Ride and Stride 2025 

The Friends of Kent Churches Sponsored Ride and Stride celebrates its fortieth anniversary on Saturday 13th September 2025 this year. 

Ride and Stride Day is an opportunity to raise money for Kent’s churches and chapels by cycling or walking or being a welcomer in a church or chapel.  Money raised is shared equally between the church or chapel nominated by the participant and the Friends of Kent Churches which awards grants to Kent’s churches and chapels to help preserve them. In 2024 Kent’s Ride & Stride raised £151,018. Since it started in Kent, Ride & Stride has raised over £4.2 million.

Over the years, a number of FBC cyclists have joined the ride, and we have usually been able to open the church to visiting cyclists on the day. This year is no exception. If you would like to be involved, or can help by volunteering to welcome riders to our church, please contact Kev or Kate Martin.

Fear - its many faces

👤Rachel

The Bible has a lot to say about fear and can sometimes seem to contradict itself. It’s therefore helpful to know that the word ‘fear’ has different meanings.

Proverbs 9:10 tells us: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The Hebrew word for fear in this context is yir’ah which means awe, reverence and respect for God. This is a healthy fear; I fear the consequences of wandering away from God, having seen it happen to others, including many in the Bible. I fear ceasing to trust God and becoming disconnected from him. It is worth noting, God will never walk away from us, but all humans will have a temptation at some point to wander away from him and stop trusting him.  Therefore ‘yir’ah’ is a positive, God-given fear.

The Bible also has a lot to say about negative fears that are not of God but the devil. I have battled these sorts of fears, and it has helped to understand where they come from in order to overcome. Fear is one of the main (very successful) strategies of the enemy which keeps many Christians in bondage and oppression. However, Romans 8:15 says “you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear…...” Fear in this context is ‘phobos’ in Greek which translates as dread or intimidation. It is not given by God and his solution to deliver us from this spirit of fear is to know we are his loved, adopted children and his “perfect love” which casts out this spirit of fear (1 John 4:18).

2 Timothy 1:7 gives us further insight about fear: “For God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but one of power, love and sound judgement.” This fear is also negative and not from God. It is from the Greek ‘deilia’ and is best translated as timidity or shrinking back. This kind of fear prevents Christians from walking into God’s will for them or fully trusting God. We see it in Numbers 13-14 when Israel shrunk back from entering the promised land after a report of giants. They feared men’s report instead of God’s promises. Tragically fear caused them to never make it to the promised land. Only Joshua and Caleb displayed enough courage to trust God, overcome fear and make it to the promised land.

It has also been helpful to learn these sorts of fears are not from God but they are also lies. You may remember, Joshua and Caleb, with God's power, defeated the giants they faced in the promised land. They did not believe the lies that said the giants would defeat them. Joshua and Caleb displayed the ‘yih’ah’ sort of fear, trusting in God, believing in his word, walking with him and staying connected to him. The fear of the Lord overcame the fear of the devil. Displaying ‘yih’ah’ in our lives enables us to defeat our giants too.

24 Prayer

We have many potential changes ahead of us at FBC including leadership, the building and ministries. Jesus himself regularly prayed throughout the night, such as in Luke 6:12 before choosing his 12 apostles. So we will follow his example and seek the Father together as a church for his will, provision and guidance for the future of our church.

We therefore invite you to play your part in 24 hours of prayer, from 9am on Saturday 27 to 9am on Sunday 28 September. There will be various ways to take part - sit quietly with God, pray creatively, study God's word, or pray out loud with others. Coffee and snacks will be available to keep us going! A sign up sheet will be at FBC.

1 Thessalonians 5:14 "pray continually."

Hog Roast 

 

Join us on Sunday 31 August to celebrate Faversham's Hop Festival with a Hog Roast. You are invited!

Practicing The Way 

In the autumn we are excited to be studying 'Practicing the Way', a book by John Mark Comer, together as a church.

Over the course of 9 (non-consecutive) weeks, we will be challenged and encouraged to "be with Jesus, become like him and do as he did". 

To get the most out of the course we invite you to bring a copy of the book (available in audio too) and a notepad. 

You're welcome to join us if you've never attended church before and would like to know more about Jesus. 

Out Of This World 

👤 Geoff

An article originally prepared for Radio Kent Sunday Breakfast
Thought For The Day 6 January 2018

It’s been a wonderful few days for space enthusiasts.

We’ve had images from China’s Chang’e 4 lunar rover on the far side of the moon, and pictures of a remote lump of rock known as Ultima Thule from Nasa’s New Horizons space probe.

Some people have said these look like badly focused photos of an unfinished snowman, but as someone who always gets his thumb in the corner of the picture I’m impressed that something travelling at 32,000 miles an hour, has managed to get any images at all of a rock hurtling along the edge of the solar system.

And they streamed those pictures back from 4 billion miles away! I can't even connect to Wi-Fi upstairs in my own house.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I find these vast interstellar distances can make a fella feel a bit small. After all, from the perspective of the 4.6 billion year-old Kuiper belt, it really does seem that we live on an utterly insignificant little blue green planet far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy. And yes, Douglas Adams, even our obsession with digital watches shows no signs of abating.

Yet, according to the Christian faith, we human beings are at the heart of an astounding story written by the author and creator of the universe itself.

Christians believe that so great is God’s love and concern for you and me that he himself entered time and space, that in an obscure town in a remote part of a long-expired empire on li’l ol’ planet earth, God played a walk-on part in our human drama, taking on the shocking confines of a baby’s skin.

Colonel James Irwin, the eighth of twelve men who have landed on the moon, would often say: “God walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon.”

It’s so easy to think of God as some kind of distant, disinterested Heavenly Being. But when we see the human face of God in Jesus we see something completely different - we see laughing, crying, shouting, eating, drinking, loving, suffering, bleeding, dying.

I find this mind-boggling!

In Jesus, God is with us, understands us, knows us, he gets us. Because God has taken on flesh, we are able to know both our origin and destiny, as he invites us to live long and prosper with him. This is the God of the close encounter, someone I feel I could really get to know.

It turns out, far from being a godforsaken, cosmic middle of nowhere, our tiny fleck of Earth, no bigger than a pixel, is actually the cradle of God’s eternal plan and purposes.

Now that really is out of this world!

Lean not on your own understanding

👤Rachel

Proverbs 3: 5 is one of the most well-known and well-quoted scriptures:” Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”.

Sometimes God does require us to blindly trust him in situations we do not understand. However the writer of this proverb tells us to not lean on our own understanding. Instead we should lean on an understanding that comes from God. This God-given understanding is referred to throughout the Old Testament wisdom scriptures and comes from the Hebrew word ‘biynah’ which can also be translated as insight or discernment. Another example, Proverbs 16:16 urges us to “get wisdom – how much better it is than gold! And get understanding – it is preferable to silver” (CSB).

Daniel was repeatedly described as a man of exceptional understanding, not of his own, but given by God. Daniel actively sought God’s understanding through humility and prayer (Dan. 10:12). This understanding enabled Daniel to know God’s will, but also ‘why’ it was God’s will. God revealed to Daniel his perspective and heart regarding people and situations. Knowing this enabled Daniel to repeatedly act with great wisdom and integrity. God’s understanding even saved Daniel’s life.
  
God-given understanding is referred to also in the New Testament. For example Paul prays for the church in Colossae that they may be filled with “the knowledge of his (God’s) will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives….”

I make it a point to ask God for his understanding, his insight, his heart and his perspective on situations and people, recognising that my understanding and perspective is often flawed or plain wrong.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 23 that God’s understanding will save our life too. In this chapter he refers to the God-given ability to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. Jesus said that some people completely lack this God-given understanding and this has dangerous consequences.

As individuals and as a church it is wise to be praying for God’s understanding, especially as we face perplexing or difficult situations as Daniel did. This will enable us to also act with wisdom and integrity. If we lean on our own understanding it is likely to lead us away from God’s will. Daniel said, “there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries” (Dan. 2:28). I have found God is often delighted to reveal His mysteries and understanding to those who humbly ask. Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1: 9 is a great place to start.

First Thing In the Morning 

👤 Geoff

I was reading Winnie the Pooh the other day, when I came across this:

‘When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,’ said Piglet at last, ‘what’s the first thing you say to yourself?’

Good question, I thought.

As far as mornings go, I have to confess that I identify with Snoopy in the Peanuts cartoon. Lying on top of his kennel he says 'I think I'm allergic to mornings!'

I have never been a 'morning' person, but I do reckon that it's good for us to start the day well. No matter what life has in store for us, starting the day positively in a good frame of mind is great advice.

Psalm 5 says 'Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing. Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.

Starting the day by talking to God.

That's something that doesn't always come easily, so it's a good idea to make sure I remind myself that God wants to 'hear my voice' in the morning. He really does! In fact, he's waiting for me to check in. And doesn't 'waiting in expectation' sound like a brilliant way to approach the day, anticipating God with me in everything I'm likely to be doing during the next 24 hours, ready to embrace his leading me on into the day.

If I forget to talk to him first, it's my loss.

Maybe you're like me and far too often the first thing you say to yourself in the morning is unintelligible if not unmentionable. But what about after that? How about we make it a priority to make sure that in the mornings, God hears our voice.

I'd be very interested to hear what is the first thing you say to yourself in the morning! Let me know in the comments below. (Click on 'Add Your Response'. If you can't see it then make sure you are logged in to the site and - if you still can't see it - click on 'Permalink' to open the blog post.)

What Does God Think Of Us? 

👤 Geoff

I have never enjoyed looking at myself in the mirror - though I am very grateful I do not suffer from the rare condition called Eisoptrophobia, which causes sufferers to be irrationally fearful of mirrors or seeing themselves in a mirror. I guess for me, like so many others, it's just that I'm not particularly confident in myself (which includes the way I look) and I don't like being reminded!

We live in a culture where airbrushed images warp our reality. Many of us find it hard to like ourselves or view ourselves positively. It's always easier to put someone down rather than build them up and that often includes ourselves.

Against all this negativity, God thinks we're great! Genesis tells us we are made in his image, Psalm 139 declares we are fearfully and wonderfully made and in Ephesians 2 Paul lets us know that we are God’s workmanship – sometimes translated as his accomplishment, his handiwork, or even his masterpiece. It's this last one that makes the biggest impact on me. The Greek word behind all these translations is poiema which literally means “work of art”. (It is from poiema that we get the word ‘poem’.)

Wow! You are God’s phenomenal work of art: a piece of sublime music that blows you away, a perfect poem that speaks straight to the heart. You are God’s masterpiece, the unique and awesome result of God's creativity. Do you know that? Do you see how special you are to God? It means that you are more precious to God and important to this world than you think you are.

In his book S.H.A.P.E.: Finding & Fulfilling Your Unique Purpose for Life Erik Rees wrote:

You were not created to conform. You were not created to compare. You were not created to compete. You were not created to compromise. You were created to contribute to God’s Kingdom and make a significant difference with your life.

You were created to just be you!

From 1508 to 1512 a human masterpiece took shape on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but even before Michelangelo had finished, his work started to fade due to a layer of soot. It wasn’t until 1981 that a scaffold was erected to clean one corner of the fresco. With a special solution, two dedicated art restorers gently washed the painting. The result was stunning. No one had imagined that beneath centuries of grime lay such vibrant colours. The restorers were immediately commissioned to clean the entire ceiling, and though it took twice as long to restore than it took for Michelangelo to paint it, the results were breath-taking.

What does it mean that God views us as His masterpiece? It means that as we follow Jesus day by day and allow God to get to work on us, moment by moment we can uncover our unique beauty and ordained purpose for serving God here on earth. No matter what the world has done to us - or what we have done to ourselves - underneath the layers of pain, guilt, insecurity and fear we are still the amazing, wonderful and precious human being that God created us to be, and we each have a glorious place in the unfolding work of art that is his Kingdom transformation of the entire universe.

Remind yourself of that next time you look in the mirror.

Coffee in the Garden 

Sam and Geoff are inviting people from the church community to drop in over the summer for coffee and a chat. You would be very welcome (in the garden hopefully - if the weather behaves) on Saturday 14 June, Saturday 12 July and Saturday 9 August between 10am and 12noon.

Pentecost Praise 

We're excited to announce . . . PENTECOST PRAISE!

Christians from across the town will be gathering to celebrate Pentecost together on Sunday 8th June 2025 at St Mary of Charity Church, Church Road, Faversham.  Sung worship will be led by Naomi Smith and Nick Ash + band with an address by Faversham Baptist Church (either Rachel or Geoff).
 

Baptism on Sunday 1 June 

Our Sunday morning gathering on 1 June will include baptism! If you would like to know a bit more about our practice of baptising believers in Jesus, or would appreciate a conversation about faith and what baptism entails, then please do get in touch. 

"Our Father...." 

In my prayer time I’ve recently been meditating on the Lord’s prayer (the version from Matthew 6: 9 -13). I’ve been using it as a template to guide my prayers and I’ve been struck by how comprehensively it covers everything we should pray about. Of course, that makes sense – Jesus himself gave us this prayer! 

I have found I can spend an entire prayer time meditating and praying through the first two words: “Our Father”. There is so much depth packed into these two words – enough to shape the focus of our entire prayer life.
They tell us the identity and position from which we pray. Jesus invites us to approach God as Father because we are his children. This speaks of relationship, belonging and trust in God which are arguably the most important aspects of our Christian life.
 The rest of the Lord’s prayer flows from these foundational truths –  we are praying to Our Father, who desires to protect, provide and guide us in all areas of our lives.
 
The word ‘Father’ can be difficult for many people, especially for those, like me, whose earthly Fathers haven’t always protected, provided or guided us.
In these situations, where the word Father might be tainted, it is particularly important to ask God to reveal his Father heart and his Father love. To pray for God to give us a fresh and clear view of him and a healed view of his identity as a good and trustworthy Father.
 
It is also important to use these two words "Our Father", to focus on our identity as his children. We can ask God to help us see ourselves through his eyes, to restore our identity as his sons and daughters. We can ask him to heal our identity where it has been formed through pain, rejection or lies.
 
One of the areas most attacked and damaged by satan, is our understanding of God’s identity and our identity in him. All other aspects of our prayer life will be affected by these truths, so it’s worth spending time praying about these two words.
 
We can also use these words to pray about our relationship with the Father. To ask for greater intimacy, a deeper revelation of his love, provision, protection and guidance. When we bring these kinds of prayers to him I have found he is faithful to answer. He delights in helping us grow in knowledge of who he is and in drawing us into deeper intimacy of him.  
 
Here’s a prayer to start you off: “Father, open my eyes to the truth of who you are and who I am in you”.
 

Digital Easter 

 

A new take on the Easter story in the digital age by Abigail Scarfe. If you cannot see the video, then click on 'Permalink' below.

The Last Laugh 

👤 Geoff

I was on my way to Canterbury the other day when I saw an AA van driving along on the other side of the road. The driver looked very miserable and was sobbing inconsolably. I thought to myself: ‘That guy’s heading for a breakdown’.

Actually that wasn’t true - it was a joke. Just in case you were wondering.

I was interested to read that in the Yamagata province of Japan, residents are legally required to laugh at least once a day. And I also read somewhere that in the Greek Orthodox tradition, the day after Easter is devoted to telling jokes - because Easter tells us that God has the last laugh. 

Now I don't know whether that's true or not, but I rather hope that it is.  As a connoisseur of ‘dad’ jokes the idea appeals to me. Although in many ways Easter is a serious business, it seems a very joyful way to celebrate the fact that Jesus is risen. On Good Friday, the devil thought he had won, smugly believing he had the last word, smiling to himself in apparent victory. Then God raised Jesus from the dead, and life and salvation became the last words. Satan has had his day - Jesus lives! He has overcome death and sorted out my sin. Surely that’s worth a smile, if not a full belly laugh of delight.

I think the poet Steve Turner captures a sense of this playfulness and joy in his ‘Poem for Easter’:

Tell me:
What came first
Easter or the egg?
Crucifixion
         or daffodils?
Three days in a tomb
         or four days
in Paris?
         (returning
Bank Holiday Monday).

When is a door
not a door?
When it is rolled away.
When is a body
not a body?
When it is a risen.

Question.
Why was it the Saviour rode on the cross?
Answer.
To get us
to the other side.

Behold I stand.
Behold I stand and what?
Behold I stand at the door and

knock knock.

In John 20 we read how Mary Magdalene’s experience was transformed as she met the risen Lord Jesus. A day that started with tears and confusion turned into one of laughter and rejoicing. She hurried to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’ Later that day Jesus met with the rest of the disciples and John tells us they were overjoyed when they saw him.

Easter should be a celebration full of joy and laughter. Let there be feasting and fun, music, festivity and dancing—anticipating the fullness of the kingdom that is our hope in Jesus. This Easter, don't just read about Mary's delight and the disciples’ joy. Let it live in you - in your heart and mind and soul! Rejoice! Smile, take heart, have a laugh, because you have a hope that is steadfast and certain.

Go on, let yourself go. Tell jokes, celebrate a little, for God has the last laugh and Jesus has risen!

Rhythms of Prayer 

Back in 2021 we produced a booklet of prayers to encourage those gathering for Lighthouse to pray in a very meditative way throughout the day. We've now uploaded the booklet - a tried and tested collection of Morning, Lunchtime, Evening and Night prayers - as a resource for anyone who wants to use it in our church community. If you are logged into the web site you should be able to see the document below. (If not, the trying clicking on 'Permalink' below.)

Due to copyright restrictions, please do not pass on copies to anyone else.

A Little Bit More 

👤 Geoff

Oh ah, just a little bit,
oh ah, a little bit more . . .

So sang Gina G as the British entry in the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest. Quite forgettable really (except that I’ve remembered it) but in a strange way it reminds me of what I need to be doing as a Christian in the run up to Easter.

The period before Easter in the Christian calendar is, of course, Lent. Beginning with Ash Wednesday (that's today, 5th March this year), lent is traditionally about prayer, repentance, abstinence and generosity. Which is great! But when I stop to think about it, aren't all these spiritual disciplines things that I should be practising all year round? Drawing closer to the Lord through prayer; prioritising time with him above some of the other demands on my life and cutting down (or out) some of things that tend to get in the way; giving up some of my bad habits and allowing the Holy Spirit to get to work on some of my worst traits; giving money away, cheerfully, generously, sacrificially.

We might be tempted to think this doesn’t sound much like fun, but these are all things that will make me more fully alive, vibrant, aware, a real Kingdom person. My attitude to the penitential season is a barometer of how well I am doing at being godly, how serious I am about following Jesus and letting the Holy Spirit mould me, shape me and fill me. As George Herbert suggests in his poem Lent:

True Christians should be glad of an occasion
To use their temperance, seeking no evasion,
When good is seasonable; . .

. . . We cannot reach our Saviour’s purity;
Yet we are bid, ‘Be holy ev’n as he,’
In both let’s do our best . . .

. . . Who goeth in the way which Christ hath gone,
Is much more sure to meet with him, than one
That travelleth by-ways:

I don't want to travel the by-ways. I want to meet with Jesus! Lent is an opportunity for becoming a more Christ-like Christian. It is about getting serious with God – something I should be doing anyway, but during the run up to Easter something I can be doing, as Gina G says, oh ah . . . just a little bit more.

What must I do?

👤 Rachel 

This was the question the jailer of Paul and Silas asked. Having seen miracles in prison that caused chains to break and locked doors to open, the jailer’s life was in danger; his work could not save him.  Faced with death he asked the two men, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
The ‘Sirs’ replied, “BELIEVE in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved – you and your household.” There was nothing he could do to save himself, but he must believe in what Jesus Christ had done for him. Acts 16: 25 – 34.

This was the same question the disciples asked Jesus in John 6: 25 – 29. “What must we do?” They had also just witnessed miracles such as the feeding of the five thousand. “What must we do to do the works God requires?” they asked.
Jesus replied, “the work of God is this: BELIEVE in the one he has sent”. He wanted them to believe in his miracles and the identity of the one who did them. 

We might ask God, what must I do? What must I do to be right with you? What must I do to be good enough? What must I do to be saved?
The answer to all these questions, is to BELIEVE. To believe in the miracles that point to the identity of Jesus Christ. To believe in what Jesus Christ has done for you. Like the jailer there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.  

Romans 10: 9 says, “if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
If we BELIEVE in what Jesus has done and in who he is, then our chains will be broken and the locked doors to life will be opened.

We’ve just celebrated Valentines Day. Perhaps the best example of love is this: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever BELIEVES in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

“What must I do?” becomes a far more important question with eternal significance: “What do you believe?”  

The Big Church Clean

We're holding the Big Church Clean on Saturday 1 March, and we're hoping everyone will come along from 10am to 2pm to help. All ages are welcome!

We are planning to do a sweep of the church premises, with a thorough tidying and cleaning blitz to make sure it's as welcoming as we can make it. There will be odd jobs, maybe the odd bit of decorating and lots of scrubbing. There's even the chance of we may stop for some chips for the hungry workers! Please put the date in your diary and join in.

Running On Empty 

👤 Geoff

We seem to spend a large proportion of our lives recharging things these days. Phones, games consoles,  ipads, toothbrushes, and now even cars - everything needs to be plugged in and charged up. Even my wonderful Kindle needs to be recharged now and then. There are trailing cables everywhere in our house waiting for the next charge. And why is it that everything needs a different charger?

When our children were younger many things had removable rechargeable batteries, and I had the hardest job keeping on top of all of it all.  I was forever being asked by my children for more batteries. I had two very useful battery chargers, but there was a problem: it was very hard to tell the difference between a charged and uncharged battery from the outside, and I was always muddling them up. Yes, there were some pretty straightforward ways of testing them and sorting out which was which, but when you were drowning in batteries and needed a couple quickly it could be very frustrating.

At Pentecost Jesus' followers learnt a new way in which God could work in their lives giving them the power to do things the like of which they had never dreamt. They learnt how to let God change them and work in their lives. Jesus had told them to wait for 'power from on high', and this was it! The Holy Spirit was poured out on all of them. Fully charged, they went on to transform the known world as they spread the Good News of Jesus.

The Bible says we should all be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and Wayne Grudem offers this definition:

'Be filled with the Spirit' means to be filled with the immediate presence of God to the extent that you are feeling what God Himself feels, desiring what God desires, doing what God wants, speaking by God’s power, praying and ministering in God’s strength, and knowing with the knowledge that God Himself gives.

Is that true of me? Is that true of you? It occurred to me that, like my batteries, it's impossible to tell at first sight whether we're charged up or not, whether we are full of God's Holy Spirit. It's only when we test the batteries out, get them to do some work, that we discover whether or not there's any power there.

We know that the battery with little or no charge left struggles to generate anything useful. So why do we try to serve the Lord in our own strength? Is it not obvious that we will see little happening if we don't connect to the source of our power? If we insist on 'running on empty' we'll never be living the life God created us for.

The first followers of Jesus experienced it, but what is our experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit? Jesus said we should ask for the Spirit, and that's one thing we can all do: ask to be filled with his Holy Spirit. And let's not forget to go on asking for it, because we have a habit of leaking. I've decided that every time I need to charge up my phone (or something or other), I'm going to ask God to recharge me with his Holy Spirit.

A clean sheet 

The new year is a good time for a clean sheet. Not just on our beds but in our spiritual lives. It’s good to ask God if there is anything from the previous year that needs to be left behind or washed away by God before we can move on.

God has often made sure I have forgiven those who have sinned against me before I move on. It’s very important to God that we forgive others as he has forgiven us (The Lord’s Prayer, Luke 11:4) and in Christ we are forgiven everything since he took the punishment for our sins on the cross.

Some things God has taught me about forgiveness over the years:

We are to forgive even when it is not asked for. Stephen demonstrates this as he was being stoned to death for his faith in Acts 7. Our closure, healing and ability to move on does not depend on an apology from those who hurt us.

Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation. We can forgive someone who has harmed us, but we do not have to have a relationship with them if there is a risk of them harming us again.

Forgiveness does not negate justice either by society, or by God. Romans 12:19 says “do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord”. When we forgive someone we release them into God’s hands for him to act justly.

Forgiveness is hard and we need God to help us by his Spirit. One of my heroines of the faith is Corrie Ten Boom. In her book ‘The Hiding Place’ she describes in 1947 giving a talk at a church in Munich about forgiveness. After the talk a guard from Ravensbrück concentration camp (where and her sister had been held captive during the war) approached her. Her sister Betsie had died a painful death in Ravensbrück due to the cruel treatment of the Nazis. The guard did not remember Corrie but asked for her forgiveness for the cruel things he had done in Ravensbrück. As the guard stretched out his hand asking for forgiveness, Corrie described her heart as cold. She silently cried out to Jesus for help and stretched out her hand to the guard. As she did so, warmth flooded into her arm and into her heart.

Corrie said in that talk that unforgiveness leads to bitterness. I have found this to be true. Unforgiveness poisons us and causes us to become bitter, revengeful and stuck, unable to move on with our lives.

Lord help us start the year with a clean sheet and forgive others as you have forgiven us.

Welcome to 2025

A happy new year! We're hitting the ground running this new year with all of our regular activities resuming, and some new exciting developments to watch out for. Here's a rundown of some of things that you can get involved with:

Another Route 

👤 Geoff

It's traditional of course to begin the New Year with some resolutions. (When I once asked a congregation whether they had made any, the only person willing to publicly name their intentions indicated that their resolution was to get to church worship on time in future!)

Have you got any resolutions this year? If not, then how about considering the wise men of Matthew 2 as a model as we launch into 2025. Matthew tells us about the epic journey made by an undisclosed number of important characters (though traditionally three)  in tracking down the newborn Jesus. After as much as two years of travelling, these mysterious 'magi' arrive at their destination and meet the young Jesus with his family. An inspiring example of persistent, life-altering faith, they do three things:

They bowed down and worshiped him.

Might 2025 be the year I take seriously what it means to accept Jesus Christ as both Lord and Saviour, worthy of all my worship? In one of her traditional Christmas messages Queen Elizabeth II put it like this:

"Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves - from our recklessness or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person - neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive. Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God's love.

It is my prayer that . . . we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord."

They opened their treasures.

Jesus spoke about our attitude to money and possessions more than almost anything else.  Might 2025 be the year when I take seriously my responsibility to share what has been entrusted to me for the benefit of others - and not just my money, but my time and talents too?

They returned to their country by another route.

When we acknowledge Jesus as Lord we make a commitment to travel by a different road. Belief is simple, but changing course—or repenting and changing our life attitudes and practices—is often not an easy choice for us to make. Might 2025 be the year when I get serious about discipleship and following Jesus rather than the crowd?

January is a traditional time for making resolutions, self-made promises to change something about our lives.  How about we make this year truly different, to commit to 'another route'?

Christmas Match of the Day

The Christmas story can be told in so many ways. From last Christmas (2023), here's an attempt to retell the nativity in the style of a football commentator!