Hebrews 1:1-4

Sometime when you read a passage the clearest response is to marvel, and to worship. Those first 4 verses of Hebrews absolutely fit that category.
Look at verses 3 and 4. Be honest with yourself, how small is your picture of Jesus? I think too often I make the One who is ‘the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being’ limited in my understanding. Verses like these are meant to blow us off our feet, to remind of us that the person whom is our Saviour is also the Sustainer of this universe.
And here’s where it really gets good. Back to verse 1-2, we are reminded that whereas God spoke before in various ways, at various times, now He speaks via His Son. So we get this awesome picture of the glorious Son of God, speaking to us, and not in a limited way like before, but all the time, God himself, with no end! For those who are feeling alone today, or who maybe have been feeling lonely for a long time because of the pandemic, I hope these things in Hebrews 1 gives you a renewed hope.
​How might those four verses change the way you think, speak, live today?

Zechariah 1:1-6 
 
"In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo:   2 “The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. 3 Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. 4 Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. 5 Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors? 
“Then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.’” 
 
It felt different this time.  Even those who had never really shown an interest in it before were sucked into the excitement.  The nation hoped.  Some even expected.  Sadly, it wasn’t to be.  Despite how much we sang the song, it didn’t ‘come home’! 
 
A wonderful thing about the Christian faith is that the certain hope (not wishful thinking like the football) for those trusting in Jesus is not that it’s coming home but that we’re coming home.  Our loving God is a God who promises we can be with him - come home to him.   We can sing: ‘We’re coming home.  We’re coming home.  We’re coming. We are coming home!” 
 
In Zechariah’s day, God’s people had finally returned home from exile after 70 years in Babylon.  (Maybe they were singing that song as they went?!)  However, life back in the land was not what they hoped it would be: they continued to live under the regime of the Persians; other nations opposed them; the rebuilding of the temple had stopped.  Everything was so discouraging, small and insignificant (see Zech 4:10).  But more than that, their hearts were still sinful.  They had given up with God- failing to love him and others.   
 
The prophet Zechariah comes along and says to the people, “Here’s the problem.  You’ve come home geographically, but not spiritually.  You haven’t come home to God.”  Zechariah 1:3 is the key message to the whole book:  Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. 
 
They needed to do a U turn.  They needed to repent, turning from their evil practices and starting to live with God at the centre of their lives.  Perhaps you need to do the same.  Perhaps you feel spiritually flat or apathetic.  Perhaps your heart is cold towards God and his people.  Perhaps you are living in unrepentant sin.  Perhaps it’s too hard to live for Jesus so you’ve decided to take the easier route of serving yourself, living for something more immediate, more tangible, more rewarding.  God says: “Return to me.”  Make the song, ‘We’re coming home’ the theme tune of your life as you practice regular repentance.  Perhaps you are living like that, enjoying the blessing of ‘returning to the Lord’.  Great!  Keep going! Despite how discouraging and small serving the Lord may sometimes feel, keep enjoying a life of regular repentance, resolving to live each day loving and serving him. 
 
And how good it is for us to return to the Lord!  Because the Lord is a good God!  He lovingly invites sinner to himself, longing to be with them.  Our loving Father loves it when his people turn back to him so that he can run to embrace them with grace and mercy.  He says “return to me. Come home.  I want you.  If only you’d have me”.   
 
And in Jesus – God with us (Matt 1:23) – we see the promise of God returning to his people ultimately fulfilled.  When we trust in him God says to us ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’  God goes to great lengths to fulfil this promise as his Son – in his life, death and resurrection – makes it possible for us to turn our hearts back to him so that he can be with us!  And wonderfully, Jesus will one day return, when this promise will be fully and finally realised, and God will live among his people.  God will make his home with us!  (Rev 21:3).   
 
We may not be able to sing ‘It’s coming home’, but we have a better song to sing.  In fact, it’s better even than singing ‘we’re coming home.’  Our great hope, and our theme tune for life is:  ‘He’s coming home.’  Why don't you sing that to yourself now?  ‘He’s coming home.  He’s coming home.  He’s coming.  God is coming home!” 
 
In the meantime, continue to enjoy the blessing of daily repentance, and his daily mercy and grace! 
Rich

Some weeks ago, footballer Jadon Sancho switched teams from Borussia Dortmund to Man Utd. That transfer unites him to the Man U players. But now he needs to keep that unity. It’s vital to the success of that team.

Even more so, in a church God has made us one, he has united us. Just listen to how much Christians have in common:
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4vv4-6).

Once again:
We’re all members of the same body.
The same Spirit lives in us
We look forward to spending eternity together in the New Creation.
We have the same Lord to obey
We have faith in the same big truths.
We became Christians in the same way as symbolised by baptism.
We are brothers and sisters with the same heavenly Father.

Imagine meeting someone halfway across world (or even just Sussex) and discovering they’re from Hove. Don’t you immediately feel they’re a kindred spirit? But having Hove in common is small compared to what Christians have in common.

Think of the person in your church you think you are least like – or maybe the person you least like! If you’re both Christians, you have everything in common that matters. That’s how real our unity is.

God calls us to treat one other, not according to one another’s personality or even their behaviour. God has given us incredible unity.

So consider this: what happens when we’re on the receiving end of some thoughtlessness, or some nastiness, from a Christian? Well in a sense, nothing. We’ve still got everything that matters in common.  No matter how big someone’s offence against us is, it never makes these things untrue. And we need to respond accordingly. There is nothing that ought to split apart Christians who believe these things.
Dave Howarth

Open Eyes and an Open Heart
"Jesus now travelled through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of illness and disability. As he looked at the vast crowds, he was deeply moved with pity for them, for they were as bewildered and miserable as a flock of sheep with no shepherd.” (Matthew 9:35-36 JBP)
 
When we read the opening books of the New Testament, it is significant how often they say that Jesus saw people that others did not see. For example, in Matthew 9:36, Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion on them. Jesus saw what others seemed to have missed.

In Bible times many people considered the blind, the poor, the paralysed and the broken as just background noise; the ‘unfortunates’ who were swiftly overlooked. But not to Jesus. These were people to Him – real, flesh-and-blood, living, breathing, hurting people. And Jesus’ perfect and unconditional love went out to them. After all, they needed His work of salvation like everyone else.

And as He showed His compassion to the lost, Jesus challenges us today: how many people have we overlooked? Perhaps we are too busy, too preoccupied, or just numb – and we have missed the opportunity to be the hands and feet and heart of Jesus.
​
Let us not allow the pandemic to be an excuse to explain away a possible reluctance to express the love of Jesus to those in need. Instead, let us have open eyes, and an open heart to be “…the feet if those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’” (Isaiah 52:7).
 
What are practical ways in which we can show the love and compassion of Christ in our work, in our home and with our friends?
 
Dear Lord, please open my eyes today. Please let me see those around me that are in need of Your compassion. Urge me to listen to them, to hear their needs. Give me a heart to be interested in their troubles and, if possible, to provide the means to help them. Help me to be more like You – who had so much compassion for the world that You sacrificed your Son on a cross for me. In Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
​Simon

​       Updated Church check-in procedure
 
From Monday 19 July 2021, at Bishop Hannington we are no longer legally required to ask customers, visitors and staff to “check in”. Although it isn’t a requirement, NHS Test and Trace have strongly encouraged us to retain our NHS QR code posters and maintain our “logbook” containing attendees’ contact details.


We are really looking forward to welcoming everyone back on Sunday in line with “The BH Roadmap” which was published recently in the BH Bulletin and BH News.

In order to streamline the checking in procedure at the church door we recommend that attendees scan the NHS QR code poster (see above) which is the quickest and easiest way to register. Posters will be available at the entrance and outside the church. Please have your phones and the app switched on in advance of reaching the entrance for a quick scan! For those who don’t have the app you can give your details at the entrance.

The wearing of masks will be optional from this Sunday. The choice is yours. Sanitiser will still be available for the foreseeable future.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

​James & Carolyn write" We were very excited to baptise M on Sunday 4 July, and then participate in her wedding with J on Tuesday 6 July! We teamed up with some other missionary friends who also had a woman who wanted to be baptised. It was a great day. Here is our little church group in Zalla."

                              Created by God

       'Fearfully and wonderfully made' Psalm 139:13,14
 
Like any Christian parent and grandparent, I regularly pray for my family.

Two of my children are having babies this year and I've used this wonderful Psalm as a foundation for my prayers for them. Seeking God's blessing and protection upon the little ones that He is 'Knitting together' in the darkness, warmth and
'secret place' of the womb.
 
The psalmist basks in the truth of God's Omniscience (His all-knowingness) over each human life. 'You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body' (v13). 'My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth' (v15). 'Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them ever came to be' (v16). It is God who makes each precious little individual in the womb, weaving their unique body and character together.
 
Here God teaches the sanctity of life from conception through to death. It shouts an almighty NO to abortion, to euthanasia and to assisted suicide.
 
Unborn John the Baptist 'leaped for joy' in the womb of his mother when she heard Mary's greeting in Luke 1:44. He was alive and spiritually discerning three months before Elizabeth gave birth.
 
In case you wondered - baby No.1, the beautiful Hope, Jennifer, was born a few weeks ago, and baby No.2 is still being knitted by God!
Phil

Updated Church check-in procedure
 
From Monday 19 July 2021, at Bishop Hannington we are no longer legally required to ask customers, visitors and staff to “check in”. Although it isn’t a requirement, NHS Test and Trace have strongly encouraged us to retain our NHS QR code posters and maintain our “logbook” containing attendees’ contact details.


We are really looking forward to welcoming everyone back on Sunday in line with “The BH Roadmap” which was published recently in the BH Bulletin and BH News.

In order to streamline the checking in procedure at the church door we recommend that attendees scan the NHS QR code poster (see above) which is the quickest and easiest way to register. Posters will be available at the entrance and outside the church. Please have your phones and the app switched on in advance of reaching the entrance for a quick scan! For those who don’t have the app you can give your details at the entrance.

The wearing of masks will be optional from this Sunday. The choice is yours. Sanitiser will still be available for the foreseeable future.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Please click on the links below for the latest news from the Friths.
https://mailchi.mp/c6a0a7ccf8fa/noticias-5055670?e=abc240d331
​
https://www.alfarero.org/

'Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’ James 1:27
 
Religion! We don’t particularly like to reference that word a lot. We end up thinking about the negative connotations and tend to associate it with other world faith groups. But James likes it. In fact he says there is a religion that God accepts, something that he thinks is ‘pure and faultless’. Well I’m on board with that! And then we look at the verse and we think, just those two things? Seems a bit narrow. Is that all that God is looking for in religion?
 
‘Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne’ says Ethan the Ezrahite in Psalm 87:14. And I think he is on to something. See the two things that are referenced as ‘good religion’ are examples of something greater:
 
…to look after orphans and widows in their distress… - SOCIAL JUSTICE  —> JUSTICE
…and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world…’ - PURITY —> RIGHTEOUSNESS
 
Both are important. It is quite easy for Christians today to camp in one of these and not the other. But God desires that we do both; live a holy and sinless life before Him, whilst being His hands and feet to a broken world.
 
Father, help me to live the religious life you intended; one where I am living a pure, holy life before your eyes, whilst caring and loving without measure for the lost and the broken.
​Matt

Dear Phil and BH friends!
Greetings from Brazil!
How are you? We pray asking God to continue to bless and keep you and your family in his powerful hands.

We are all fine, by the grace and mercy of our wonderful God. After been retired, Marcia has been able to take good care of the ESCALE secretariat. Camila and Mairon are working hard, she at the Hospital and he in home office. As for André, he decided to stay in Ohio over summer holidays and work with a telecommunication company called “Verizon”.
 
COVID is still doing a big damage in Brazil. There are still many people dying, unemployed, homeless and literally going hungry. Please pray especially for Camila as she works as a full-time nurse at a big hospital in Belo. We thank God that ESCALE has been able to perform full activities never mind the pandemic. Yesterday we held a six-hour training section for 11 grassroots Pastors in Belo. From 19-26th July we will be travelling to Itaobim (270 miles away) to help Pastor Aparecido and Elza. I am taking with me 3 former ESCALE students: Pastor Levi, Pastor Gil and Samuel, a young leader. We are planning to rent a car and buy more than 20 baskets of basic food to give to poor people. We will visit people at their homes both in Itaobim and in Itinga, as well as some other surrounding villages and rural areas. Apart from evangelism and train grassroots Pastors, we shall also help Pastor Aparecido build his church's building. 

Please do see below the ESCALE 2021 Mid-Year Report. 
​
We do love you and ask the Lord to pour His blessings upon your life and fill your heart with His joy. 

In His wonderful and precious name,
​
Nelson & Marcia
For ESCALE Ministry Brazil.

​Faithful unto Death

'Be faithful, even to the point of death' Revelation 2:10

Lewes, where I live, is famous for it's bonfire night. We remember, with thanks, the deliverance of our nation from the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, and we also remember 17 Protestant martyrs who were burned at the stake in Lewes during the mid 16th century. They were a group of young men and women who believed what we believe, and who loved the Lord Jesus Christ as we do. They sought to worship and serve God as the Bible taught. There's now a plaque on the town hall to commemorate their brave witness, and there's a glass panel in the pavement that shows the very steps they walked up to face their gruesome death in the street just outside.
 
In Revelation chapter 2 verses 8-11, the risen and glorious Lord, speaks to a group of poor believers in the town of Smyrna.
'I know your affliction and poverty. I know about the slander you are facing' (v9).
He encourages them not to be afraid of suffering, nor of being put into prison (v10). Then in that same verse He urges them to 'be faithful, even to the point of death'. That verse is quoted on the Town Hall plaque in Lewes - those young believers were faithful, even to the point of death. Our freedoms of worship and our open bibles today came at great cost to our brothers and sisters of generations ago.
 
Those same words speak to us today. We too are called to be faithful to the Lord - even to the point of death. There are many believers around the world who are facing persecution, slander, prison and death. Let's stand with them in prayer, asking God to strengthen them that they would remain faithful to Christ.
 
Phil

​NGM (New Growth Ministries) are having a prayer meeting on zoom on Thursday 22nd July at 7pm.  Please use the link below for an invitation from Mark Mackenzie to join the meeting.  https://youtu.be/e0kosPXm20g

Access to the meeting is via MyChurchSuite or the BH Website where you will find the Zoom link in the Calendar under Events in the What's Happening  section.

Acts 4:12 thought for the day
 
We often don’t like to be told there is only one way to do things, do we? Whether it’s disregarding the instructions on flat pack furniture or ignoring the recipe in baking a cake, we love to do things how we like.    
 
A common misconception is that we can do God how we like- we can decide how we get to him, relate to him and enjoy him.  As the famous illustration goes, God is at the top of the mountain and  there are many paths that lead to him, so all that matters is walking along the one that suits you- as if choosing religion is like choosing sweets in the ‘Pick n Mix’ section of Woolworths (if you can remember that shop!) 
 
But according to Acts 4:12, there is ONLY ONE way to ‘do God.’  There is ONLY ONE way we can get to him, relate to him and enjoy him.  There is ONLY ONE way we can be saved:
 
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
 
The name being referred to here is the name of Jesus, that is the person of Jesus.  This claim can only be true about Jesus because there is no one else like Jesus.  He is uniquely qualified to be the unique saviour. 
 
For those of us who are trying to do God how we like, on our own terms, we need to hear the implied warning of this verse: to reject Jesus is to reject the ONLY saviour that God has appointed. 
 
For those of us who know this to be true, be encouraged that you are doing the right thing in following Jesus- there is no other saviour!  Keep looking to him today, confident that is it only through the One and Only Saviour that you get to be with God, relate to God and enjoy God, now and forever. 
it.
​Rich

​I think the 4th July Sunday morning BH service was my favourite service I’ve ever been to at BH.
I’ve been here 7 years, so that is a VERY bold claim! And yes, it was in COVID times with people wearing masks AND no singing, still I absolutely loved it.

Baptism is so special. Because it’s all about Jesus. On Sunday we were celebrating Jesus.
 
We were celebrating the work that Jesus has done on the cross.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:3-4
 
Down into the water and rising up out of the chaotic waters rising, baptism shows the lengths and breadths our Saviour went to for us and for our Salvation. It is an action replay of Jesus’ immense love for us that took Him to the depths of death on a cross and brought Him back up from the grave for us. Wow.
 
We were celebrating the work that Jesus is doing in the lives of the baptee (is that a word?!)
Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead…
Colossians 2:12
 
Through faith in Jesus we are united to Him. His story is our story. He died and rose again so we have died, died to our old self and old way of life AND we have been raised to new life, washed clean as new people! Baptism is the beautiful picture of how our life is entwined with Jesus! As new people Colossians goes on to talk about how we “dress” ourselves (Colossians 3:1-17) it is radically different to the old way of life and in baptism, as we celebrate the baptee’s union with Christ we also rejoice in the work He is doing by the power of the Spirit who lives in us to make our actions stack up to our new identity! Wow.
 
We were celebrating the work that Jesus will do when He comes again!
Jesus said ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’
John 11:25-26
 
We looked at this at KO on Sunday 11th July and isn’t God good!? I mean what a fitting follow up to a baptism service?! These words took on a different light one week on. These words felt more real after seeing the baptees going under and coming back up. Because baptism is a physical sign of Jesus the resurrection and the life; it is a visible reminder of our future raising; and it is a tangible picture of hope.
Jesus will not leave us in that water. He will not leave us sleeping in death.
He is the resurrection and the life. Wow.
​
I’m still smiling even now thinking back to everything that went on last Sunday.
If you weren’t there, you can watch it back right now, you can remember what Jesus has done, what He is doing and what He will do in the life of every believer.
 Stephen

NGM (New Growth Ministries) are having a prayer meeting on zoom on Thursday 22nd July at 7pm.  Please use the link below for an invitation from Mark Mackenzie to join the meeting. https://youtu.be/e0kosPXm20g
In order to get access to the Zoom link further details will follow.

The church is like a body. In our churches God wants big and little, old and young, quiet and not-so-quiet, living closely together and growing in Christ together.
But how can we manage that? Although we’re saved, we’re still sinners. Sometimes I’ll hurt you and let you down; and sometimes you’ll do the same to me. So how we must live as saved sinners amongst saved sinners?

Let’s walk through Ephesians 4vv2-6: Be completely humble. That means being more concerned with the rest of the church than with ourselves and what we want.
Next: be gentle. That means not being rough or harsh with each other.
But rather: be patient, bearing with one another in love. So when you find someone from your church hard work, you resist your natural instinct to keep away from them. Or when another church members does something wrong, before you react, you press pause, and allow God to change your heart so that you love them and stick with them. Because they are your own family.

It’s not natural for us to live like this. But that’s just the point: God’s people are not natural! We’re supernatural. He has made us incredible. Verse 3 sums it up: Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

When a sports player moves clubs, their transfer unites them to his new teammates. But they then will need to keep that unity for the team to be successful. In a church God has made us one, he has united us. We need to make every effort to keep the unity. Is there someone in your church who you need to better than you are? Repent with thanksgiving, and ask for God’s help to do that.
Dave Howarth