In this gospel story Jesus heals 10 lepers, but only one comes back to say thank you, and Jesus notices the absence of the others. God notices when we are grateful for the things he does for us, and he notices when we’re not. How can we develop a habit of thankfulness that ensures nothing God does for us goes without our thanking Him?

Thanksgiving is not a simple transaction – God did this for me and so I owe him a debt of gratitude and once I’ve said thank you I’ve rebalanced the relationship. Who God is and what he has done is so great that we could never repay him, and so our only response must be praise/worship. Status of the giver is far above those who have received the gifts. Also, Paul often thanked God for things he was doing in the lives of others, or for things he was going to do. So, instead, thankfulness is to be part of our

Upon their return Jesus is full of excitement and praise for the work the disciples have done. Jesus is so pleased with us when we are faithful and obedient to him, and he is cheering us on when we see fruit in our mission. But, he also gives us a clear warning, that our identity should never be found in the ‘success’ of our mission to make disciples, but rather in our identity as his.

This is a poor recording, but you can still hear what's being said.

As we have learnt over the last few months, we are not simply to be disciples of Jesus, but to be those who make disciples. In this passage Jesus gives us some incredible wisdom about how we might be successful in this mission. Go with little to offer, look for the person of peace, invest heavily in fewer relationships, don’t fear rejection, and use the authority you have been given etc.

This banquet gives Jesus the opportunity to teach his disciples that those we are called to disciple are those he has invited, not just those we think should get in. We would all love to be in a church full of people just like us, where all our friends had come to faith and we could all just hang out singing Bethel songs and eating meat together! But, the challenging truth is Jesus might not have invited all of our mates but rather those completely unlike us (often the poor and needy) who appreciate the inv

For those we know who seem close to coming to faith, this story is a wonderful example of the simplicity of the gospel, but also the incredible challenge it presents to a world set on the pursuit of knowledge and expertise. Becoming a disciple of Christ is about humbling yourself, recognizing your weakness and your need for God, and leaning wholly on his mercy and grace to save you. When we have the chance to share the gospel with those seeking truth, do we try to give sophisticated and intellectually rigor

In this story we see a ‘non-disciple’ of Jesus teaching his disciples a valuable lesson about faith. As fellow disciples of Jesus, are we willing to learn from those who may seem to have only just met Jesus and yet have greater trust/faith in him? The Centurion would not have been a popular role model for a group of Jews under Roman rule, and yet Jesus uses him as such. Are we willing to learn from those who might seem to us to be completely the wrong people to teach us anything?

This was a bonus talk in our Disciple Maker series, whereby we were going to have a guest speaker, but they couldn't come. So John spoke about Christ like friendship, something which he felt God has been speaking to him about in recent months.

The passage in Mark 7 about Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman is at first glance a confusing one! why does he call her a 'dog' and why does she respond to him the way she does. Helen suggests a number of things we can learn from this encounter.

How people respond to Jesus does not always look like we think it should, in fact, we can often find ourselves dismissing the faith of new believers because they’re not responding to God in the ways we think they should – changing their sinful behaviours first and intimately approaching Jesus only once these things have been put right. But Jesus acceptance, his encouragement of the sinful woman in her response to his grace, shows us that we need to lead people to Jesus first and make dealing with their ‘sin