During a sermon at CBC there will be some people who tweet, there will be some who take notes, there will be many who will listen (some with their eyes closed), and then there will be one or two who write poetry.
Here's the poem that Sophie Smith wrote on Sunday as we continued our series on the Kingdom of God, looking at the Upside Down Kingdom from the Beatitudes.
Thank you Sophie for letting me share it here.
You hear my mourning
You hear my prayer
And so you keep it
From becoming despair
You hold the key
To the kingdom door
Your grace and mercy
Allow me in once more
The love of God
Is not about me
It's all about
What you choose me to be
I don't need
To feel happiness
All I need
Is your forgiveness
I lay down all
My fears of love
And know that you
Will love me from above
As long as I
Have you in my heart
I know the kingdom
Will be my start
I won't fear
That I may be missed
Because with your grace
Everyone will be blessed.
Sophie Smith
Thursday, 21 January 2016
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
It's not what you know but who you know...
If you're following the Read Scripture Bible reading programme I hope you're still enjoying it. We're now into Exodus, and the story of Moses and the escape from Egypt. And maybe with the exception of the 'bridegroom of blood' incident in chapter 4, the storyline is fairly easy to follow.
Sometimes when I'm reading the Bible I find a particular word used over and over again. I noticed this yesterday (Exodus 7-9) - you may have noticed it too. The word was 'know'. When I looked back at the previous day's reading it occurred there several times too - and again today.
At the beginning of this part of the story, as Moses and Aaron come to request the release of God's people we find Pharaoh declaring "I do not know the Lord and I will not let the people go" (5:2).
But God promises that he will deliver the people and as a result God says, "I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God". (6:7).
Because Pharaoh refuses to let the people go, God is going to bring the plagues on Egypt, to demonstrate his power, and as a result the people of Egypt too will "know that I am the Lord" (7:5).
In these readings Moses tells Pharaoh that there is no one like their God, that he is God of the land, in fact the earth belongs to him (7:17; 8:10, 22; 9:14, 29).
For Christmas I got some iTunes vouchers and used them to buy an 'NIV Word Study Bible with GK & Strong's Numbers' to go with the Olive Tree Bible software that I use. One of the great things about this book is that you can engage with the original languages that the Bible was written in without having spent years and years learning Greek or Hebrew. You can select an English word - easily find out what that is in Hebrew - and then do a search on that Hebrew word. The value of this is that sometimes our English translations use a range of different English words to translate the same Hebrew word.
[At this point it is always helpful to check some alternative translations before you try and build a whole Bible study on some limited Hebrew or Greek. One of the things we were warned at college was that the only thing more dangerous than no New Testament Greek was a little New Testament Greek! This is where online tools such as Bible Gateway come in very useful.]
The ESV translates this verse - 'God saw the people of Israel - and God knew'. The ASV (American Standard Version) says - 'And God saw the children of Israel, and God took knowledge of them'. The NKJV says - '...and God acknowledged them'.
The people are known by God and God wants them to know him. We too are known by God and can know God ourselves.
Here are a few verses to take those thoughts a bit further:
Sometimes when I'm reading the Bible I find a particular word used over and over again. I noticed this yesterday (Exodus 7-9) - you may have noticed it too. The word was 'know'. When I looked back at the previous day's reading it occurred there several times too - and again today.
At the beginning of this part of the story, as Moses and Aaron come to request the release of God's people we find Pharaoh declaring "I do not know the Lord and I will not let the people go" (5:2).
But God promises that he will deliver the people and as a result God says, "I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God". (6:7).
Because Pharaoh refuses to let the people go, God is going to bring the plagues on Egypt, to demonstrate his power, and as a result the people of Egypt too will "know that I am the Lord" (7:5).
In these readings Moses tells Pharaoh that there is no one like their God, that he is God of the land, in fact the earth belongs to him (7:17; 8:10, 22; 9:14, 29).
For Christmas I got some iTunes vouchers and used them to buy an 'NIV Word Study Bible with GK & Strong's Numbers' to go with the Olive Tree Bible software that I use. One of the great things about this book is that you can engage with the original languages that the Bible was written in without having spent years and years learning Greek or Hebrew. You can select an English word - easily find out what that is in Hebrew - and then do a search on that Hebrew word. The value of this is that sometimes our English translations use a range of different English words to translate the same Hebrew word.
In this case, this kind of search shows that in 2:25 "So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them" the word translated 'concerned' is the same word that has been translated 'know' in the above examples.
[At this point it is always helpful to check some alternative translations before you try and build a whole Bible study on some limited Hebrew or Greek. One of the things we were warned at college was that the only thing more dangerous than no New Testament Greek was a little New Testament Greek! This is where online tools such as Bible Gateway come in very useful.]
The ESV translates this verse - 'God saw the people of Israel - and God knew'. The ASV (American Standard Version) says - 'And God saw the children of Israel, and God took knowledge of them'. The NKJV says - '...and God acknowledged them'.
The people are known by God and God wants them to know him. We too are known by God and can know God ourselves.
Here are a few verses to take those thoughts a bit further:
Monday, 18 January 2016
The Upside Down Kingdom
When a child prays, "Dear God, please bless Mummy, please bless Daddy, please bless Auntie Joan and Uncle Bob, and please bless Buster the dog" the thought behind the prayer is usually a request that 'good' things will happen to these people (and the dog) - the sorts of things that will make them happy.
Yesterday at CBC, as a part of our series looking at the Kingdom of God, we looked at the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) - helping us to explore a bit more what life in the kingdom looks like and recognising that the kingdom Jesus is inviting us to be a part of is very much an upside down kingdom.
That is to say, those values and people which are usually looked down on and despised suddenly find themselves at the top of the pile rather than at the bottom.
We'll have a look at the individual Beatitudes later in the week but today I want just to think about what it means to be 'blessed'.
The word used in the New Testament here is 'makarios'. In the NIV this is mostly translated 'blessed' but is also translated in a few verses as good (e.g. Matt. 24:46), fortunate (Acts 26:2) and happier (1 Cor. 7:40).
Some translations, such as the Good News, translate 'makarios' here in Matthew 5 as 'happy' - e.g. "Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!"
In his Life Builders Bible Study notes on the Sermon on the Mount, John Stott writes,
Listen to Ali and Gareth from Rend Collective talk about a difficult time in their marriage due to a miscarriage and how the song "Joy Of The Lord" came about.
Yesterday at CBC, as a part of our series looking at the Kingdom of God, we looked at the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) - helping us to explore a bit more what life in the kingdom looks like and recognising that the kingdom Jesus is inviting us to be a part of is very much an upside down kingdom.
That is to say, those values and people which are usually looked down on and despised suddenly find themselves at the top of the pile rather than at the bottom.
We'll have a look at the individual Beatitudes later in the week but today I want just to think about what it means to be 'blessed'.
The word used in the New Testament here is 'makarios'. In the NIV this is mostly translated 'blessed' but is also translated in a few verses as good (e.g. Matt. 24:46), fortunate (Acts 26:2) and happier (1 Cor. 7:40).
Some translations, such as the Good News, translate 'makarios' here in Matthew 5 as 'happy' - e.g. "Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!"
In his Life Builders Bible Study notes on the Sermon on the Mount, John Stott writes,
...it is seriously misleading to render makarios "happy". For happiness is a subjective state, whereas Jesus is making an objective judgement about these people. He is declaring not what they may feel like ("happy"), but what God thinks of them and what on that account they are ("blessed"). [page 56].A while ago at CBC we started singing a few songs by Rend Collective, and for Christmas I got their latest CD - As Family We Go. One of the tracks on this album is 'Joy of the Lord' and the story behind this song demonstrates the Upside Down nature of the kingdom - how that even at times of great personal difficulty and pain we can still choose joy.
Listen to Ali and Gareth from Rend Collective talk about a difficult time in their marriage due to a miscarriage and how the song "Joy Of The Lord" came about.
Saturday, 16 January 2016
Missing Videos
If you're following the Read Scripture plan, but have not subscribed to their emails, and are relying on the single sheet print out that was available at church a couple of weeks ago, it is possible that you may have missed out on a couple of theme videos.
Although this sheet had all the book videos listed, it did not contain the theme videos. A new two sided version is now available which includes all the videos. You can download it from here, or they will be available at CBC on Sunday. I would also encourage you to subscribe/sign up to their emails, follow them on Twitter etc etc ...
In the meantime here are the videos that you may have missed.
2 January - Heaven and Earth
3 January - The Covenants
Today, 16 January - The Messiah
Although this sheet had all the book videos listed, it did not contain the theme videos. A new two sided version is now available which includes all the videos. You can download it from here, or they will be available at CBC on Sunday. I would also encourage you to subscribe/sign up to their emails, follow them on Twitter etc etc ...
In the meantime here are the videos that you may have missed.
2 January - Heaven and Earth
3 January - The Covenants
Today, 16 January - The Messiah
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