Old Town Community Church Bringing Jesus to Old Town and Old Town to Jesus

On Sunday, it being the first Sunday in Advent, mention was made of looking forward to Jesus’s second coming, amongst many things, something Graham will be speaking on in a couple of week’s time.

When sitting on the grass of the Mount of Olives with his disciples one day, looking down across the Kidron Valley towards the Temple, Jesus alerted them to the dangers of deception. The whole chapter of Mark 13 is about the signs of the End of the Age, and how, if we don’t stand firm, we could so easily be deceived by false messiahs and prophets (v6 and v22). Jesus was very emphatic:v5 “watch out that no-one deceives you”, v9 “You must be on your guard”, v23 “So be on your guard”, v33 “Be on guard! Be alert”, v35 “Therefore keep watch”, v37 “Watch!”

You are my God and King,
And I put my trust in You.
O Lord, You know me through and through.
Lord, help me to be the person You created me to be,
To find the destiny You have laid out for me.

Why, Lord do you wait
Why do you let our enemies seem triumphant
Why, do you save your words of power for yet another day
While my tears flow and my heart ache?

A few weeks ago we asked people to write their own Psalms and bring them to share on a Sunday morning. We’ve typed some up and will put them here in the next few posts. If you brought one and would like it placed here for others to read please email it to Stephen.

So here’s the first one:

O Lord, my God, You are amazing!

Recently, I downloaded from iPlayer, 3 episodes of BBC 2′s “All Roads Lead Home”, where Stephen Mangan, Sue Perkins and Alison Steadman travelled the UK each week for a specific destination, each of them leading the other 2 on foot to their original home, but without any maps, sat.navs or compass, in fact none of today’s navigational aids. 

Hostage Negotiator

A few weeks ago, Val mentioned that Caregroups were thinking about redemption. In the Bible the Redeemed are those the Lord has delivered from bondage. Isaiah (his name means “The LORD saves”) talks a lot about God redeeming his people, both from sin and from Babylonian exile: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you…” In ch.41:14, the Lord refers to Himself as “your Redeemer” and further on describes Himself as paying a ransom for his people.