So now there is a page on our site, called Daily Inspiration, where you will see the daily Scripture Union, WordLive, activities. They follow a daily pattern; Helping you prepare yourself, the day’s bible verse, a short study on the verse, guided prayer, An opportunity to go deeper in study of the verses, some commentary and finally if you want to follow a bible in a year reading program then there are the verses for you to do that.

On the page you will see some titles and the first few sentences from each part that will give you an idea of what it will covering. Click on the links at the start of each section to take you directly to the WordLive site.

To check it out click here

It seems that when we approach corporate worship we have an opportunity to bring to God so many things. Our corporate prayers, our thanks, our desires, our dreams, our hurts and praise.

So this coming Sunday, what will you bring? How can we encourage each other? What will our praise to God be?

Some quotes on worship to provoke you…..

Marianne H. Micks
“When we worship together as a community of living Christians, we do not worship
alone, we worship ‘with all the company of heaven.’”

Charles H. Spurgeon
“God is to be praised with the voice, and the heart should go therewith in holy
exultation.”

Max Lucado
“Worship is the thank you that can’t be silenced”

Michael Catt
“If we are going to worship in Spirit, we must develop a spirit of worship.”

Graham Kendrick
“Worship is first and foremost for His benefit, not ours, though it is marvelous to
discover that in giving Him pleasure, we ourselves enter into what can become our
richest and most wholesome experience in life.”

For starters
For those who would like time to find out about someone else – and share a little something about themselves – we are starting with a short encounter session. This will be guided at the start and do join in if you can. When we’ve done these in the past everyone who took part said how good they were.

Upstairs and downstairs
In the Pullman Suite, Doug will be guiding a group thinking about showing God’s Love.
Alternatively there will be 4 hands on activities in the Great Eastern Room, where you can do one or all at your own pace, either alone or with people.

Back Together
After this we’ll all come back together for a short time of worship.

Join in / chill out / share
We obviously hope you feel free to join in all that is happening. However, if you’d prefer to sit out and watch and drink coffee until you see what is happening and then join in, that’s fine. If you’d prefer to and either share with someone else or even get someone to pray with you, that’s fine too.

We’ve got a structure but it’s up to you how you want to use it. However it works out we hope you’ll enjoy the morning and go home blessed.

Ultimately with the system i am trying to provide you will be able to search through bible verses, key words, who the preacher was, and when the preach took place. But before we commit to anything I would be very grateful if you could go to the sermons and have a listen. (or at least try!) Then either on this post or via email or a phone call give me any feed back you think will be helpful to get a good application for you. 

Click Here to listen

For many causes of suffering, the answer is that God allows us free will to make what choices we will and that includes choices that hurt or harm other people, and therefore most suffering that takes place on the earth is, in fact, man-made.

But moving tectonic plates and earthquakes don’t fall into the category of man-made suffering, so what is the answer? The Bible does give some indications as to causes of such things but these are probably only of interest to Christian believers or theologians. Perhaps the simplest way of putting it is to say that the Bible suggests that since the Fall, when sin entered the world, the world has not ‘worked’ properly as God originally designed it.  Things go wrong!

But does God stand back and ignore the plight of mankind? Definitely not! The Biblical picture is of a God who intervenes in His world when people cry out to Him. He is always there for people when they ask Him to be. What is frightening is that God respects our desire for freedom and therefore lets us get on with our self-focused lives, and live with the consequences of them. As we become aware of our folly, we turn back to Him and the moment we do, He is there for us. Perhaps if we lived more in harmony with God, we might receive wisdom from Him how to run nations peacefully, build buildings and infrastructures that can cope with earthquakes in earthquake zones, and be much better able to help one another when things do go wrong. These are legitimate suggestions in the light of the revelation of the Bible, but they may not find favour in those who have never taken time to check out the bible record.

Luke 2:25,26 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel , and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

Most of us have dreams. No, not the dreams-at-night type of dreams, but dreams of what might be. Sometimes those dreams just lurk there in the background of your consciousness and you’re hardly aware of them – but they’re there. For many people they’re in the form of, “If only….” They may be dreams of winning the lottery (most unlikely to be fulfilled) or they may be dreams of going somewhere or achieving something – perhaps of learning something new. Oh yes, most people have dreams, even if they’re just below the conscious level. Simeon was someone with a ‘dream’.

Simeon lived in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, the place where the Temple of God was. Simeon was a Jew and no doubt well taught. Simeon had been taught the many scriptures, in what we now call the Old Testament, that pointed to One who would come to fulfil God’s purposes of the ages for Israel. He looked at Israel in subservience to the Roman overlords, and he read the scrolls and saw in them the glory that Israel had once been. He saw that the One would come to comfort the people of Israel, and be the consolation of Israel. The teachers had differing views of the sort of person this One would be. Some said a conquering king, other said a suffering servant, because the prophetic scriptures seemed to indicate both, and they couldn’t see how he could be both, so they opted for one or the other. Simeon read these Scriptures and then it was as if someone or something – the Holy Spirit could it be? – seemed to say to him that this One would come in his lifetime. He became absolutely convinced, the more he thought about it, that this was God confirming this to him.

Now, do you see what has happened in what we’ve just described? Yesterday we described again ways that God speaks. Included in the list was through the Scriptures, and also directly by His Holy Spirit. In the text, in the verses we’re reading, the Scriptures aren’t actually mentioned, but being a righteous Jew in Jerusalem, he would certainly have been taught them. There clearly was, in Simeon, a coming together of Word and Spirit. He read it and he heard it in his spirit. That’s how it happens in Christians. This man is a pre-Christian, a Christian in all but name, for he believes in the saviour, even though he’s not there yet! He’s read of him and been spoken to within himself of him. He is utterly convinced about the Coming One.

That’s amazing because it’s more than most people today achieve, who now have all the story of Jesus available to them and yet who don’t bother to read, don’t bother to seek. Jesus was later to say, “Seek and go on seeking, and you will find.” (Mt 7:7 using the ongoing tense that is there). We don’t know quite how it was for Simeon but often there is something in people that starts them looking (God speaking to them?) and so they start searching and as they start searching the search becomes more intense – and as they go on searching they come to a place of decision, a place of realisation.

If you have read through these Advent meditations, welcome to the seekers club. Whether you’re a Christian or a not-yet-Christian, welcome to the Club. Remember what it says at the top of the contents page – in the Introduction. As you read, pray, because as you pray you are seeking God and seekers who go on seeking always find. May this time be a time when you either find and deepen your existing relationship with God, or even perhaps for some, find Him for the first time. We’re only a few days off Christmas now. Have this most wonderful of presents. If need be, go back and reread these meditations, go and read the whole story in a Bible. Seek and find.

If you want to see other Meditations written by Tony Thomas please click here

Luke 2:21,22 On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived. When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

“Well, what I think…” How many times have you heard those words? Somehow we try to assert our individuality or create our uniqueness by opinions, as if what we think is THE all-important thing in life. Anyone who has any public role in life – whether it be a politician, TV pundit, newspaper writer, or even simple manager – constantly faces the great temptation to believe that their view is the right one. Politicians probably hold the most extreme position in this respect, when they have to follow a ‘party line’, but we all do it in a lesser measure; we all hold a particular line. I once heard a group of about fifteen men discussing a particular contentious subject with an amazing degree of unity. It was only after about ten minutes that I realized that they had all watched the same documentary on TV the night before and were now all holding the same view. The only problem with all this is when a contradictory view appears in another ‘documentary’ some months later.

With this in mind it is refreshing to observe the simplicity of Mary and Joseph. They don’t go on their own ideas; they, quite clearly, follow God’s views. God has said, through the two angels, that the child is to be named Jesus – so they name him Jesus. Next, being part of the Jewish race, having the Law of Moses, the Law given by God to Israel through Moses, they go to do what the Law required. The Law required the couple to go to the temple after a prescribed period after the birth and present an offering to the Lord. Now this is not the place (with insufficient space) to explain the sacrificial system for the Jews, simply to reiterate that it had been given to Israel to follow. Mary and Joseph therefore followed the dictum, if that’s what God says then we’ll do it.

As we look back over the story so far, we can see that this couple received their guidance from God through direct heavenly communication (the angels), through circumstances (the emperor), through other people (the shepherds), and now through the written word of God (the Law). Similarly today we receive our guidance through heavenly communication (the Holy Spirit – see Gal 5:25 ), through circumstances, through other people (see esp. Eph 4:11 for ministries and 2 Pet 5:1,2 – shepherds!) and through the Scriptures (see 2 Tim 3:16 ,17). What a wealth of guidance available to us! I wonder if we avail ourselves of it, or do we only go by what we think, our opinion, our ideas? Such people frequently go astray.

So here is this beautiful couple being led of God. The truth is that it is probably Joseph taking the lead and his capability for following dreams, as we’ll yet see before the story finishes, suggests that he is particularly good at following God’s guidance. Mary, we suggest, simply follows – she’s probably a bit younger than him as well, and following your man was the teaching of the day – and because he’s won the right to call her to follow his headship by first having laid down his life for her. See Paul’s teaching on this (Eph 5:22 -25) which is beautifully epitomized in this couple. So for Mary, she has the additional form of guidance, so alien a concept in the modern Western world, of a life-giving husband, winning her love and submission by his attentiveness to God’s voice and God’s will. Amazing! Is that not beautiful?

If you want to see other Meditations written by Tony Thomas please click here