pastors ponderings (Page 6)

Easter is fast approaching. I am beginning to wonder if 2018 has decided that it is a race towards Christmas…a race to see just how quickly it can get here. I don’t want to flick through the events of this coming year as if I were thumbing through the pages of a book to catch quick glances of the highlights and illustrations. Instead, I need to take some moments of time deliberately in hand. Stop, look at them, and savour…

God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. Psalm 68:6 (NLT) It was getting on for 5 years ago that Julie and I first walked into CBBC. We had been in Australia for three years and had lost our way a little bit. In the UK we had been a key part of a wonderful church movement where we had planted a church,…

Here is the latest blog from ‘Mrs Jesus follower’. You can catch up with all her thoughts on the CBBC website. I gave the dear man a hug and walked to the car. A feeling of helplessness swept over me and it was with a heavy heart that I drove away leaving him alone and in despair. My heart was crying out…this is where we all are without hope! This emptiness…this feeling that life was no longer worth living was…

This week’s perspective comes from Steve, who is on the leadership team here at CBBC. When focusing on our month-long perspective on ‘Hope’, I wanted to focus on a perspective that is faith based. Not a blind faith, but faith in the One who is faithful. When we look at life through faith-based hope it gives us a redeemed perspective on life—life will look different and looking at life differently can lead to a changed attitude, resulting in changed behaviour.…

Last Sunday  I went to another Baptist Church, because due to the Pageant our own was not on. It was formal, warm, friendly, reverent.  Christian believers are family.  The service was very ‘Baptist’, a couple of hymns, some worship songs, a good sermon, just a piano, flute and three singers.  All very familiar to me. But now what really astonished me was Me!  I was missing our exuberant, robust music!  The drums, the guitars, the keyboard, everything and everyone who makes such…

People in CBBC often write in with prayers and meditations that they have received from the Lord during the worship time. I’m so grateful that they do because those inspirational thoughts about the Lord add a depth of understanding to our individual worship. It makes us see the Lord in a way that we hadn’t considered before. The following is a word from Holly. Before you read it though can I make a suggestion that you don’t just read it…

A friend of mine who is a pastor in London posted the following thought this week: “Regularly thank God for the people around you who are the complete opposite to you or think and operate differently. What an incredible compliment they could be to you. Thank God for the richness they bring and the perspective they have. Celebrate the strength of others and honour their significance. What God has given to others is not your loss. It becomes your strength…

The purpose of Chapter 12 in the book of Acts is to show us that Jesus is King of kings. The story goes that Herod Agrippa (who is not the same Herod who tried to have Jesus killed when he was born) is king over Judah and Jerusalem and to please the Jews he persecutes the Christians. He kills James, a disciple of Jesus and the brother of John, and he puts Peter in prison. Herod’s the king; he can…

This week I don’t have a particular point to get across – I am more in a reflective mood!! When we came to CBBC almost 4 years ago we were very aware that the church was taking a chance on Julie and myself. We weren’t Baptists, we were a couple and wanted to job-share and worst of all we were Poms!! The connection came because the all the things God had been talking to us about somehow fitted with all…

Ever since her death on early Sunday morning, I’ve been thinking about our lovely friend. Her funeral will be here at CBBC this week  and so I suppose one could say that it’s not unusual to be thinking of her at this time. However, it’s more than that. It’s as if everything I read seems to point to the same message of how truly blessed we are to have such lovely people in our lives. I read in Acts 9…

I don’t know about you but it seems like you can’t turn on the news at the moment without reading or hearing about despair. Mass killings, countries threatening countries with annihilation, Presidents using rhetoric designed to inflame rather bring peace. Then there is the sickness and famine, the apparent moral decline –even Christians and the Church are now seen as something for derision, at best being out of touch and at worst being responsible for the worst kind of abuse…

I suspect most people have seen this picture before but in case not, let me explain. Depending on your perspective you will either see an old woman or a young lady. Right now I’m sick, so all I can see is old woman—but I digress. I think this picture illustrates what it is to see life by faith because faith paints a totally different picture from the one that world shows us. You can look at a situation one way…