“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jer 32:27)

That’s a good question. Is anything too hard for God? Please answer that, honestly.
I think in practice we do think some things are too hard for the Lord. Here are some suggestions:

BH to have 100 new Christians by this time next year
Climate change to be reversed
My child to come back to the Lord
The conversion of the Taliban

Let’s focus on that last one. According to mission partners just recently evacuated from Afghanistan, most Christians there, “expect to meet Jesus face to face in the next two weeks.” There is so much we must be praying for that country; our little prayer meetings seem a little paltry, and we wonder just what God can do. But is anything, anything, too hard for the Lord?

Seems to me that God is very good at doing the ‘impossible’. Just take a look at yourself. He’s given you a new life, and He’s got you on the way to heaven, and if we take a good long and honest look at ourselves, it just seems impossible. Yet it isn’t. It’s happening.

So today, please join me in praying for Taliban fighters to be converted to Jesus. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Of course not.
Phil

Psalm 9:7-10
 
Sometimes a word or phrase sticks out at you when you read a portion of Scripture.
 
7 The Lord reigns forever;
    he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He rules the world in righteousness
    and judges the peoples with equity.
9 The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
    a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name trust in you,
    for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
 
The Lord is a refuge. Some of us might think of our house, our living room or our bedroom as a place of ‘refuge’, places where we can feel ‘safe’. But rather than a place of comfort think of a ‘fortress’, a place which is impregnable, where the most overwhelming army couldn’t possibly breach.
 
This is the Lord for us. We can have full confidence in Him that we will never be lost. Our salvation is guaranteed because of Him. Though life may throw it’s worst at us, He will never let us go. We can find peace in the midst of the storm because He Himself is our peace.
 
Matt

Hosea 1:3-9
At Rooted recently we asked the young people to come up with a name for Matt & Steph’s baby. There were some cracking names out there: Matt Jnr / Fern / Ruth / Isaiah – strong contenders (Matt, Steph, take note!!)

And then there were some more interesting names thrown out… Zin? Alex/Alexandra? (from Alex Forrest...!)
 
Baby names are super important. Biblical baby names are SUPER SUPER important!
So back in Hosea, look at the baby names we’re given:

So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.
6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them.
8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
Remember; Hosea is a miniature of what God has done with His people and in chapter 1 of Hosea, the focus is squarely on the babies! Just like Hosea was called to be an object lesson to the people so to the children – and these are not nice and fun lessons.
 

• Baby 1: Jezreel [2 Kings 9 & 10] the place where an entire royal house of Israel had been slaughtered. Jezreel; that cute bundle of joy is a stark warning: this is what God will do to Israel.
• Baby 2: Lo-Ruhamah means not pitied; no compassion. And did you notice that this child isn’t Hosea’s? When Jezreel is born, we read Gomer conceived and bore him [Hosea] a son… that’s not said for Lo-Ruhamah. She is a product of adultery; with a name no compassion, she is a fitting sign to God’s people. They are people of spiritual adultery and there are consequences.
• Baby 3: Lo-Ammi means not my people. Another child born of Gomer’s infidelity. Just like Hosea would look at this child and every time think; that’s not my boy… so too God when He looks at His people; they have become children of the times around them.

 
Three babies of judgement depicting what would happen to God’s people for their spiritual infidelity.
 
These weren’t just words to Hosea. This was a painful message with feeling and the whole community would know. The whole community would see this family living out their story.
The pain Hosea felt is a bit like the pain God feels, sin cuts deep.
Often, we jump too quickly to the good news, but today, I want to let these three babies of judgement sit with us.
Sin is serious and has serious consequences. Again, a reminder for us to flee far from it, and to not entertain or flirt with sin for a second. It is deadly!
This judgement was going to become a reality for Israel.
Within that generation of people who would have heard Hosea’s message, judgement would come, Assyria would wipe them out.
 
See the babies here are warning shouts of what could happen, they are not sentences set in stone, let Hosea 1 be a warning shout for any of us who have not turned from sin, who have not turned towards the babe of Salvation, the Lord Jesus, there is a greater judgement than Assyria coming, please don’t delay, come back to Him, there is a way to escape judgement. 
Stephen

​BH World Mission Awareness Month
is coming up in October
 
We've got some great guest & home preachers lined up to teach us what God says about our Mission Statement at BH & to inspire us to consider what part God wants us to play.

We hope to have other mission focused events throughout the month
such as prayer meetings for our MPs & workshops over lunch with our guest speakers.
 
More details to follow in September but for now 'save the date' and get praying.

​During a speech in 2002, President George W Bush had the kind of moment he became infamous for. He attempted to recite an old saying…but he completely forgot the punchline! He stumbled through it, saying, “Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me... You can’t get fooled again!” (The correct aphorism is “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”.) My point is simply to highlight the importance of the punchline: without it, the whole communication is rendered useless.
Throughout the book of Acts, the apostles never forgot the punchline. Whenever they bore witness to Jesus, they never forgot to mention the resurrection of Jesus. Whether they were speaking from the Old Testament or more generally about God, they always made it their goal to preach the risen Jesus. To leave the reigning Jesus out of the picture was akin to leaving out the punchline.
Take Acts 17. As Paul visited Thessalonica and Berea, again and again, he preached the resurrection of Jesus. It wasn’t enough for him to simply state to his fellow Jews that “it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead”, but also that “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ” (Acts 17:3). It’s the same in Athens: Paul brought before the Areopagus “because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18). He did not hold back from preaching the resurrection, even though it resulted in mocking (see vv31-32). Indeed, he called on the Athenians to repent, for the risen Jesus is proof of the judgement to come (see vv30-31).
We need to tell people today that Jesus is alive today and that he is Lord today. It’s interesting the way people react when the name ‘Jesus’ is used, instead of simply ‘God’: it makes it specific. The resurrection helpfully sharpens things further, because it requires a response: either you believe that Jesus did rise from the dead and is Lord, or that the resurrection is false and Jesus isn’t Lord.
This is different to simply telling those around us that we believe in God, go to church or are Christian. As we meet people who fail to follow Jesus and, like Paul, our spirits are provoked within us (Acts 17:16), let us not forget the punchline that they need to hear. Call on people to repent in light of the coming judgement of the risen Christ (vv30-31).

Speak Lord, We are Listening
 
Then he said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
Luke 24:44-45 (NLT)
 
We live in a world of information overload. Yet, with all this information, we can still feel ‘out of it’. It requires effort and constant updating to knowing the latest sports scores, or the most recent political development, or the latest fashion trend. Ironically, even within a day, this highly sought-after information will often be irrelevant.
 
Although timeless, the Bible competes with all these other attention-seekers for a moment of our time. Yet, when we finally get to the Bible, many parts can seem mysterious. We are often left with more questions than answers.
 
So, it is a great comfort to know that God wants us to understand Him. In the Upper Room with His disciples, Jesus “opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures”. Jesus revealed God’s eternal truths to ordinary people.
 
And it is the same for us today: God wants us to understand Him as we read the Bible. Of all the information that bombards our mind, what we need the most is a word from God that we can trust. The greatest ‘update’ that we can receive today is the Bible – God’s Word for our soul. 

What is God saying to you today through His Word in the Bible?
  
Almighty God, thank You that You do not remain silent or distant. Thank You that You have chosen to reveal Yourself through your Son, Jesus, and through Your inspired Word. Guard my mind from irrelevant and irreverent data and open my mind so that I can understand Your Word more fully. Amen
​

Provider or Body to which we belong?
Last Monday my train was cancelled so I found myself with a spare hour on Worthing station, and read Christopher Ash’s ‘The Book your Pastor wishes you would read’. As you might expect, I think it’s very good!
Here’s a quote from it:
“What if we see church as a provider to meet our needs, rather than a body to which we belong. It may be a provider perhaps of preaching or of music or of an experience that makes me feel good, or of a pastoral context in which I will be well loved and cared for.”
So how do you see church? As we have negotiated the pandemic it’s been extremely easy to treat church as a provider, to meet some acknowledged needs. But it can never be just that, and now were moving away from periods of lockdown and so on, let’s re-assess how we view church.
Provider or a body to which we belong?
And of course that has implications, because no true Christian can just ‘go to church’; we need to belong, be part of, meet, and serve.
So, BH. Merely your provider, or the body to which you belong?

Hebrews 12:1-2a
 
I didn’t watch much of the Olympics this year. Maybe it was the time difference with most of the events happening live in the mornings, or maybe it was the fact that I am mad about cricket leaving me with not much energy to keep up with another sporting event.
 
But one thing among many that I do like about the Olympics is the crowds. Not just the main arena but all the smaller ones that create such an incredible atmosphere. And it was so sad to see event after event empty. Athletes competing at the highest level and yet no-one to cheer them on in the moment.
 
I think the endurance events are the ones where those athletes need the crowd the most. The swells and roars that keep them going that little bit further when they have almost nothing left to give.
 
The first verses of Hebrews 12 tell us to run that race of faith, throwing off those things that hinder us and sin that so easily entangles. And we are being cheered on by a great cloud of witnesses. Saints of old who have gone before, who have run the race and know the prize is worth it. There is no pandemic or disaster that prevents those crowds cheering us on. They keep encouraging us to keep going, fixing our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith, the Lord Jesus.
 
Keep going in your faith, keep running that race day by day.

The BH staff would love to know your thoughts regarding serving at BH.  At the link below is a very short survey of only 4 questions.  If you attend BH we would love to know your thoughts.
  Link to the survey 
If you receive BH news you will  also receive the survey in an email.  The closing date for the survey is Sunday 29th August.

.This year at Keswick Helen Thorne gave some very helpful seminars on the subject of anxiety.
If you would like to listen to them they can be seen on YouTube at the links below
​

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 
I was on holiday in Northern Ireland last week and took the opportunity to visit the Giant’s Causeway. I took this photo and it doesn’t do justice to the view. Historians say the causeway began to be formed about 50-60 million years ago.

SHOCKING NEWS THAT YOU’VE HEARD MANY TIMES BEFORE: God’s love for you is older than the Giant’s Causeway! It is older than the dinosaurs. It is older than the Earth’s crust.
​
We were chosen to be God’s holy and blameless creation, his children who he is pleased with, before everything we’ve ever seen, known or felt ever existed. Chosen to give glory to God.
And what more reason do we have to give glory to God, than out of an outpouring of love for his predestined choosing of us to be his children and inherit his kingdom, not because of anything we’ve done, but solely through the blood of Christ.
Alex

BH World Mission Awareness Month is coming up in October
We've got some great guest & home preachers lined up to teach us what God says about our Mission Statement at BH & to inspire us to consider what part God wants us to play.
We hope to have other mission focused events throughout the month such as prayer meetings for our MPs & workshops over lunch with our guest speakers.
More details to follow in September but for now 'save the date' and get praying.

Click on the Link to read:
https://mailchi.mp/c73e3ed8a936/transfer-news-graham-potter-joins-off-the-fence-as-patron?e=bc65f9da22

In our society today, we are often subjected to great pressures, e.g. heavy workloads, strained relationships, tight economic conditions, pandemic fears, etc. Furthermore, with advanced modern technology, we are exposed to even greater challenges; the Internet can lure us into temptation, even to the point of addiction.
Jesus’ experience of praying in the Garden of Gethsemane shows that prayer is a pressure releasing tool. It is the best weapon to withstand the Devil’s temptation. It is the best channel that helps us maintain a close, personal relationship with God. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome the attacks of the Evil One.
As someone said, “If life gets too hard to stand… kneel.” God invites us to be with Him in prayer; to release the tension and carry everything that life throws at us to God in prayer.

• When we face difficulties in our work, daily life or service to God, do we rely on ourselves, or do we lay our problems in God’s hands through prayer?
• What difficulties do we encounter when learning to pray? How do we overcome them?

 
Heavenly Father, forgive my laziness in spiritual exercise; forgive me for not persevering in my prayer life and not maintaining a close relationship with You through prayer. Dear Lord, strengthen my faith today through prayer! In Jesus’ name, Amen

One of our ‘top goals’ of 2020 was to help us grow in our confidence and understanding with regard to Mental Health. As part of this goal Chris Dalton produced some really excellent Bible studies to help us think through some of these big questions. Chris writes: 'Living Well is a series of 6 studies with practical outcomes that looks amongst other things at the Biblical view of our identity , our significance, our security and how that helps us to live well. There’s a workbook to accompany the studies which helps participants to reflect on what they discover through the weeks.’ Chris ran the course over zoom a number of times and now, Chris is considering running it again in person at some point in the Autumn.
​ 
If you might be interested it attending this then please email the office and then we can see if it might be possible to run a course at a suitable time in the Autumn.