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.

Hosea 1:1-2
For the next few thoughts for the day that I write, we’re going to be camping out in Hosea.
I love the book of Hosea;
Hosea is a book that I think stands alone in the Bible.
It gives us an insight into the outlandish love of God like no other.
It is a book that was made for times our faith feels flat and difficult.
It is the wonderful Love story of a God who will not let His people go, written to warm your heart whenever you feel the cold frost of apathy setting in.
 
So before we look at it; pray.
Pray now that God would use a prophet’s love life and powerful words to rekindle a burning, vibrant love for Him in you…
 
 
Done that?
Look how this book starts:
 
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her
What?! In fact; the ESV puts it even starker:
“Go take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom
 
Wow. This is has got to be one of the most shocking commands God gives right? Marry a wife of whoredom. God loves marriage and this seems a mockery…
I mean think of the pain that Hosea would have felt trying to love and stick by a woman who was a serial adulteress. A wife whose eyes were constantly looking and body constantly going elsewhere…
 
So why is God doing this to poor Hosea (we think)?
 
…for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” Or the ESV again:
, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”
 
Hosea and his wife Gomer are a 4D living, breathing prop to God’s people Israel.
As Gomer time and again (as we’ll see) spurns the consistent loving embrace of a doting  husband, she is showing the spiritual adultery of God’s people.
As Hosea faithfully loves a woman who does not love him back, he is showing the faithful love of God.
As Hosea takes Gomer to be his wife he is, in miniature, a tangible example of God and His people.
 
The depth of God’s Love for His people cannot be measured. Over and over again in Scripture His people are called His bride. So then the book of Hosea frames sin starkly. Like Gomer cheating on Hosea; Sin is cheating on God.
 
I wonder if we see sin like that?
How does it change our attitude to sin?
And if God still loves and keeps holding on to us, His people, even despite our constant adultery; how much more reason to praise Him. 

​                                     “Take Care”
We often use that don’t we, as a form of ‘goodbye’? But I’ve been struck these last few days that taking care is also utterly Christian.
If, like me, you’ve been reading Ezekiel recently in your quiet times, then you will have read for example, Ez 11:20 “…then they will follow my decrees, and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people and I will be their God.”

Being careful to keep God’s laws is in fact a bit of a theme in Ezekiel – look out for it in the later chapters. But the theme is also there in the New Testament: Ephesians 5:15 “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Italics mine)

And as we come out from the COVID restrictions, I was especially struck by an article by Terry Waite that one of you sent me, in which he said that coming out of trauma is like coming up from the sea bed. Come up slowly, or you’ll be in danger of getting the bends. He might have said, come up carefully. So as a church and as individuals it’s probably a good idea to come out of the trauma of the last 18 months and get back to ‘normal’ slowly, carefully. We know where we’re heading, and I’m posting some more specific things about how we’ll do that within the bulletin. One thing for today – it seems to me that we need to be wise about the pace of recovery, and for some that will be slower than we’d like. For others it’ll be faster. For all of us, though, take care.
​Phil

​They’re in the backs of the chairs in the church building, and just in case you hadn’t heard, they’re for you to use to reserve a seat near to you, either for a friend coming, or to give yourself a bit of ‘COVID-space’ while in the building.

So if you’re feeling a bit uncomfortable with people sitting too near in these changing times, use the cards in the chair backs to place on the seats around you (as many as you like, within reason!), and that way, others won’t sit too close.

And again, let’s love and respect one another in this. We’ll have different attitudes to the relaxing of the Government guidelines and how we respond to this, so there’s no definitive ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, so let’s love our brothers and sisters, just as we are doing.

I don’t expect we’ll have the red cards for ever. We’ll keep the situation under review, and let you know before we stop using them.
​
With love to you all,
Phil

​
​For more information go to the Super Summer page 
Catharine

​This thought for the day is actually a blog post I read recently which I found encouraging and challenging in equal measure. It’s a 5-minute read rather than 2. But ever so worth it. 
Thanks
Ben

My 30-Second Sermon as We Prepared for a Crash Landing 
JULY 2, 2021  |  KYLE DONN 
 
Last Sunday I thought I was going to die.
“Brace! Brace! Brace!” 
The flight attendants prepared us for impact. The pilot of American Airlines Flight 2775—which had just taken off from Charlotte and was heading to Seattle—announced moments earlier that our plane was experiencing engine failure and that we needed to prepare for a crash landing. The attendants ran frantically up and down the cabin, preparing us.
I missed their explanation on exactly how to brace. I wondered if I was doing it right, so I looked around. I saw a grown man crying. I saw a couple holding hands tightly.
I have never felt so out of control or totally exposed. Or—honestly—so scared. Three rows from the back of the plane, in a middle seat, with absolutely no ability to change anything that was about to happen. I played through my mind that in the next few minutes I could be meeting God.
My wife, Brittany, and I took a moment to remind each other the answer to the first question in the catechism we’ve been using as a devotional. We spoke the words back and forth to each other: “I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in both life and death, to God and to Jesus Christ my Savior.”
I asked her, “Did you do anything for God to save you?” Britt said, “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Christ did it all.”
People were weeping, chests to their knees. 
30-Second Sermon
I turned my attention to the young woman sitting on my right. We’d had a pleasant conversation before takeoff, but now she was sobbing, curled into a brace position.
I leaned toward her and asked: “If we die in the next few minutes, do you know what’s going to happen?”


She said something about growing up Catholic and going to purgatory, or heaven, or something. She was unsure. 
I said: “I’m going to share with you why Britt and I have hope right now; I hope that’s OK.” She said it was. 
I then started preaching to a larger group in the rows around me, loudly over the sound of the plane. A 30-second sermon:
“I don’t want to scare anyone, but I want you to know why my wife and I have hope right now. We have peace with God!” 
A couple of heads turned and looked at me.


“The God who made everything wants to make peace with us, even though we’ve broken his world. He loves you so much that he left heaven to make peace with sinners by dying on a cross. His name is Jesus. Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is the risen Lord, and you’ll have peace with God!”
No one laughed. No one scoffed.
I don’t know if anyone heard or responded to my 30-second sermon in those frantic moments. But I’m glad God gave me the courage to not stay silent. I’d been meditating on the gospel for years. Now it was coming out, thanks to the prodding of the Holy Spirit.
I pray he will continue to give me, and every Christian, the courage to speak up. The precious souls around us need to hear—or be reminded of—the gospel of ultimate hope. That’s as true in a plane about to attempt an emergency landing as it is in a coffee shop or a cul-de-sac.
We’d been above the clouds for a bit, but the ground was now getting closer. I saw trees. Then closer. More trees.
It felt like forever and a split second all at the same time.
Then, somehow, suddenly a runway underneath us. We glided onto the tarmac. Hollering, clapping, cheering, crying. 
Everyone called a loved one. Or two. We stepped off. We got our $12 meal vouchers. We waited at the gate for the replacement plane.
And the wonder of it was that most passengers didn’t seem to care. Did they register what had just happened? Did it not jolt them awake to the precious fragility of life?
Phones and headphones came back out quickly. People finished the Netflix shows they had started on the plane, or Candy Crush, or scrolling social media.
Maybe the return to mediated normalcy was a coping mechanism. But we were stunned. God had grabbed us with a word. Something like: Any moment could be your last. You are not in control. Be ready.
It was the sort of experience that had the potential to wake us up—to draw us into a new urgency and awareness of life’s fragility, and God’s goodness in leaving heaven to initiate a relationship with us. I pray it was that sort of experience for some of the passengers. 
My pilot friends have told me we weren’t really in much danger, and I believe them. Pilots are trained to fly on a single engine. I know that . . . now.
But the experience in the moment was like breathing in smelling salts and being rattled awake. For us, those surreal moments held the real possibility of an imminent end to life—like, minutes or seconds away.
 
Your next walk around your neighborhood could be your last moment on earth. Your condo complex could tumble down on you while you’re sleeping. Your next drive could end in twisted metal. Your life could be over before you drop your kids off at daycare.
For me, the Flight 2775 experience was a wake-up call to speak the gospel more often, and more boldly, to my unbelieving friends and family.
In a world of such violent contingency—where a life can be snuffed out at any moment, in any number of ways—you need to know what comes next. You need to know what will happen after you die. You have an eternal soul. “Do not marvel at this,” Jesus warned, “for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, the righteous to the resurrection of life, and the wicked to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28–29).
Don’t miss your chance. Don’t wait to meet God. Don’t overthink it. Don’t talk yourself out of it, out of pride or pain or apathy. Simply accept the peace terms he’s extended. Do not delay.
I don’t care who you are, what you’ve done, or how anti-God you’ve been. If you accept God’s peace terms—turning from sin and trusting in Christ—you will know for certain where you’ll be after you die. And you can live with peace and hope in a world where death, for any of us, is only ever a sinkhole or failed engine away.

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