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John reminds us how important it is to patiently wait for God's wonderful promise to bring about perfection and the promise that we will be part of it.

John examines the ways we look for relationship with God and what it is like when we finally see his face.

Maurice explores how Jesus' values differ from human values, how our agenda is quite often different from God's agenda and the link between the fight of 'flesh' against 'spirit' in Matthew 5 and Romans 15. Maurice's key points were based on the concept of 'offence' and what that can mean biblically. 1. Something that trips us up in our relationship with God 2. Times when we just need to keep the law 3. Our responsibility to look after the weak or young or those new to faith 4. Letting ourselves be challenged by Jesus and his message 5. Provoking each other into good works

With the example of Latif Yahia as an illustration, Mike drew out how commonly it is very difficult to tell the difference between 'Christians' and non-Christians. He uses the warnings from Jeremiah who spoke to Israel about the same problem in Chapter 19 and then leads us on to the idea that we should be emulating and difficult to tell apart from Jesus. Jesus, being the 'exact representation of the father' is our template, we are attempting to be the 'fedai' of Jesus and God in this world, not being chamelions who 'conform to the patterns of this world', but being catterpillars that are 'transformed by the renewing of our minds' (Romans 12).

What do you do in a crisis? How do you react when things go wrong? What's your response when you enter a slump? Malcolm encourages us to make sacrifices in small things for God to improve our self-control as well as our service, and reap the reward. God calls us to share our conviction and passion for Christ, and that will bring more colour into our lives. Malcolm looked at five things that the apostle Paul had that produced fruit from God's word: Praise, Purpose, Promise, Permanence and Power.

Walking through the various states of lifestyle: I'm not ok - you're not ok, I'm ok - you're not ok, I'm not ok - you're ok and I'm ok, you're ok, Pete explores how our approach to each other affects us understand ourselves and our faith. Pete argues from Philippians 2 that our desires should be for caring for each other not for 'right ' and 'wrong'.

Jesus said (and proved!) in Matthew ch 9 that 'the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins'. But he also stressed that those who seek forgiveness must themselves be prepared to forgive.

Taking cues from Isaiah 56, Charles explored two common 'Christian' traits that were also rife within the people of Israel: Self Justification and Favouritism. Jesus threw out both of these traits as he came to justify and "gather the outcasts of Israel." The 'I'm in, you're out' and 'others not welcome' sense that comes from self-justifying and practising favouritism is as common now as it was in the time of the Kings or Jesus' life. Charles encouraged us to, in the words of Isaiah 56:1, "Maintain justice and do what is right", emphasizing the point with the illustration of Peter's encounter with the Ethiopan eunuch.

In exploring 'servanthood' or 'servantship', Colin drew from the roots of the hebrew word for servant, and it's agricultural connotations, especially relating to the life of Samuel. Samuel was, as it were 'tilling the land', cultivating God's people so they would grow some real fruit. The question he asks us is 'what land are we cultivating and how are we aware of God's presence and will in each circumstance working out His purpose?

Is God just sitting, waiting for that day when he will send Jesus back to set up his kingdom? Malcolm's encouragement was based on God not just waiting but working daily, for and with us as we look forward to Christ's return. There is also the challenge that we are to work too, not just sit and hope it all works out in the end.

Jesus' parable in Matthew 18:21-35 gives us a mirror in which to view the way we all act as the unmerciful servant. Tony explored how, though forgiveness and mercy are often seen as weakness, it is in forgiving others that we can break free from the destructive, hypocritical cycles in which we often live. Tony encouraged us to make the difference by living in a way to firgive others, just as Jesus came for not just ours but everyone's forgiveness.

John talks about William Tyndale making the bible accessible to all through his translation, and how we can learn a lesson by keeping the bible message simple and available to all.

God's love is often looked at as either a high theological concept or as a 'fluffy', vague 'something'. Pete Walked us through nine practical, tangible aspects of God's love for us. In the hope that at least one would connect with each of our hearts. The nine aspects were: God's love is - Life-giving, Affectionate, Providential, Personal, Wisdom, Faithful, Happiness, Lover & Lord, Friendship and how we respond to it.

Andrew encouraged us not to trip over or miss out Jesus in our outreach efforts. As we seek to be socially responsible and culturally relevant, we must make sure we are clear about and communicate well the motivations for our actions individually and corporately.

The saving work of Christ was the hope that kept him going. His mission was to change people, to turn us round, to have an ongoing, multiplying effect like the ripples in a pond. Also Jesus was driven by knowing what his disciples would become, that hope strengthened Him, and to that end, he gave them hope in the symbols of the bread and the wine.

In part 2, Graham discusses the 'now but not yet' element of our hope, how we are to live with Christ's power at work within us and how our mission is to join Christ in his redemptive work in this world now. Graham encouraged us to take our place in advancing the Kingdom of God, in engaging in this world and inspire other people towards this hope too.

Graham takes a look at what the 'Hope' is and how it is 'breathing life into this distressed world', 'bringing heaven to earth', 'redeeming our bodies', 'being God's children', 'being with God forever', and 'freedom' from many things.

Martyn explored the muti-level symbolism within a loaf of bread and paralleled that with our spiritual lives within our community. We were left encouraged that Jesus is the fundamental, basic nutritional foodstuff for us spiritually, and that his model is vitally important; a community, with him at the head.

How can our Joy be complete as is asserted by Jesus in John 15:11? We were encourraged to think of God continuing his daily work in us, developing a people for himself, and that as Jesus sees that, his desire is to join in. This process gives Joy to both Jesus and God. And hopefully, as we realise that God and Christ have great joy in us - joy enough to make them sing over us, we will be inspired to share that Joy with other people, bring that joy into other people's lives. John 15 also talks about pruning and trimming which is part of the process to stimulate growth and more joy.

The Question "Where does Prayer Begin?" inspired three answers from Malcolm. 'I Can't, God Cares, God Can' was the response. Our humble, feeble, desperate, troubled prayers begin with a yearning for good to come into our world and they are received, not because of the power of the request, but because of the kindness of the recipient. Malcolm reminded us that there is no secret to prayer, but that we offer what we have, we pray with what we've got and God does the rest.

"Resurrection is not routine!" Was the cry as Andy encouraged us to be amazed and surprised once again and loose the apathy that we often develop, having heard the Easter story many times.

Using 'Desert Song' by Brooke Fraser, Dave walks us through how a common thread of prayer anchors and links four seasons of our lives with God - the only thing we can truly rely on.

Rob shows us the awesomeness of God through examples of characters in the Bible who had visions of his power and glory revealed to them.

"God is interested in intimacy with us, not some kind of blind rule-following by us". Steve fully expanded some of the ideas of what that intimacy with God can look like in our lives.

Charles and David share duties this week providing words of encouragement from the story of Zacchaeus and 1 Cor 3

All superheroes are flawed because they rely on some boosted and beefed-up human 'power'. Mike takes that theme on and explores what is meant by the phrase that appears throughout scripture "God is my strength" with perhaps surprising conclusions.

Mark Encouraged us to pray for justice, benefitting us, so we are constantly reminded of our responsibility to others that we should be, where possible, the way God will bring justice in the places we touch by whatever means we have at our disposal.

If we can accept the premise that we are all essentially evil, how we deal with that and how we respond to evil is the significant question we tackled this week. Ben encourages us to confront evil with Love, in the way Jesus did, in the way we live daily.

Pete looks at how our lives and beliefs are shaped by our backgrounds and ways to build our relationships with God.

As we share the 'Lord's supper', David reminds us of the freedom that Christ's sacrifice gives us and that our freedom and salvation is all about Jesus' shed blood, nothing about the quality of our lives but all about the quality of Jesus' death.

Using Romans and Psalm 51, Jack explains God's gift of grace and our response to it.

An exploration of the Wells used by Abraham and Isaac reveals some lessons about learning from the past, not repeating the mistakes but repeating the successes. Tim encourages us to open up the wells of truth and be overflowing with 'living waters'.

Following an admission that his prayer life was faltering, David encourages us to make prayer the biggest priority in our lives and to simply be with God.

In a desperate attempt to dust off the cobwebby cliche's from the phrase "God loves you", Alex turns to scripture, a children's story book, a university application letter and an 18th century story about an eastern european rabbi.

Olly provides us with encouragement for the new year, focussing on a simple message that is often overlooked, to put our lives in God's hands.

1 Peter 1:4 talks of an 'inheritance beyond spoiling'. 1 Peter is a model of pastoral care: a combination of Christian Faith & Duty, within which we are encouraged to distance ourselves from the selfishness that makes us aloof from the world's needs.

Works of faith are born of and grow from an increased knowledge, understanding and experience of God's grace.

When we have doubts, do we fight against them? Or, as Mike suggests, would we be better to embrace them and explore them because they will eventually lead us to a richer, more fulfilling faith.

Our job is not to do big exciting things, but to slowly, methodically, plant seeds and let God do the rest. Malcolm uses the story of Elsiard Bouphea to illustrate how we are encouraged to live and help spread the message of the Gospel

Tony looks at the impact the good news of Jesus had on the apostles in Acts 18 &19. And how they were God's chosen instruments to deliver his gospel, that he loves us and wants to know us.

Charles delivers two exhortations in one from acts 8, focussing on the differences between Simon the sorcerer and Philip and then the scarcity of bananas in world war 2.

Andy looks at how we build barriers in our lives, between ourselves and between us and God. He argues that no barriers are good and that God is always tearing them down. to try and have a relationship with us.

As we dedicated the new link building between The Bethel and the Youth Church building, Alex's encouragement was to be a church that is like a mirror ball: outward-facing, reflecting God and bouncing His light and colours around the world we live in.

Pete's short thoughts encompassing the breaking of bread service centred around being content with what we have.

Alex tries to tie in all Wayne's thoughts and give the weekenders something practical to take with them as they go on their way.

Wayne summarises his thoughts and offers up a big challenge to us all to remain dependent on Christ, not on anything else.

For part two, Wayne takes feedback and draws from the ideas of the Youth at the weekend.

Exploring the Theme of 'Mirror Image' for the Old Trafford Youth Weekend 2011, Wayne leads thoughts from the life of Jesus & the Beattitudes.

In warning us we can sometimes be more like the Pharisees than the Pharisees, David explores what Paul meant when he talked about 'different gospels' in his letter to the Galatian church.

We are sojourners in a foreign land, citizens of a different Kingdom, subjects of a different King, for whom we wait eagerly as we anticipate a triumphant return to right all wrongs and heal all hurts. Peter took us on a forward kingdom-looking journey.

We often pass over John's teaching and go straight to Jesus'. Andrew asks whether that is because we think Jesus moved things on or because we are actually uncomfortable with the teaching of John? He then encourages us to show Christ in our lives daily.

David looks at Paul's letters to the Corinthians and explains how in our actions we are open letters of recommendation of a life in Christ.

After using a magnifying glass to repair a pair of spectacles, John compares the work of God to the work of man showing that the more we magnify the handiwork of God the more beautiful it becomes.

Jesus' disciples were utterly changed by their journey with Jesus. Mike encourages us to follow along with them and also be changed.

On a journey through Isaiah and some of the other Old Testament prophets, Pete shows us glimpses of God's kingdom and encourages us to find ways to see it and bring it now.

Trevor explores the claim in Romans "you have been saved, by a man who chose to die, because God loved you before you were even born." God uses every means possible to show you how much he loves you. All you need to do is believe it and respond.

Jesus' death and resurrection happened to bind all types of people together, many who we may initially not feel comfortable next to. John explores some godly men that were exposed to 'uncleanliness' to prepare them to accept that Love matters, not Ritual.

Jesus tells us that he is coming soon. We are on the brink of his return and as a result, we must seek first the Kingdom of God, and reveal this treasure to everyone we meet in our lives.

Charles talks through the reality of being made in God's image. Starting in Genesis 1 we discover why we as people are so special to God and how we can live for him.

Martyn expands Psalm 34 to show us that we don't need to do any elaborate hide and seek games to find God, he is present and available to us and wants to share His gift of deliverance.

What do you associate with the word 'Samaritan'? Neil argues that most people would say 'Good', whereas many religious people would say 'impure' or 'polluted'. He then goes on to unpack the ideas and explore why this is and who they were.

From 1 Corinthians 12 "Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ." Olly discusses how we are all as one with Christ.

Is your church like a seagull or a honking goose? Malcolm shows how it is better to encourage one another than to criticise.

Alex uses a number of parables to illustrate how often we live in a way that is in conflict to what we say we believe and encourages us from Matthew 13 to be mustard-like.

Aaron's encouragement is to live to glorify God in everything we do, reminding us that God is with us all the time especially when we are having troubled times or feel alone and lost.

John encourages us to take an unsophisticated view of our lives, our faith and our trust in God and Jesus. To view God and Jesus like a Child would, and to trust without the constraints of our flawed, cynical complications.

Mike takes us to 1 Timothy where he disputes Paul's assertion that he was the worst sinner. Even the worst sinner though can be part of God's amazing gift of life.

Dave walks through 'putting on Christ' when we have few, if any redeeming features of our own, and having 'Christ in us' so that we are distinctive in our interactions with others in life.

John explores the dilemma we face in tough times, where we often get stuck thinking 'why me?' His encouragement is to look for the 'What now', reminding us that we are where we are because we choose to be.

Part three of the 2011 Fellowship weekend studies. Love must come to us before it can come to our churches! Tim unpacks what Love in us means and what it looks like for Jesus to live in us.

Part two of the 2011 Fellowship weekend studies. Tim's thoughts capture the concept that Love needs to come to our churches before it can be reflected out and 'come to town'.

Part one of the 2011 Fellowship weekend studies. Tim explores the concept of "First Love" meaning to start by loving people, then share the Gospel message.

Pete talks about the power of Christ's resurrection to change our lives, that through baptism we are no longer buried but alive in him. We then should live lives practising Resurrection continuously.

Tony uses the story of the man born blind to illustrate the strength of God's power through grace.

Andy talks about how God's people have always needed to be ready to answer his call and how we need to be too.

As John 8 is unpacked by Cedric, he comes back to the theme of the 2011 Census to consider an extra question; What sort of Christian are you? Cedric explores the three stages of Christianity - Believer, Follower and Disciple and questions if we change?

Martyn talks about how Jesus seeks out the most unlikely of people and makes a huge difference to their lives. Are we open to Jesus making the same impact on us?

Numbers Chapter 1 is the fortuitously topical reading as the UK Census was the springboard for Andy's thoughts, questions, challenge and encouragement.

Looking at the temptations of Jesus in Luke 4, Tony examines and expands just how we can learn from Jesus' example.

Tim looks at current world events from a less common approach, hoping to provide a balance to all the other things we digest in our spiritual diet. He explores how Lybia and Ethiopia are key places throughout history that interact with Israel.

Psalm 103 is unpacked and illustrated by experiences and stories from Chris' life

An altercation with the law and a speed awareness course inspired Trevor to reflect on how an awareness of God's presence in our lives gives us purpose and direction.

Richard talks about how a relationship with God helps us learn how he will act, and how this knowledge can give us faith and comfort.

Neil Explains how having heard his call and accepted his gift of grace, we are highly favoured by the creator of all mankind.

Tony talks about how being a Christian is not just about following laws but about being Christ-like and showing love in all we do.

Andrew explores Joy, the sources of joy and how joy, as a fruit of the spirit motivates and encourages us as a community.

We say the fondest of farewells to our dearly beloved Brother and Sister, Philip an Dorothy Adams as they leave our community and congregation to move into more suitable living accommodation further away.

David talks us through Jacobs encounter with God at Bethel and searches where we can find the House of God.

David's exploration of Luke 19 touches on how Jesus reached out to Zaccheus, not the other way round, how we are called to use our gifts when God gives us opportunities and how Jesus' donkey riding points back to Zechariah 9

Pete talks about how not to make New Year's Resolutions and encourages us to make daily resolutions to: 1. Listen to God. 2. Commit to God. 3. Commit to others.

Beginning with the character Elihu in the book of Job and then drawing from Mark 12 and some of Paul's Letters, Charles shows us how God uses people to speak out for him, the ultimate example of this is Jesus being 'the measure of understanding God'.

Martyn explores some aspects of the Christmas story and what they mean to us today.

Andy encouraged and challenged us that recognising that God guiding our lives, accepting and embracing his purpose for us and aspiring to be close to God and not other things will lead to ultimate happiness and complete contentment.

Andrew explores 1 Peter Showing us that if we continue to feed on the spiritual milk of Jesus we will be clothed with an inner beauty

Jack shares how his faith, matured and deepened by some focal disciplines, stayed strong even through the darkest and most desperate of times.

Darren uses the example of Esther to highlight to us how we should be prepared to live beautiful lives, encouraged by the fact that God loves us and sees us as beautiful regardless of how much we may have messed up.

Pete explores the choices we make as Christians and how to decide when faced with tough decisions.

Giles walks through the gifts given to the young Jesus and equates what they meant and what their modern-day equivalents might have been.

Malcolm shows how Paul's world shook in Acts 21 and 22, and how the Lord stood by his side to give him strength. The lessons for us in times of turmoil, when we are rocked by our own earthquakes are clear.

Are we in love with God? Or are we living lives that are lukewarm like the church in Laodicea. Alex's challenge is to live a life of contrast to the world around us and he shared what helps him fall in love time and time again with God.

David looks at three examples of people that had their lives transformed by encounters with the risen Christ: Mary, Thomas and Peter, and draws out lessons from their experiences for us today.

Tony uses the account of the blind beggar from John 9 to illustrate Jesus' radical impact and God's love for us.

Andy talks about the importance of our foundation in Christ, and finds the origin of the three little pigs in the bible.

Trevor looks at how the disciples witnessed the extraordinary day of Christ's crucifixion and how our ordinary day will be extraordinary on Christ's return.

Wayne explains the confidence we can have in God's grace when we live deeply in Christ and Love out Loud.

The Reading for the day was from Luke 11. David explored how tolerance may or may not be linked to forgiveness.

Using Matthew 16, Richard took us on a journey to explore the reasons we 'do church' and how our church community would look if it best reflected what Jesus originally intended.

Illustrated by his travels and missionary work in Kenya, Alan gives us another vision of what the prophecy in Isaiah 55 means, and how that then affects us in our culture and lives today.

Mark questions whether we only see God working in our lives in the big things and miss his care in the smaller, more mundane things.

Beginning with 1 John 4, Andy reminded us of the basics of life, mortality, spirituality, faith and how Jesus came with a basic message and a basic action which changed the course of history. He then challenges us what we are to do about that message.

Beginning in 1 Corinthians 1, John explores what it means to be sanctified by Christ

David talked us through how having a psychological disorder described as "believing to have a special relationship with a deity or famous person" may actually be a good thing.

Richard walks us through a journey of seven moments within the last hours of Jesus life and after his resurrection.

Taking the scriptures from 2 Samuel 18 and Romans 9, Nick used the passages as a springboard to encourage us to put our trust in God and God alone.

Beginning in 2 Samuel 11, Mike looks at the events described and shows us the elements of the Gospel that are found there, then gives practical ways to relate that to our lives.

Steve explored the parallels between the Walled area of West Berlin and our spiritual journeys, both being part-way places to true freedom and looking towards a complete fulfilment at the return of Christ.

Tony looked at various examples of people making oaths, and various parts of the law that people seemed to break and not be punished by God. He then tied that in to how we are built together as a church by the God who works with the flaws of his people.

Martyn looks at the first 'Beattitude' form Matthew 5 and explores how this is reflected in various other places in scripture and how it works out in our lives.

Charles uses Isaiah 52 to encourage us on the theme of being delivered from our temptation and sin.

Olly walks us through a few bible passages taking the topic of Father's Day, to encourage us to look to our perfect heavenly father as an example to us all, and for comfort.

Malcolm uses a simple acronym drawn from the way Luke writes in Acts 20, to show us how we can bring out the best in others.

Alan opens our eyes to the majestic beauty of Jesus.

John uses Hebrews 1 and 3 as the scripture to explore some of the reasons Jesus died.

Tony asked the question 'why did Jesus have to die?' His exploration covers ground on what Jesus said about his death and what is said in Isaiah.

John challenges us to get our protection from Jesus and God, not from Hi-Vis Jackets and rules and regulations.

Trevor picked up from where Mike left off and continued to challenge how we live out the call of Jesus in our lives to go out and Change the world by the way we live and love others. "Make History... Change Eternity"

Preparing us for the Bethel Festival, Mike looked at a number of people transformed by Jesus and by people that acted like Jesus to help transform others. Mike encouraged us to be especially accepting of the people rejected by everyone else.

Mike Challenged us to be transformed by our relationship with Jesus and finished by saying "now clear off and change the world"!

Mike focussed our thoughts on Jesus’ transforming friendship, and desire to live with us, and our friendships, which can transform the lives of others

Second Special Announcement regarding the Fellowship weekend 2010 More details at http://www.thebethel.org/fellowshipweekend_2010.htm

Scripture readings from Deuteronomy 10 and 11, Charles emphasised that God has not changed his message, it is the same in the Exodus story as it is in Christ. He challenged us to consider what our response should be.

Pete explored church history and how people had missed understanding grace over the years. He then challenged us to question if our lives reflect the grace we profess to believe in.

Tony takes us through some of the ideas and lessons we can learn from the miracle Jesus performed, turning water into wine.

Five 'boring things' about Jesus are turned into interesting and compelling things when we see the one truly amazing fact of the Resurrection.

Announcement regarding the Old Trafford Fellowship Weekend 2010

Luke 20 was the bible text for today and Peter led us through, considering how we should hunger for Jesus and how that deep desire, to connect with the living, active Christ will bring us pure Joy.

David walks us through the impact of the lessons we can learn from the flood in Genesis 6

Tony takes elements from Luke five to encourages us to look outwards and do the things that matter - the actions of Jesus - towards the people we meet, not just get bogged down in knowledge or theology.

Richard encourages us to reason but also to love charitably, taking scripture from Matthew 25.

John Talked about the Parable of the Talents.

As a church, we mourn the death of our beloved brother Pete Griffiths this week and Mike Tanner gave us encouragement and words of comfort in our sadness, drawing from Psalm 23 and Psalm 91.

Picking up on the passage in Mark 10:13-16, Mike explored that though humility is not fashionable today, it is taught in Mark as a doctrine 'essential for salvation'. Humility also comes with a gift - the gift that is God fulfilling and completing us.

Mike uses the words of Exodus Chapters 14 and 15 to walk us through being aware of what God is doing in our lives and that he rarely chooses the path of least resistance to resolve our problems and unremovable adversaries or impossible obstacles.

Only the prayers for the emblems of bread and wine and the closing prayer were recorded this week. It serves as a lovely meditation.

Aaron encouraged us using the often overlooked details about the woman who anointed Jesus' feet in Matthew 26. We were encouraged to examine our motives and approach to others, and how much we will give up for Jesus

Mark Encouraged us to be open to being fed, receiving preaching from each other as well as preaching to non church members, both in our lives and at corporate church-based preaching events.

Starting in 2 Corinthians 5, Andrew encouraged us to take our place in the ministry of reconciliation, to become people that reconcile other people to God.

Alex unpacks how God's love is not dependent on his approval, but purely on the basis of his outstanding and counterintuitive grace, offered to all people regardless of who and where they are.

Mike looked at how Jesus loved people, how, in humility he looked at people as better than himself and how that love should be completed in us as an ongoing transforming process.

Christmas day celebrations and encouragement.

Drawing from John 6, Charles encouraged us to spiritualise the simple things like John the writer did and keep our focus on Jesus through everything.

Bible Readings taken from 2 Peter 3 & 4. Tony encouraged us to take the words in the passages personally, not just corporately and gave us a big challenge by personally committing to being completely approachable, accountable and open to correction.

Hebrews 13 was the scripture text for the day which David used to encourage us to go and make disciples, with the help of the spirit of God.

Encouraging us from Hebrews 1 and 2, Richard also challenged us to become signs and symbols that show our family connection to Christ and God in our lives.

Using Nehemiah as a springboard, David gives us some very clear images of how to understand Grace and Redemption.

Richard Picks up from where Anthony Norris left off (19th July 2007) with Envy's bedfellow - 'Competition' and discusses whether it is a good thing or not. Scriptures from 1 Kings 21 and Matthew 20

Staring with Psalm 51, Mindir asked us to question how, though King David broke possibly every one of the Ten Commandments in his sin with Bathsheba he 'got away with it'. Concluding with Hebrews 10, only Jesus' sacrifice and God's Grace spared David & us

Acts 1 was the scripture reading for today and Andrew also looked at Micah whilst exploring how we need to be good stewards of what God has given us whether it is gifts, talents or material possessions.

Using John 11 David encourages us to walk with Jesus and reflect him in our lives and asks us to consider what we look like when we reflect Jesus.

Cedric explored three things he wished he had been told at his baptism.

Using Galatians 5, Pete explored freeing ourselves from slavery, embracing freedom and living by the spirit.

Not only does God want a personal intimate relationship with you, but he also wants you to be involved with him. Bible text mainly form John 14

Sorry for not being able to provide the service audio this week.

Baptism Service for Sam Parker, led by John Downer

Starting by wondering why some bible people get struck down for 'minor offences' (Achan), whereas some get away with murder (David). Tony takes us through how having a Grace relationship with God makes this possible, and how Jesus promises that.

Taking thoughts from a further introductory reading from Philippians 2, Malcolm explores the practice of 'Christ in you: the hope of glory'.

Introduced by the scripture text of Colossians 1, Malcolm put down the foundation principles of 'Christ in you: the hope of glory'

John encouraged us, when we are feeling lonely, to fix our eyes on Jesus & use God's strength to choose to do something about it.

Taking thoughts from 2 Kings 4, Charles encouraged us to believe that God has everything under control, to trust in Him even when we don't understand our circumstances or things that happen to us.

Beginning in Jeremiah 32:38-40 Alex reminded us how good God has been to us and then encouraged us not to grow tired of doing good works (Galatians 6:9+10) using three stories to illustrate 'agathos' - the good works we are created to do.

Encouragement based on Hebrews 11, also drawing from Mark 11.

Mark 4 was the scripture for the day and Andrew used it as a springboard to remind us to keep swimming forwards in our faith, not to take steps backwards and remember our first love - Jesus.

Beginning in 2 Samuel 19, Nick compared David with Saul and held up a mirror to how we prefer to associate with Bible heroes when we more often resemble the villains.

Pete asks 'at what point do we dig so deep into the detail of a biblical truth and try to implement it so exactly that we change it into a tradition, and when does the next step of turning it into a falsehood and therefore myth happen and how can we resis

Tony used Matthew 20, picking up the rivalry between the disciples and the envy in the parable of the Workers in the vineyard, and other examples to teach about envy and getting on better together.

Mark 10 was the reading that sparked Simon's encouragement to us to store up treasure in heaven, not on earth.

Taking David's encounter with Goliath as an example, Tony encourages us to work out what our 'Goliath(s)' are and draw strength from God to overcome them.

Alex uses Acts 2 v 42 to encourage us to break the 'me' in 'me' so Christ is elevated above all and Dave used Matthew 21 v 33-43 to encourage us to have well tended vines and fruit that pleases God.

Slides to accompany the audio

Mike looked at Jesus' & God's words from Revelation 1 and 21 + 22 "I am the Alpha and the Omega" to encourage us to make Jesus our A to Z

Drawing together verses from the New Testament, towards Colossians 1:27, Roy asks us 'Who is Christ to us?"

Encouragement from the letter to the Hebrews, Steve urged us not to harden our hearts and move away from God but to let him write his law on our hearts so we can reach out to others that might have hardened theirs.

Although we are not able, we will serve the Lord and must always approach our lives with that aim, with God's strength, we will be able to serve him. Readings from Joshua 24 and James 1.

Inspiring us from the words in some Psalms and Hebrews 10, Pete encouraged us to be confident in our salvation and in approaching God, hoping that our confidence might be contagious to others.

Starting in Romans 8 and working through to Galatians 5, the encouragement was to believe these scriptures and live like we believe them by allowing God to dwell in us by his spirit, put to death the deeds of the sinful and 'keep in step with the spirit'.

With bible readings taken from John Chapters 6 and 9, John encouraged us to take Jesus Emmanuel - God with us - into ourselves so that we might be 'emmanuel' to other people around us.

Don's Final thoughts on the theme and our communion service.

Don's Second Talk at the Old Trafford Fellowship Weekend, Further drawing on the 'Sheep on way' theme to highlight ways we can best combat our sheep-like 'spiritual stupidity' from the scriptures. Don also looked at ways to reach out to the 'lost sheep'.

Don's First Talk at the Old Trafford Fellowship Weekend. Developing ideas from the theme on Shepherding, the way we are like sheep in our spiritual journeys and other sheepish parallels.

Acts 2 is the scriptural context Malcolm used to explore and encourage us to have an uncommon addiction for God, an uncommon affection for his family and an uncommon tension for the lost.

Step out in Faith, don't be afraid, Jesus is with us. Sound encouragement taken from various New Testament scriptures.

Today's Bible text was from The Gospel of John Chapter 20 and Proverbs 22, David encouraged us not to lose sight of the Love that was shown to the world in Christ's sacrifice and try to avoid the "I, Me, Now" mindset that much of today's society lives by.

Mike explored the reasons why we meet together as a church and used personal examples of people that made an impact on his faith by the way they lived their lives and interacted with their fellow believers.

Andrew built on the readings in Luke 22 and Psalm 27 to encourage us to continue to wait patiently for the return of Christ.

Encouragement to turn away from our sins when we repent and take a different path towards Jesus, to make our repentance a way of life.

The reading taken from Luke 6 prompted Tony to ask how we react when we come face to face with our own vulnerabilities and encouraged us to grow closer to God as we try to emulate the way Jesus responded to his vulnerabilities.

An exploration of the question Jesus asks his disciples "Who do you say I am?" Simon encourages us to answer this question slowly, with reference to our experience of and our relationship with a very personal and intimate Jesus Christ.

We are encouraged to be 'living sacrifices', not just 'Sunday morning Christians'.

Walking through parts of the life of John the Baptist, Richard guided us to think about 'ends' being 'new beginnings' and how that should affect us in our lives daily.

The slideshow in PDF format with notes that goes with the first ten minutes of the service as Alex told us about the work Brother John Bonane is doing in Kinshasa DRC.

Using the story of Bartimaeus, the encouragement was to not just let God 'take us as we are' but to follow Jesus and walk with him and let him change us. There is a slideshow in PDF with notes that goes with the first ten minutes of the service as Alex shares what our brother John is doing in Kinshasa.

Using the parables of "The Sower", "The Wheat and the Tares" and others from the daily reading, Pete's encouragement was for us to treat each other with Grace as we help to grow each other's faith.

Mike encourages us to Rediscover the Jewishness of the Gospel and try to move away from our cultural interpretations and layers with which we have made it so 'English' and 'Dull'.

John Looks at various 'mothers' and the impact they have on us.

Alex Encourages us to Pray 'God Change Me', not 'God Change things' so that we can develop into people of character that will live victorious lives overcoming and conquering our sin.

Exploring ideas from the readings from the day: Psalms 23, 24 and 25. Mike led the whole service.

What are we to expect from God in 2009 and what does he expect from us?

Pete based his thoughts on 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 to explore what the church should and shouldn't be.

The First Talk on Saturday Morning

The Second Talk on Saturday Morning

Tony's talk at The Breaking of Bread. In essence he is saying 'Devote yourselves to one another.'