Faith

You feed them!

It had happened again. It was one of those moments where, from a familiar passage of scripture, something new jumped out at me. It was early one morning when I was reading through Luke and came to the familiar story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand where Jesus said, “You find them something to eat.” Why did Jesus ask this question, I wondered and what did he expect from his disciples? Reading back through the earlier verses in the…

What does it mean to be a “spiritual church”?

Exciting things are happening at CBBC. God is at work; lives are being changed. There is nothing more exciting than to see and to know the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. Daniel mentioned that we all come from different Church backgrounds. Never were truer words spoken! I grew up in a generation where emotions were squashed, suppressed.  It wasn’t right to show emotion or value experiences.  It seemed ‘dead’. I’ve been thinking about that this…

My church, I have looked

My church I have looked and seen your hearts, and a time of healing has come, a time I have set aside.  I shall refine my people in these days. I have said, I have lit a fire in my church and I shall breathe upon it with my breath until it burns white hot with fire, a refining fire.  When gold enters the furnace it is heated the impurities rise to the surface, it is then scraped off and…

Will He Find Faith?

I sat back and looked out the window, a barrage of questions tumbling around in my brain. Why hadn’t I thought about this before? What did it mean? Why is this question put on the end of this story? What’s Jesus wanting us to understand by adding this to the end of his parable? I’d just read the parable from Luke which has been titled, The Persistent Widow. You’d be as familiar with this story as I am but it’s…

It’s only a storm

The rain was bucketing down as we drove along. Would it ever end? It’s only a storm, says Julie in her own profound way. It is still Spring… the daffodils bloomed and the trees are in blossom. I haven’t been able to forget that statement nor the amazing truth I saw as I thought about our journey with God. Jesus Christ the same… yesterday, today… forever. God’s faithfulness never ends… his mercies are new every morning! I’m sure I’m not…

Holy Labor:

How Childbirth Shapes a Woman’s Soul By Aubry G. Smith “pains” [itsavon] means anguish not just physical pain.    It is the same word used for Adam’s curse only it’s translated as “painfully toils” with the ground.   We don’t associate physical pain with Adam in the same way as we do we Eve, why? We talk of Adam’s struggle to be fruitful, the anguish or worry whether the ground will yield its crop.  It’s possibly because we know labour can be…

Contained within the walls of God’s sovereign purpose

I’m finally getting it! After days, weeks even, of having new and exciting snippets of God’s truth seep into my dull brain, I’m finally seeing a clearer picture. I need to begin way back when I was a child growing up. All of my life I’d had the security of my parents’ love and the knowledge that they would do everything in their power to protect me. Even at school I had the discipline and boundaries of routine. But around…

By the rivers of Babylon

The Church is weeping. No, not for lost souls but for the loss of something that we hold dear. And, as I thought of this, these familiar words came into my mind: “By the Rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, Yea, we wept, when we remember Zion” And the more I thought about it the more likeness I could see between the Church today and the Jews back then as they wept in Babylon; captured, defeated and taken from…

Being Transformed into His Image…

Mmm… I’m not sure if I agree with that… I thumb through my Bible searching for a passage I read just a few days ago that will prove my point.  Sound familiar or is that just me? The other Sunday Daniel reminded us that our focus… our desire needs to be to know God more. I don’t think I’ll ever understand how great is God’s desire for us to know him more. It keeps coming back to being all about…

Another Perspective

I hesitate…I stop and start as I try and put this together. Why? Because it’s different…I’m different. Isn’t this what Julie’s been telling us? Isn’t this what makes unity in Christ unique? Yes, I know all that but… I set my laptop aside and wander into the kitchen.  Pulling down my jar of licorice-allsorts I glance through them and suddenly notice that there are two identical ones. Well, guess what Julie, I think CBBC might even beat that! Why? Because…

How Could They?

I closed my Bible and sat there for some time lost in thought. I’d been reading Jeremiah and a feeling of sadness so deep and so real had come over me. I love the old testament and frequently reflect on the details God gave Solomon for him to build the temple. This temple was the place where God’s people could meet with their holy God. Solomon had a passionate love for Yahweh as did his father, David, and that, combined…

Courage

Schantelle’s baptism, a few weeks ago, raised a very interesting perspective that we’d love to share with you to think about. A beautiful young woman, a wife, a mother chose to be baptised the other Sunday. It was a God-honouring service and a joyful celebration of her new life in Christ as we walked to the beach and watched her publicly declare her commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ through baptism. A delightful summer day, sand and ocean a perfect…