WHY JESUS?

A video from Alpha.

Sermon from Sunday 18th September

The sermon from Sunday evening 18th September 2011 is available for download here


Evening: The servant's vision - Nehemiah 2:11-20 -Adam Post

Alpha - Bear Grylls video

Alpha Course video with Bear Grylls

Visit our website to find out about Alpha at St Mark's

Themes for Sunday 18th September

Morning: 

Continuing our series in Acts

A New Disciple - Acts 9: 20-31

Evening: 

Continuing our series in Nehemiah
The servant's vision - Nehemiah 2: 11-20


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Sermons from Sunday 11th September

The sermons from Sunday 11th September 2011 - available for download here

Morning: 

A new conversion - Acts 9:1-19 - Rev Hennie Johnston

Evening: 
The servant's guidance - Nehemiah 2:1-10 - Geoff Belton

Themes for Sunday 4th September

Morning: 

Continuing our series in Acts

A new conversion - Acts 9:1-19

Evening: 

Continuing our series in Nehemiah
The servant's guidance - Nehemiah 2:1-10

Hennie's monthly Blog for September

Autumn Term begins >

Well I do hope you have had a good summer break and have returned rested and restored physically, emotionally and spiritually? In my August blog I left you with two questions to ponder over, and one request:

1) How can we combine a responsible attitude to church life with a genuine openness to the unpredictable work of the Holy Spirit - who is a person, not an experience?

2) How can we encourage each other to leave our comfort zones and do something risky for God?

And the request was to encourage you to spend 15 mins in God's presence listening to Him, and deepening your relationship with Him. I would be very interested to receive any thoughts to the two questions, and to hear if my 'encouragement' has born fruit!

Last night at the 6.30 pm service we started our preaching series on Nehemiah and looked at Chapter 1 and Nehemiah's prayer - v.4 'when I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of Heaven'. One of the main themes running through the Book of Nehemiah is prayer. He was a man full of compassion, who was moved to tears and to prayer - he was totally dependent on God, and came to Him in prayer with the needs of a broken Jerusalem. His own heart broken, he prays with honesty, intensity, and vulnerability; he prays with perseverance and sacrificially - for days & without food; he prays with praise, thanksgiving, repentance, remembrance, & faithfulness on his lips, and with great confidence. A man moved by the needs of others didn't just pray, he was moved also into action. Perhaps because he was so close to God in prayer, he was open to the unpredictable work of the Holy Spirit, and therefore able to leave his prestigious, safe job, and his home, and go and do something risky for God? Throughout the Book of Nehemiah before he took action, before he talked with others, before anything else... he prayed.

How might our lives be different if our natural response to all the challenges we faced, and the needs of others that we heard, and saw, was one of prayer? Do the needs of today's broken world (no different from the mid-fifth century BC) cause us to weep, mourn, fast and pray to the mighty God of Heaven and Earth, and lead us into action? The needs may be in a far and distant land, as they were for Nehemiah, and are for many today. But they might be on our very own doorsteps, where people are sick, disadvantaged, elderly, immobile, lonely, disabled, deprived, poor, unemployed, and drawn to addictions. We too in our own parish have 'people who are in great trouble and shame: and where walls have been broken down, and the equivalent of Jerusalem's gates been burnt (Nehemiah Ch. v. 3).

As we gather together for 24hrs in prayer at 5 pm Friday 30th Sept to 5pm Sat 1st Oct to listen to God for His Vision for St. Mark's, and as we gather together for the Parish weekend to continue to discern God's voice, and as we daily spend time with Him, I pray that we will ask God to open our eyes to the needs around us. I pray that we will be God's people who take the initiative like Nehemiah, who do not flee from the challenge, but allow the Holy Spirit to break our hearts with what breaks God's, leading us to pray with compassion, perseverance, repentance, reverence, and with confidence. And as we pray may we be open to the unpredictable work of the Holy Spirit who may well ask of us to leave our comfort zones, and do something risky for God - love in action we never dreamt of - all for the glory, blessing and honour of our Lord God of heaven and of earth.

A last thought - using Nehemiah's prayer in Chapter one, take a moment to write a prayer in response to an area of challenge you may be facing: 'O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God...................

God bless,

Hennie

September Prayer Meeting - Alpha

Come along to pray for our Alpha Course and the people who will attend. We will be going out into the parish to prayer walk and deliver invitations.

Wednesday 7th September at the usual time of 7:45pm in the Link.

Also don't forget "A Taste of Alpha" - organised by several churches in Chester - at the Slow Boat on 29th September. The cost is £10 and booking is essential.

The Alpha Course at St Mark's starts on Tuesday 4th October.

For more information visit http://www.stmarkssaltney.org.uk/alpha.htm

Sermon from Sunday 4th September

Sermon - available for download here

Nehemiah Chapter 1 - Rev Hennie Johnston


The sermon from Sunday Evening 4th September is now  available for download.