Ang Salita ng Diyos at mga Anghel

Posted on Nov 10, 2024 by M Emlyn Humphries

Mga Hebreo 1:1-4

1 Noong unang panahon, nagsalita ang Diyos sa ating mga ninuno sa pamamagitan ng mga propeta sa iba’t ibang panahon at sa iba’t ibang paraan. 2 Ngunit sa mga huling araw na ito, nagsalita siya sa atin sa pamamagitan ng Anak. Siya ang hinirang ng Diyos na maging tagapagmana ng lahat ng bagay, at sa pamamagitan niya’y ginawa ng Diyos ang buong sanlibutan. 3 Ang Anak ang maningning na sinag ng kaluwalhatian ng Diyos at tunay na larawan ng kanyang kalikasan bilang Diyos. Siya ang nagpapanatili sa lahat ng bagay sa pamamagitan ng kanyang makapangyarihang salita. Matapos niya tayong linisin sa ating mga kasalanan, umupo siya sa kaitaasan sa kanan ng Diyos na makapangyarihan sa lahat. 4 Yamang siya ay higit pang dakila sa mga anghel, ang pangalan na kaniyang minana ay higit pa kaysa sa kanilang pangalan.

Posted in KYMC, meeting | Tagged Jesus, word | 1 Comment

A New Thing

Posted on Oct 19, 2024 by M Emlyn Humphries

Isaiah 43:19

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

¹⁹I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

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Isaiah 43:19 in all English translations

Things have changed and new things are in the making. After the end of May we saw the closing of the Christian School that operated on the site. We have worked tirelessly to effect a transition on the site to a new work for the benefit of the community and education. Watch this space but we have new leaseholders preparing to do just that.

The main purpose of the site is Christian Worship and throughout these times, the Sunday morning meeting and Wednesday evening meeting have continued. We have also upgraded the chapel building and looked again at our standing orders. As one does!

We have been pleased to welcome the Havers Community Church to worship each Sunday morning at 11am. This is a family service with a celebration of the Lord’s Table, children’s church, refreshments and, at the end of each month, a community lunch. All are most welcome.

We have also welcomed Bishops Stortford Vineyard Church and God Central Church Harlow each month to have a worship band lead event. Prayer and singing! The next meetings for Sunday evening worship are 27 October and 24 November between 5pm and 630pm with refreshments.

Takeley Congregational Church continues with its meetings of course but we have received real treasure here and realize we hold in trust a precious treasure. Our real, present and ultimate treasure is Jesus.

Matthew 13:44-53

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

⁴⁴‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

⁴⁵‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

⁴⁷‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

⁵¹‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ ⁵²And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’ ⁵³When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

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Us and theming

Posted on Jul 7, 2024 by M Emlyn Humphries

Recently, I have been contemplating Matthew 7 with the guidance of Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship. To start at the end, we get the parable of the person building their house on the sand and the one building their house on the rock. ‭

Us and theming

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A recent musing on healing.

Posted on Jun 15, 2024 by M Emlyn Humphries

God heals. We pray, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Surely, in the healing of minds and bodies and deliverance from oppression, God is healing. In the mystery of God in all things, upholding all things, God is present in a way that wills only good, that brings light and life.
This is the aroma of God, and we see it in the healing ministry of Jesus who says, if you don’t believe in me, believe in the works that I do. Through community, care, and prayer, followers of Jesus embody this. Followers of Jesus are distinctive only because of love, love of God, and love of those around them.

Healing

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Religion?

Posted on Mar 31, 2024 by M Emlyn Humphries

‭Luke 23:34 HCSB‬
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided His clothes and cast lots.

https://bible.com/bible/72/luk.23.34.HCSB

‭Acts 10:34-35 HCSB‬
Then Peter began to speak: “Now I really understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears Him and does righteousness is acceptable to Him.

https://bible.com/bible/72/act.10.34-35.HCSB

Each of the gospels speaks of the last days of Jesus with many similarities in the story and some added details. Some might be led to chart the accounts, trying to create a timeline. The person writing and the people being written for are the divine context of the narrative. Both Acts and Luke are part 1 and 2 of the same book, written for a Greek or Helenist audience steeped in religion. It’s a message for the poor, a message for those who fear God, a message for all nations.

It strikes me that the message of Jesus made sense in a culture where truth, beauty, and justice were valued, where people were truly human. I see that where the message took hold, faith, hope and love grew.

Truth, beauty and justice in life are found in the person of Jesus and his way. A turning away from our own way to his through the gift of peace brings faith, hope and love into the world.

The vehicle is forgiveness, which enters the believers heart, the forgiven become those who forgive, not through religion but in truth. The peace gained is the peace shared.

Jesus makes true the religion of those whose religion is one of fearing God and love. The religion falls away, the scaffolding is removed, and a temple is revealed whose cornerstone is Christ. Our practices are rooted in traditions we no longer have, sanctified by those with dubious motives.

We live in perilous times where this religion is what is loved. Religion divides. Religion has been found wanting, the message squeezed into its binding cage of power structures and sacred practices and self forgiving abuse.

The message of Jesus will always blow free, bringing meaning and accommodating what it wills. Our comfort zone may be invaded, and our taste challenged. The religion of man will seek to control and constrict the spirit, so much so that the good news is bad news and faith is a practice policed by gate keepers of their own truth. The very ones Jesus has come to serve may be excluded.

The times demand a reformation. The church is ridiculed and irrelevant. The spirit will blow into gatherings of the God-fearing and Jesus will be the answer they seek. I’m not sure they will sit in pews and sing hymns. They may find hymns and communities of faith, hope and love that bring meaning and support their journey but may not become adherents. The cult of membership and right belief will be redeemed in ways that bring life and old institutions will die.

Come let us walk together, listen deeply and talk sparingly, sing together from joy. Let us gaze together in prayer on the one who causes us to ask for and seek a better kingdom. Let us praise our Father, practice gratitude for all we receive, and know ourselves for what we are, proud and wayward. Let us acknowledge our brokenness and walk humbly to love and serve the world in Christ.

‭James 1:22-27 HCSB‬
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but one who does good works — this person will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, then his religion is useless and he deceives himself.
Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

https://bible.com/bible/72/jas.1.22-27.HCSB