​

A real New Years resolution
 
We are back in the post-exilic period again! (See 08/01 for Ezra thought for the day)
 
This time we are in the account of Nehemiah. Ezra is involved, you can find him back in chapter 8, and with the other priests and Levites they are teaching and instructing the people. It may be worth you slowly reading through these chapters at another time, but to give you a summary:
 
Chapter 8 - Ezra and co. teach people what God’s word says
Chapter 9 - The people realise they haven’t lived rightly before God, according to His word, and confess their sins
Chapter 10 - After confessing their sin, the people recommit to God with promises.
 
This pattern we see in Scripture often. God’s Word leads people to repent and to recommit to God.
 
I don’t know if you made a New Years Resolution this year. To be honest, I think it’s gone out of fashion. It could be because people don’t really want to commit to change! It’s much easier to attempt to live up to standard you didn’t promise. But when faced with real truth, the truth of God’s Word, it cuts us to the quick (Hebrews 4:12) and we need to change.
 
So maybe you didn’t make a New Years Resolution this year, but there is always a good moment to turn to God, confess our sins and failings to Him, and to recommit this year and the rest of our live to Him.​

                                                        “Faithful in Prayer”
If you missed the video earlier in the week about praying for the NHS  the video is below.
Reminder that there will be a prayer meeting specifically for the the NHS with Phil and Anna on Zoom on this evening, 7.30. The link is on ChurchSuite or click the button below
​Let’s be Faithful in Prayer for the NHS.

​Ephesians 1:17: remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give u the Spirit of wisdom + revelation, so that you may know him better.  
 
I’m sure you were all asked as children what you wanted to be when you grew up .  You imagined yourself 10 years into the future + dreamed your dreams.  We live in a world where we should - as S Club 7 once sang - 'reach for the stars, follow that rainbow, then all your dreams will all come true.'  But that advice is so cruel, because most of our dreams don't come true. During my childhood I wanted to be a pilot, but I'm afraid of heights! I wanted to be a Rockstar, but my singing voice is average at best! I wanted to be a fireman, but I'm an asthmatic! So often what we want for ourselves is unrealistic and unachievable. 

Now think about what you want for your church.  What are your dreams for you and your brothers and sisters in Christ in 10 years, 5 years, 1 years' time?  Paul's big dream for the Ephesians was that they would know God better.  The God who has revealed himself through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The God who we're told earlier in Ephesians 1 blesses his people with every spiritual blessing.  The God who is supremely glorious and well worth knowing.  Pauls wants these Christians to have an increasing personal, intimate, relational delight in that great God.  

Presumably, that is what Paul would want for us too, but as I read that prayer, I can't help but wonder if it's a cruel fantasy like the S Club 7 rainbow!  Some of you may be feeling quite distant from God right now and knowing him better seems so out of reach.  Or perhaps you see how this could be true for one or two, but really...the whole church getting to know God better? It seems so unlikely.  But this isn't just a dream of Paul's, it is a prayer, which means he must know God CAN answer it! 

As the phrase goes, it takes one to know one.  Well, it takes God to know God.  We need his help. We need his Holy Spirit to be at work in us to give us wisdom and revelation as we open up his word.  We can't do this alone.  But wonderfully, we don't need to.  God wants to help us know him better, which we are able to do if only we would pray for it! 

What are your dreams for you and  your brothers and sisters in the next 10 years, 5 years, 1 year?  How are those dream reflected in your prayer life? Paul would say - in the words of S Club 7- that the stars we should be reaching for, the rainbow we should be following, is to know God better.  That's want God himself wants for us, it's what he wants us to be praying and he wants to help make it happen.  So unlike my childhood dream of being a Fireman-Pilot-Rockstar, this is not an impossible reality out of our grasp! God surely delights in his people praying that they would know him better.  And surely he will answer it.    

So why not make this a regular prayer for yourselves and for one another? 

Hello Everyone
As some of you may remember, we ran a 5-week programme to develop our practical communication skills in October and November last year.
At the time, some people who expressed an interest were not able to join up. In addition, due to our continued focus on good mental health at BH, others may also feel that it's of value to take part now.
 
So what's the course about?
 
It's a very practical, hands-on workshop, which explores communication in terms of our 'words', 'music' (voice) and 'dance' (body language) and how these three components, working together, can help to make what we say, and how we say it, more effective.
 
We then go on to explore a range of tools or techniques, such as how to build others up, how to listen deeply, how to have difficult conversations and how to put your point across in a fair and balanced way. There's lots of working in small groups, to try out the techniques and then apply them to 'real life' situations.
 
The course will be run over 5 weeks, as before, with each session lasting two hours. We'd need you to commit to all 5 sessions, as each builds on what comes before it.
 
Some of those who attended last year have provided their details below and would be more than happy for you to get in touch for an honest evaluation of the programme, what they learned and the difference it's made.
 
Please send me an email (bishophannington@gmail.com) if you'd like to sign up, with your availability for February and March, by Sun 31st Jan:
1. Across weekday evenings
2. Sunday afternoons before the evening service
I'll then confirm the start date and times in due course.
 
Looking forward to working with you.
 
Giles

​It’s a strange thing but people seem to have real difficulty living in the present. Worriers live in the future...come to think of it so do dreamers! The news and Captain Sir Tom have repeatedly pointed us to a better day that’s coming.
Those with a severe case of nostalgia and sometimes those with a deep sense of guilt live in the past. It’s easy to look back with either fondness or regret – sometimes a mixture of both. I wonder how you will look back on 2020?

But there’s another word that’s really important and that’s, ‘NOW’.

Something amazing to consider is that God lives in the perpetual ‘now’. God doesn’t live in the past or the future because in eternity there is no time but the present moment. That’s one reason why God knows everything because everything is NOW to God...and why when we sing ‘when we’ve been there 10,00 years’ it’s delightful nonsense as is ‘10,000 years and then forevermore’. It does, of course, convey a great idea. 😊 In eternity, in heaven, we will truly live ‘now’ - perhaps for the first time.

One of my favourite verses, which God drew to my attention many years ago, is Exodus 6:1a,
“Now you will see what I will do.”

Moses had come to God complaining that since he’d been sent to tell Pharaoh to let the people of God go, things had got worse not better, “O Lord, why have You brought trouble on Your people?” Instead of just having to slave away making bricks out of straw now they had to go to look for the straw and still make as many bricks or get beaten!! And, said Moses, “You have not rescued Your people at all.”

That’s when God pointed Moses to the ‘now’...and from our vantage point we can look back to what God did as He led His people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, especially remembering Passover and what that prefigured - Jesus, our Passover Lamb.
                                                                                              
God had, and still has, a plan – it wasn’t immediately obvious to the Israelites and may not be obvious to us but our part is to keep praying to Him, trusting Him and looking for where He is at work and noticing what He’s doing, now.                                                                                          Is there someone or something for which you’ve been praying - maybe for years??          Perhaps God is highlighting this verse for you, today, saying, “Now you will see what I will do.”

It’s not helpful to live in the past and useless worrying about the future...especially as we can have certainty about our home in heaven when we put our trust in Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

So, let’s live NOW, in God’s strength, in the power of His Holy Spirit and keep watching and praying so that we can rejoice together as we see what He does next.

​We still have some copies of Ian’s book in the church office for sale.
If you would like to purchase a copy please email the office (office@bhmc.org.uk) and forward £5.00 per copy direct to the BH bank account 40.52.40 Account no. 00016162. 

​


See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so                                                                  we are.1 John 3:1a

On Sunday our theme for the morning was church as family. But we started by asking ourselves ‘How are we family’. And the answer was that we are now all children of God because God lavished love upon us by sending his child to seek and save us and bring us home. So today, if you love and trust Jesus, you are a child of God.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
The one who fashioned the stars, the one who holds the oceans in the palm of his hand, the one who knows the beginning from the end, the one who is robed in perfect light, the one who is perfect wisdom and perfect love.
If you are a Christian you are his child. You are his beloved. Your picture is on his mantlepiece.
Whatever today has in store, rest and remember that.
And in the mean time read over this quote from the Theologian J I Packer, and ponder it today and ask yourself how much do I make about being a child of God?​

Please click on the link below:
​https://mcusercontent.com/86116d136cabe9e59290da9bd/files/b700b7d2-0e2a-45ef-9afe-8126f59bdc70/E_Newsletter_January.03.pdf

Pressing on – upwards
 
‘You need to persevere’ Hebrews 10:36
 
I did a pretty foolish thing in my early 20’s, and that was to hike a high Lake District mountain on my own. It was February and the weather was glorious – not a cloud in the sky over the whole of England. I took the ‘difficult’ path up one of the famous peaks. As I got higher, the terrain got more precipitous, it also got icy – really icy! At one stage I was crawling along a ‘ridge’ on my hands and knees. It was scary. At the end of the ridge was frozen snow, and the way ahead almost vertical. I wanted to go back, but couldn’t face that icy ridge again. So, forward, or rather upward, it had to be. I carved footholds in the hard snow and after much puffing, panting and sweating (with fear), I made the summit – alive!! Needless to say I took the ‘easy’ way back to the Youth Hostel.
 
Sometimes in our Christian life, the ‘pathway’ seems pretty treacherous doesn’t it? Did we sign up for this? And, we want – really want, to go back. But forwards is the only way to go – even if the path seems pretty much vertical.
 
The Hebrew Christians in our verse today were in that position. Life had been a real struggle – almost too much to bear. They wanted to go back, to the ease and comfort of their ‘pre-Christian’ days, but the writer of the letter urges them to persevere – to keep on going in the faith. Have a look at v19-39 of Hebrews chapter 10, and hear the words of encouragement. Yes, they were written for those first century believers, but they were also written for us.
 
‘We do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved’ (v39).

God cannot Learn
 
Our God is so BIG, so strong and so mighty
There are some things God cannot do.
 
It was in a car on the way to Eastbourne that I finally learnt the truth about Pringles.
 
Are you ready?
 
Pringles are not pure potato crisps cut straight from the potato.
I was 21 and the snack isle at the supermarket would never look the same again.
 
 
Humans learn stuff.
We learn numbers and formulas; we learn tastes and smells; we learn letters and words; and if we’re lucky we learn that Pringles are created from potato flake dough flavoured to perfection!
 
But God’s not like us.
 
God knows.
God knows everything.
God knows everything that is, that was and that will be.
 
I mean have a look at Isaiah 40:25-26
To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name…
 
Do you see the sheer scale of God’s knowledge? The names of each and every star. God knows the names of each star!?! Very rough estimates put the number of stars in the universe at 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. And God knows EACH ONE by name.
That is something else!! If we tried to learn even the names of a fraction of that number our brains could not cope with the information and I reckon our bodies wouldn’t last, old age would get to us!
 
God can’t learn because He knows it all already.
God knows everything, so He has nothing to learn. What a God!?
How different from you and me!
 
Why not read Psalm 139, have a look at what God knows, at how He knows it and rejoice that THIS God is our God!
 
 
See because God knows it all, and because God can’t learn, He can’t be surprised either.
Not by the past, not by the present nor by the future.
So you and I cannot shock Him.
 
 
I hope this is a comfort to you. The God who can’t learn, can’t be shocked and that same God who knows all we’ve done, and will do and could do and STILL that same God says: Never will I leave you; Never will I forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)
Delight in this God who knows you AND loves you.

There are various parts of your anatomy that the Bible sometimes describes as 'Beautiful'. And that list includes your feet, which I imagine is hardly on the top of most people's list of greatest assets when it comes to beauty!


Many years ago I was involved in organising a conference called  'Beautiful Feet'. It was for youth leaders so we got away with that title, and it was based on Romans 10:15 (which quotes Isaiah 52:7) "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news", and gave rise to that 1980's Christian song 'Our God Reigns' with its first line 'How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news."

So today, how are the feet? Are we still willing to share (somehow) what we believe about Jesus, how hard we're finding it not being able to get to church in any kind of 'normal' way, and how helpful it is to have a personal faith in Jesus?

I wonder, how do you think God reacts when you talk to someone about Jesus, even in the most hesitant, stumbling way? How does he react when you're praying that you can say something of your faith to your best friend from school? How do you react to something of beauty (even beautiful feet!)?
Have a beautiful feet day today.
​Phil

​For the next couple of months, at least, Cameo won’t be meeting  in the Church buildings so we would love to invite anyone who is able to access Zoom on a Thursday morning, between 11:00 and 12:00 approximately, to join us for refreshments & chat, topics of interest, quizzes, discussions and more...please come along using the link in ChurchSuite and we look forward to meeting you there.

GENESIS 33:1-11 Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two female servants. 2 He put the female servants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear. 3 He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept. 5 Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children. “Who are these with you?” he asked.
Jacob answered, “They are the children God has graciously given your servant.”
6 Then the female servants and their children approached and bowed down. 7 Next, Leah and her children came and bowed down. Last of all came Joseph and Rachel, and they too bowed down.
8 Esau asked, “What’s the meaning of all these flocks and herds I met?”
“To find favor in your eyes, my lord,” he said.
9 But Esau said, “I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself.”
10 “No, please!” said Jacob. “If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably. 11 Please accept the present that was brought to you, for God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” And because Jacob insisted, Esau accepted it.

2021 feels very much like it should be the year of reparation. Joe Biden, and recently Donald Trump too, have called for a time of healing in the US after the distressing and unsettling events that took place in the Capitol last week. The vaccine process should, God-willing, begin the process of returning life back to normality at some point later this year. Brexit is over!

Over the last few years, animosity and division have felt very much on the rise.
Relations between Jacob and Esau weren’t always the friendliest. They fought in the womb, Jacob had taken Esau’s birth-right and blessing, Esau held a grudge against him to the extent he considered killing him (Gen 27:41). You can very much understand why Esau may be furious with his younger brother. Jacob hasn’t seen his brother for a while. He hears Esau’s coming to meet him with 400. As Esau is running to meet Jacob, his heart must be in his mouth. But in almost the same way as the Father with the Prodigal Son, Esau runs out to meet his brother, embraces him and kisses him and they weep together. What seemed like a brutal act of revenge has turned into a tender, forgiving, family reunion.

It’s always a beautiful thing when we see people who used to be enemies making things up. I vividly remember seeing this picture of Arsene Wenger the former Arsenal manager standing arm in arm with both Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho on the touchline at Old Trafford. All 3 of those men had slung numerous insults at each other, they’d shoved each other on the touchline, they’d even once been involved in a food-fight … and there they were, showing respect and friendship to each other.

Maybe there hasn’t been anyone that you’ve had a particular grudge on over the last few years, or anyone you’ve been plotting revenge on. But maybe there’s someone who you had an outburst against on social media last year when things were getting too much for you. Maybe there’s someone you know who votes completely differently to you and that’s something you find hard to overlook. Maybe there’s a family member who you’ve deliberately lost touch with because of something that happened in the past. How much of a godly act would it be for you to react the way Esau does with Jacob? Esau had good reason to be angry with Jacob, but Esau shows him beautiful forgiveness. How can you show the same to someone who you feel has wronged you?
​Alex

Sunday 17th January | Youth Prayer Meeting | 5pm 
As we were reminded last week by Phil and Ben, it's good to pray for All People, including our young people! Lockdown is really wearing and difficult for lots of our young people; they've had exams cancelled, schools shut and face uncertainty in their futures. So as a church family it would be wonderful to gather together to pray for young people and their families during this third lockdown. 
Join via ChurchSuite.

Please click on the link below for Phil's update on Church Services
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibJq8ufKICs

                                                               A Prayer for the Year
Dear Heavenly Father,
 
Thank you that You make all things new. Thank you for all that You allowed into our lives last year, the good along with the hard things, which have reminded us how much we need You and rely on Your presence filling us every single day.
 
We pray for your Holy Spirit to lead us each step of this year. We ask that You will guide our decisions and turn our hearts to desire You above all else. We ask that You will open the doors that need to be opened and close the ones needing to be shut. We ask that You would help us release our grip on the things to which You’ve said “no,” “not yet,” or “wait.” We ask for help to pursue You first, above every desire You have placed within our hearts.
 
We ask for Your wisdom, for Your strength and power to be constantly present within us. We pray that You would make us strong and courageous for the road ahead. Let Your gifts flow freely through us, so that You would be honoured by our lives – and others would be drawn to You. We pray that You would whisper in our ear when we need to run, and whisper in our heart when we need to stand our ground.
 
We pray for Your protection over our families and friends. We pray that You would give us discernment and insight to understand Your will, to hear Your voice, and to know Your ways. Keep our footsteps firm and on solid ground, helping us to be consistent and faithful.
 
Lord, keep Your words of truth planted firmly within us. Help us to keep focused on what is pure and right, and give us the power to be obedient to Your word. We ask that You will be our defence, keeping our way clear, removing the obstacles, and covering the pitfalls. Lord, lead us on Your level ground.
 
Shine Your light in us, through us, and over us. May we make a difference in our community, for Your glory and purposes. May we reflect Your peace and hope to a world that so desperately needs Your presence and healing. To You, O Lord, be glory and honour, in this year and forever.
 
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

What do you do when you face a setback?
 
All of us will face one, at least once a year. It may be small. It may be large. But we will face them. It is how we respond to them which is significant.
 
Read Ezra 4
 
It’s a long reading, but important contextual background to where we are going. Let me try to paint the picture of where in Biblical history this is happening:

• The people of Judah had been sent into exile 70 years prior, Jerusalem and the Temple have been destroyed
• Under the Persian King Cyrus, the God’s people have been allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple

 
Now if you are not a big fan of reading, I can point you toward Ezra 4:11-16. Here the enemies of God’s people who are trying to prevent them from rebuilding the temple have sent a sneaky letter to the new king (Artaxerxes) trying to get him to stop the temple building. And you know what is interesting? What they write isn’t incorrect. Yes it is true that prior to the exile these things happened. But it’s ‘old news’. They used ‘old news’ to disrupt the rebuilding of the temple. But however deceptive the plan, it worked. (V24)
 
So, God’s people faced a setback. How did they respond? They could hang up the building tools, forget the plans and just ‘get on with the rest of life’…
 
Read Ezra 5:1-2
 
When it was the easy choice to give up, God’s people turned to God. They submitted to His will, trusted in His plans, and as directed by the prophets they got on with the work. You can read to the end of the chapter if you want, it’s a glorious ending. They use the same tactic that was used against them in chapter 4 to show what they were doing was in fact justified all along.
 
But back to the subject of today. How do you face a setback? I think we can learn that a good response is to turn our face to God, submit to His will, and to keep doing the things they He has asked us to do.
 
How might you put this into practice in the next couple of weeks?