A good walk and a cream tea

Today, as the weather was once again so good, we went over to Budleigh Salterton and had a walk along the beach before lunch.

And then we went on a walk, following the River Otter, up to Otterton Mill, for a cream tea!

Which we all enjoyed!

Oh Deer

Today we went to visit the Earl of Devon in his castle. We went on a ride through his deer park.

We all enjoyed the tractor ride.

And some of us enjoyed the zip wire.

You're Fired

Those of you who were following our summer holiday blog will know that the girls painted two penguins which were going to be fired, but too late for us to collect before the end of our holiday. Click here to read that blog. Well - now that we're on holiday again Joanna and Penguin have been collected. And here they are.

And today they painted a bee, a snail and a footprint.

As well as going for a walk along the river this morning, and collecting shells on the beach this afternoon.

Now they're all fast asleep.

There's no such thing as a free lunch

There is a saying which goes, 'there is no such thing as a free lunch'. The implication of this is that if you are having a lunch for which there is no need to pay (money) there will be something that someone wants from you as a result. And so, in one form or another, we end up paying.

The word 'grace' flies in the face of this mentality - God's gift of forgiveness and a new life, is just that - a gift. And yet we find this really hard to believe. Instead we think that God only loves those people who are good enough. Or that there are things that we have to do to earn merit points with God. But no, it's all gift.

And then if we follow this line of thinking we soon get into the grace v works debate which is picked up on in James 2 in the NT. Today, in our series in Philippians we got to 2:12-30. Paul begins by encouraging his readers to 'work out your salvation in fear and trembling' (2:12). It is important to note that it is 'work out' and not 'work for your salvation...'. We are not working in order to earn anything, rather it is a similar line of thinking to 1:27 ... live in a manner worthy of your calling as a follower of Jesus. If you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sin, if you've asked for God's forgiveness, if you proclaim 'Jesus is Lord', if you believe that Jesus is coming again - if you really believe these things - then you will live in a certain way.

And although this work is very much God's work (1:6, 2:13) we need to co-operate. God will not force His will on us. We need to listen and obey to the promptings of God. If we want to go our own way, God will let us. One of the ways we listen to God is to prayerfully read the Bible: both regularly as an individual, but also corporately within the church community. Scripture Union is just one organisation who produce daily Bible reading notes to help us understand and apply God's Word. We had some copies of their different publications on display at the church today - visit the Scripture Union website to find out more.

Scripture Union also do an online Bible reading resource called Word Live.



To listen to this message click here

Citizenship

There are regular scare stories in the newspapers about the numbers of people trying to get into Britain, many of them trying to get in illegally. Many no doubt have paid a lot of money, many have risked their lives as they make this journey, but they all have the hope of a better life. For many the ultimate goal is a British passport and being able to live as a British citizen, with all its benefits - but also its responsibilities.

In Philippians 1:27 Christians are described as citizens of heaven. The British government will often allow a person to hold dual nationality. So when in Britain they use their British passport and live as a British citizen. But on arriving in (let's say) the States they put their British passport to one side, and get out their American passport and live as an American citizen.

But when it comes to God there is no dual citizenship. To become a citizen of heaven means giving up your 'world' passport. I do not have the option of hiding my heavenly passport away and taking out another passport just because it might be more convenient or easier. I cannot live one kind of life at work and another kind of life at church or at home. Once a citizen of heaven we are called to live like that all of the time - no matter what happens. There are incredible benefits to being a citizen of heaven, but there are also some challenging responsibilities. And no one is promising that it will be easy.

To listen to this message click here

City Life

Is God more present in the city or in the countryside? Thinking about some of the retreat centres and conference centres I know it would be easy to believe that to encounter God we need to leave the city and get out into the countryside - for there, in the peace and quiet, amongst the beauty of nature we are able to encounter God. Life is just too noisy and manic in the city - it's no surprise that God has moved out! But God is God in the city, as well as in the countryside. God is doing great things in our cities, and He will do even greater things yet.




Now listen to Chris Tomlin talking about the song, 'God of this city'.

Radical Dissenting Non-Conformists

I wonder what kind of image you would conjure up in your head if someone was described to you as being a radical dissenting non-conformist. Maybe you'd just look blankly and take a step backward, maybe you'd have an image of a person on a protest march, or a G20 protester, or maybe you'd think of the people in your local baptist church!!

Yesterday we had our first evening service for several years, and I asked the question, 'why do you come to a baptist church?' There were a variety of answers. For some it is location that is important. For others it is the informality that is attractive. For many the label 'baptist' is not at all significant. And surprisingly, no one answered that they came because they identified with the radical dissenting non-conformist ethos that baptists are known to stand for!

But baptist roots are in radical dissent - as the first baptists, about 400 years ago, refused to conform to religion as laid down by the king and the state church. Instead they called for freedom of religion (for all - not just Christians); to be allowed to worship God as they wanted; to be able to read, interpret and apply the Bible as they saw fit, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (one application was that of believers baptism - something that was not an option the the early seventeenth century).

Many of those first baptists were persecuted for this stance. Some died in prison. Some fled to Holland where they received a warm welcome.

And as Christians today, whether we are baptists or not, we are called to a life of radical dissent. In Romans 12:2 we are commanded not to conform to the ways of the world. Instead we should stand against those things that we see in our culture that do not reflect God's way. Or have things become too comfortable for us?

Seeds of Hope

Harvest is a time for giving thanks to God for His provision - even for those of us who live in large cities and are far removed from the agricultural process. Whether we grow our food in the garden, work on a farm, or buy it in the supermarket ultimately God is responsible for the food on our plates.

But image you live in a war zone and although you planted crops last spring you can't harvest them because your fields are either covered in land mines or cluster bombs. What are you going to do?

BMS World Mission work in many parts of the world in conflict or post conflict zones, working to plant seeds of hope. One way of doing this in places where people have had their land contaminated is to identify alternative places to grow crops. The trouble is that these safer areas are often harder to farm due to poor soil quality or no access to water. But with the help of BMS World Mission these problems can be overcome, allowing families to plant and harvest.

We had the opportunity this Sunday to pray for the work of BMS World Mission and also to provide financially to the important work they are doing throughout the world. If you want to know more visit www.bms.org.uk

Jargon buster

Yesterday I attended my first governors' meeting at my daughter's school, as one of the parent governors. Although I used to be a teacher (ten years ago now) I was struck by just how much jargon and particularly how many abbreviations were used (both spoken and written) without any explanation or clarification. Some of course could be guessed at from the context, others were simply noted down so that I could either google or facebook the answers (facebook has been a great resource - thanks to all my teacher friends). Of course I could simply have asked - but no one wants to do that sort of thing do they.

I was reminded of the importance of keeping our church services jargon free. We were especially conscious of that last week with Back to Church Sunday but all the time we need to be conscious of the fact that we're not here for the 'in-crowd'. And therefore the language that we use has to be everyday. 'In jokes' and witty asides may be funny - but if you ain't got a clue what's going on you're going to feel excluded rather than welcomed.

Of course there are some words that we use, because, for example, they are in the Bible, that are not everyday words. I think it is important to hold on to these words, but to remember to explain what they mean. This is no longer a culture where people grew up in church and learnt the language. And so we need to make the effort to bridge that gap.