Are you any good at praying? If you answered in the negative, you are in good company. Many of us feel we ought to pray more, or pray better, but we find it hard to actually do that.

But what if praying is an intimate aspect of living, as natural and necessary as breathing? What if the words we think of as prayer are only an expression of something deeper within us? What if prayer was never intended to be an elite spiritual discipline, but is instead a simple joy we can always experience?

This week’s talk offers three biblical prayers for us to incorporate into our daily lives. They’re short and simple; in fact the first is only one word! I hope you may be encouraged in your prayers.

You can download a copy of my Message on this link.

With very warm wishes

Rev.David Sutcliffe.

Many of us connected with Hearsall Baptist Church in Coventry UK are not so young any more, but can we still make a positive difference to our church and to those around us in the world? I very much hope so. In fact the Bible has many tales of older people making key contributions in the great story of faith, including Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Anna, John and Simeon.

This week’s podcast is all about fruitfulness. Psalm 92 includes these words: The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap…

But what is the secret of staying fruitful? I hope my message this week answers that question.

You can download a copy of my Message on this link.

With very warm wishes

Rev.David Sutcliffe.

I hope you are well and that you enjoyed the Christmas season.

Our worship continues into a new year! But worship can become a dead routine if we’re not careful. How can we breathe new life into our experience of worshipping Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour?

This week’s message marks Epiphany - a time to remember the visit of the Wise Men. The story makes it clear that everyone across the world is called to acknowledge Jesus as King and, indeed, to worship him. The Wise Men made a long journey and went to a great deal of trouble to offer their gifts and to prostrate themselves before Jesus.

To what lengths would we go in order to worship Jesus? Are we willing to inconvenience ourselves to express our devotion to God? Are we willing to share the happy message of the saving power of Jesus with the people we may come across in our lives? Let’s ponder these things at the start of 2023, and, after our pondering, let’s act on the truth we discover.

I send you my warm good wishes for a happy new year!

You can download a copy of my Message on this link.

With very warm wishes

Rev.David Sutcliffe

We rejoice again as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World. With gladness we look back to the time of the manger, the shepherds, the wise men and the star. We remember Mary as she treasured all that had happened in her heart and nurtured the Son of God in her arms.

And we also look to find him again today. Will we find him with workers looking for improved conditions? With refugees in a faraway camp? With mothers closer to home, struggling to feed their children?

And can you also find him in your particular circumstances? Somewhere amongst your hopes and hears, your dreams and anxieties he lives and awaits to be invited into the centre of your heart. In the words of the old hymns, may we sing, ‘Come to my heart Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for Thee.’

May you know his peace and joy this Christmas time and always.

You can access a written copy of this weeks message here.

This will be my first Christmas as the husband of Léonie, whom I married in June. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate as just the two of us, and also for us to treasure time with family and friends. It’s nearly five years now since my first wife Ruth died from pancreatic cancer. She asked me to marry again, telling me I needed to love someone. Well, I guess she was right; Léonie and I are very happy!

Most of experience loss or even tragedy along life’s way. The Christmas story shows God entering a world of suffering, and the holy family were refugees from state persecution.

But in Christ, there is always a new beginning. He came to bring a kingdom of everlasting love, and our time on planet earth presents us with numerous opportunities to believe in love again.There are always problems and difficulties. Christmas says, there are also always invitations to new starts in countless forms.

Not all who lose a partner will want to remarry. But all those who grieve are invited to love and hope again in God. May you experience peace and joy and hope this Christmas time, and may God plant once more the seeds of perennial hope in your heart.

You can access a written copy of this weeks message here.

I hope you are keeping warm, happy, safe, well and blessed!

This week’s podcast is based on the Magnificat - Mary’s song when she is carrying the Messiah. It's a song that celebrates the way God turns the world upside down, challenging the powerful and the wealthy, and lifting up the lowly and the poor.

My own focus this week is on magnifying God. In what sense can we magnify him and praise him? What benefits does this bring into our everyday lives? How does that affect our own concerns and the concerns of the world, if we focus our attention on God?

The world has changed so much in our lifetimes. It’s common to lament the things that have gone wrong, but we ought to notice, also, the things that have improved.

This week’s service and podcast are about the theme of diversity. In the old days, we looked down on all kinds of people. Everyone had to fit into definite patterns of identity and behaviour, and people who didn’t do that were looked down on. Minority groups of all kinds experienced prejudice, ridicule and at times violence.

I think that one thing that has improved is our increasing ability to celebrate variety. People can be different, and that’s a good thing.

Do you agree?

How do you cope with waiting? Some of us struggle and feel desperate to get to the thing we’re waiting for. Others are more naturally serene, and can wait with patience for their situation to improve.

Advent begins this Sunday. It’s a time of waiting to celebrate the coming of Christ at Christmas. What should we do with this time?

It’s a time to prepare to celebrate the coming of Christ at Christmas. It’s a time to pray for the coming of Christ into our hearts and into the world. It’s a time to practise spiritual discipline.

Spiritual life is lived in the tension between Christ is here already and Christ is yet to come. There’s always thankfulness for what we have but also yearning for what’s yet to come. Christians live between thankfulness and yearning, so both active service and patient waiting are always aspects of faith.

During Advent we practise the yearning and the waiting, and this is a form of prayer.

May God guide and bless you through this Advent season.

Hi, what’s your favourite season? I think mine is autumn as far as the natural world goes - though I am weary of fireworks and halloween!

At last it begins to feel like autumn in the UK with both leaves and temperatures falling. This season inspires us to think of the dying away of the old so that new life can grow.

This week we think about the reign of Christ. What needs to die away in life so that love can reign supreme?

Don’t forget, you can email me about the podcast on [email protected]

Rev. David Sutcliffe.

Hello and welcome to Knowing You Jesus. 

We are coming to that time of year when we remember those people who risked or gave their lives in recent wars. 

Remembrance Sunday is 13th November 2022, and up at Hearsall we’ll be remembering in a two-minute silence at 11am that day.