitled “Proverbs and Compassion” from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.

Find out how you can start to apply this sermon through “Help the Homeless” or “East Bristol Foodbank Collection”

It was great to be together on Sunday morning, to lift up our voices in praise of our great God, who’s grace has saved us!

Jadie Stiven led us in singing praises to God, and rejoicing in the truth of the gospel.  We also shared Communion together, allowing us time to reflect on the amazing grace of God to us!

We sang the following songs together:

• Saviour of the World (Ben Cantelon, “Spirit Break Out” album)
• Glorious Day (The Village Church, “God of Victory” album)
• The Saving One (Starfield, “The Saving One” album)
• The Power of the Cross (Stuart Townend, “Best of Stuart Townend Live” album)
• All I Have is Christ (Sovereign Grace Music, “Next 2009 Live” album)

Sunday’s sermon was the fifth part in our “Bookends of the Christian Life” series, inspired by the book of the same title by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington.  It was preached by Nathan Smith and was entitled: “The Holy Spirit, Sanctification & Me.”  You can listen to or download the audio file from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.

Here’s the quotes from the message:

William Plummer:
“Regeneration is an act of God’s Spirit. Sanctification is a work of God’s Spirit, consequent upon that act.  In regeneration we become ‘new born babes’; in sanctification we attain the stature of full-grown men in Christ Jesus.”

John Owen:
“Let us consider what regard we ought to have to our own duty and to the grace of God.  Some would separate these things as inconsistent.  If holiness be our duty, they would say, there is no room for grace; and if it be the result of grace there is no place for duty.  But our duty and God’s grace are nowhere opposed in the matter of sanctification; for the one absolutely supposes the other.  We cannot perform our duty without the grace of God; nor does God give his grace for any other purpose than that we may perform our duty.”

Jerry Bridges:
“There is no question that we are responsible to pursue holiness with all the intensity that the word pursue implies.  Every moral imperative in the Bible addresses itself to our responsibility to discipline ourselves unto godliness.  We are not just to turn it all over to the Lord and let Him live His life through us.  Rather, we are to love one another; we are to put to death the misdeeds of the body; we are to put off the old man and put on the new man.  If we are to make progress in the pursuit of holiness, we must assume our responsibility to discipline or train ourselves.  But we are to do all this in total dependence on the Holy Spirit to work in us and strengthen us with the strength that is in Christ.”

Thomas Chalmers, “The Explusive Power of a New Affection”
“The best way to disengage an impure desire is to engage a pure one; the best way to expel the love of what is evil is to embrace the love of what is good instead.  To be specific, we must replace the object of our sinful affection with an infinitely more worthy one — G od himself.  In this way we do not move from a full heart into a vacuum.  Instead, we move from a full heart to a heart bursting with fullness.  And the explusive power of a new affection weakens and even destroys the power of sin in our hearts.”