Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for tea and coffee.

I have been reading this week about what it means to 'deny yourself'. In Matthew 16:24 Jesus says to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself....." But how do I outwork this in my life?

To deny is to say no. Therefore, if I want to follow Jesus the first step is to say no to myself. The original Greek literally says to deny your soul. Our soul is made up of 3 parts - our will, our mind and our emotions. Our will says "I want", our mind says "I think" and our emotions say "I feel". Putting this all together, to deny myself I must say "It's not what I want, but it's God's will (what He wants for me)," and "It's not what I think but what God says," and "It's not what I feel, it's what the Holy Spirit impresses upon me." I found this a really useful teaching!

In summary, I think of the following well known song - "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace." 

With love & blessings,

Sandra

Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for tea and coffee.

How do you respond when someone compliments you? Some people love receiving praise because it lifts their spirits and makes them feel valuable. Others are uncomfortable with it. They look down at their feet or offer reasons why they really don't deserve such praise. I'm sure we're all guilty of that at some point!

For Christians, there's another dilemma. We're called to be humble, so what are we to do when others say good things about us? Because pride is always waiting to raise its ugly head, we need to be careful not to let praise puff us up. Some believers think that accepting a compliment is a sign of pride, so they make a big show of giving all the glory to God when it’s actually fine to simply accept the compliment.

My advice is simply to say, "Thank you very much." Then whisper a prayer in your heart to the Lord, thanking Him for the blessing, recognising that anything worthy of praise ultimately comes from Him.

Our character is tested by the praise that comes to us. Every compliment that comes into our ears should quickly be returned to God. If we hold onto it, the poison of pride will begin to infect our hearts. But if we pass the praise to God, humility takes up residence in our souls.

With love & blessings, Sandra

Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for tea and coffee.

As Joshua prepared to cross into the Promised Land leading 2 million people with him he must have been terrified. What a job! What a responsibility! What if the people turned against him? What if they didn't listen to him? What if the whole thing just went pear shaped?! These are often questions we ask when we know God is calling us into a new season of life.

Without God, it would have been frightening. But Joshua knew God and trusted that when God said to him to be "strong and of good courage" that God would be with him, leading and guiding him at all times. And of course this is still the same for us today.

With God, life can be an adventure. Just as God was with Joshua, He is with us as we face our own challenges. We may not conquer nations, but in our daily life we often encounter tough situations, difficult people and temptations. God promises that He will not abandon us or fail to help us. By asking God to direct us we can conquer many of life's challenges so make sure you are talking to Him every day. 

With love & blessings,

Sandra

Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for tea and coffee.

As we make our journey from our homes on earth to our one great home in Heaven, we can endure pain and grief which can come in all sorts of shapes and forms. But if we are in Christ, we have the assurance that none of the struggles along the way are meaningless, that none of the trials are wasted and none of them unseen by God.

Of course it is not just Christians who have such experiences. Those who reject Christ are not immune from suffering either. However the key difference between our suffering and their suffering is that no matter what, we have the assurance that the suffering we experience here is not a foretaste of hell but a refinement for heaven. Christian suffering is always purposeful, always accomplishing something good, for through our suffering God makes us more like Christ. Through it He orients our hearts so they long to be where Christ is. Through it He shapes our character so it will be at home in Heaven. Through it He changes our desires so we lose interest in the pleasures of this earth and instead long for the pleasures above. 

With love & blessings,

Sandra