Look Back - Look Forward - 

Look Up


November is the month of remembrance. Traditionally beginning with All Saints Day, and followed by All Souls Day. Then we “Remember, remember the 5th November! Gun powder treason and plot.” This year Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday fall on the same day marking the 100th anniversary of the guns falling silent at the end of the First World War!  

The theme for our Bible Readings and Sermons throughout November are to Look Back with Thanksgiving! Sometimes we are tempted to look back and assume that those were the good old days. Looking back through rose-tinted spectacles, we can easily forget the reality of the struggles and the hardships we and others endured. It is important as Christian disciples to recognise and honour our past, where we have come from, with whom we have shared our lives, and what we once were. We do not do this to live in, or hold on to some golden past, but to embrace the moment in which we live knowing that we have been shaped by all that has gone before. Hebrews 12:1 “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

During the Sundays of Advent we are encouraged to Look Forward with Hope! Throughout history God’s people have been looking forward to a coming king and a coming kingdom, a new way to live in the world. This is the theme we pick up in our Advent Bible Readings and Sermons leading up to Christmas, which celebrates the fulfilment of the hope of God’s people in Jesus the Word made flesh.

At the start of the New Year we celebrate the season of Epiphany when with the Wisemen we Look up in Faith and we are led to see, and worship Jesus as Lord and King! 

 

4th November

Remember you once were

Ephesians 2:11-22

Second reading: Luke 5:27-31

 

11th November

Remembrance Sunday

Remembering our Hero’s

Hebrews 11:32-40

Second reading: John 15:9-15

 

18th November

Remembering Egypt

Exodus 16:1-12

Second reading: Matthew 5:38-48

 

25th November

Do this in remembrance of me

Luke 22:13-20

Second reading: 1Corinthians 11:23-26

 

2nd December

Advent Sunday

A new Heaven and a new earth

Revelation 21:1-7

Second reading: Luke 21:25-28

 

9th December

A new law

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Second reading: Luke 3:1-6

 

16th December

A new creation

2Corinthians 5:14-21

Second reading: Luke 3:7-18

 

23rd December

A new image

1 John 3:1-3

Second reading: Luke 1:39-45

 

30th December

Luke 2:41-52

Second reading: 1 Samuel 2:18-20 & 26


 6th January

Epiphany

Following the Star

Matthew 2:1-12

Second reading: Ephesians 3:1-12

 

13th January

Heaven Opened

Matthew 3:13-17

Second reading: Isaiah 42:1-7

 

20th January

This is the gate of heaven

Genesis 28:10-22

Second reading: John 1:43-51

 

27th January

Set your hearts on things above

Colossians 3:1-17

Second reading: Matthew 16:13-17

 


Grow us in relationship with you

The Way of Jesus

With this series we are exploring what it means to follow the way of Jesus in the 21st Century.  In the gospels, when Jesus called his disciples to follow him, it meant to seek a radically new way of living, one that seeks to   transform our own spiritual health, and that of the world around us.  Throughout all of the Bible, the people of God are called to invest in that relationship, and throughout the last 2000 years of church history, men and women, young and old, have embraced that invitation of Jesus to move beyond the surface of life and to explore the depths of the spiritual life God calls us to.  The earliest followers of Jesus called this ‘The way’. 

During this series we will get the chance to explore ways in which the Bible calls us to develop our relationship with God, to transform our perspectives on who he is and who he has called us to be, and to attend to the spiritual health of our lives.  We will explore spiritual disciplines and practices that are available for followers of Jesus of any age or spiritual maturity, and you will be invited to consider some that might be new and challenging to you.  Leo Tolstoy once said that “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing themselves.”  Let us take seriously the invitation of Jesus to come and follow him, to be both transformed by him and transformers of the world around us, as we seek to become followers of his way. 

Each week we have a card which offers practical advice and suggestions about how we may explore spiritual life in more depth during the week. 

Click on the images below to download your card each week.



2nd September

Prayer

Luke 11:1-13

Second reading: Psalm 5

 

Prayer card

 

 

 

9th September

Study

Psalm 1

Second Reading: Matthew 7:24-29

Study TIF

 

 

 


16th September

Service

Matthew 20:20-28

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Service TIF

 

 

 


23rd September

Solitude

1Kings 19:10-18

Second Reading: Matthew 11:25-30 

Solitude

 

 

 


30th September

Fasting

Matthew 6:16-18

Second Reading: Galatians 5:16-26 

Fasting

 

 

 


7th October - Harvest Celebrations 

Simplicity

Luke 9:23-26

Second Reading: Psalm 62

Simplicity

 

 

 

 

14th October

Confession

1 John 1:5-2:2

Second Reading: Psalm 51:1-17

Confession

 

 

 


 21st October

Worship

Luke 10:38-42

Second Reading: Psalm 145

worship

 

 

 


 28th October

Celebration

Luke 15:1-7

Second Reading: Psalm 34:1-9

Celebrate

 

 

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to download a copy of the series