Welcome to our Sunday morning Grace@Home 'gathering'!
Scattered as we are across Tipton and the Black Country (or further afield even in this time of lockdown?!) we're doing the best we can to keeping meeting together Sunday by Sunday to hear God speak to us and to respond in trusting praise of Him in song, prayer and in our lives.
How to use this?
Scroll down the page:
- read the text
- listen to the words of the songs (hum or singalong too if you can/want to)
- listen to the reading & message)
- take time to pray on your own or with others (depending on your situation).
- For those with young children there are some ideas for simple crafts or colouring in too.
If you're visiting us, we'd love to hear from you - so please use the form or WhatsApp or Facebook, even just to say hello if you've dropped in. We'd love to connect with you.
If you're a church member or regular with us, you can also interact with others in our WhatsApp group - send a message if you've not yet been able to get involved in that.
[After Easter I (Tim) have been taking some holiday and will be taking next week to get back up and running. So today and next Sunday we're delighted to be able transport ourselves to join with St Andrew's Free Church in Scotland!
Paul Clarke recently took the church there through a chapter of the Bible that tackles the really important issue of keeping going as Christians when life is testing. And it is testing at the moment isn't it?! So, I hope that while these messages weren't preached with Tipton or Coronavirus-19 in mind, this will be very relevant for all of us.]
An invitation from God as we begin
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise Him,
my Saviour and my God. (Psalm 42:11)
From sorrows deep I call
Lord, from sorrows deep I call
When my hope is shaken
Torn and ruined from the fall
Hear my desperation
For so long I’ve pled and prayed
God, come to my rescue
Even so the thorn remains
Still my heart will praise You
Storms within my troubled soul
Questions without answers
On my faith these billows roll
God, be now my shelter
Why are you cast down my soul?
Hope in Him who saves you
When the fires have all grown cold
Cause this heart to praise You
And, oh, my soul, put your hope in God
My help, my Rock, I will praise Him
Sing, oh, sing through the raging storm
You’re still my God, my salvation
Should my life be torn from me
Every worldly pleasure
When all I possess is grief
God, be then my treasure
Be my vision in the night
Be my hope and refuge
Till my faith is turned to sight
Lord, my heart will praise You
And, oh, my soul, put your hope in God
My help, my Rock, I will praise Him
Sing, oh, sing through the raging storm
You’re still my God, my salvation
Words to say sorry to God
God, our Father,
we confess we have not loved you with our whole heart,
we've disobeyed you, not doing your will and instead breaking your law,
we've rebelled against your love.
we confess too that we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.
Forgive us we pray and
fill us with your Spirit that we'd live in joyful obedience to you, through Jesus Christ, our Lord
Amen
Words to comfort those who've taken responsibility for their sins and taken refuge in Jesus for God's mercy
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, remembering God's promise to us that because of Jesus' death for us, our sins and lawless acts He will remember no more!
And so let's sing the praise of Jesus in the words of this great old hymn:
Immortal Honours Rest on Jesus Head
Words from God to us
Hebrews 12:1–13 (Listen)
Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Do Not Grow Weary
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
(ESV)
Consider Christ
Responding to what God has said and speaking back to Him
Reflect
What weights or sins do you need to throw off (this lock down period might be exposing some of those) so that you might keep going and growing as a Christian?
What have you learnt about or been reminded of about Jesus that encourages you or gives you hope?
Can you see ways that God is teaching and disciplining you at the moment? How does what Hebrews 12:5-11 teach encourage you?
Pray
Turn those reflections into prayers of:
1. sorry
2. thank you
3. please.
Then ...
pray for some of those you know and care for who are in need physically or spiritually (or both).
pray for our elected representatives in Westminster as they shoulder great responsibility in decision making
pray for a Christian ministry or outreach your know of that will be facing new opportunities and challenges because of COVID-19.
Fight the good fight
Fight the good fight with all thy might,
Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right;
lay hold on life, and it shall be
thy joy and crown eternally.
Run the straight race through God’s good grace,
lift up thine eyes, and seek his face;
life with its path before thee lies,
Christ is the way, and Christ the prize.
Cast care aside, lean on thy Guide;
his boundless mercy will provide;
trust, and thy trusting soul shall prove
Christ is its life and Christ its love.
Faint not nor fear, his arms are near;
he changeth not, and thou art dear;
only believe, and thou shalt see,
that Christ is all in all to thee.
Fix your eyes on Jesus
endure hardship
throw off all that hinders you
run with perseverance the race marked out for you.
And may the Lord bless us and keep us
may the Lord be kind and gracious to us
may the Lord look with favour on us and give us His peace. In Jesus name
Amen