The Bethel - Old Trafford Christadelphian Church

What do we understand by what Jesus said when he proclaimed he was The Way, The Truth and The Life? What did Jesus mean? Tony unpacks the practical application of the words of Jesus on our lives today.

When you’re afraid, what do you do? There’s so much in our lives to make us worry, to tell us to be afraid. Mostly though, don’t we fear being out of control, out of grace or out of breath? In the letter to the Philippians, Paul’s focus is not on the short term problems but on the eventual solution. The Psalmist encourages us to trust, and Malcolm encourages us to have no fear and take comfort in God’s love and His promises.

If you want your whole being to proclaim God, you'd better get ready to show your emotions. Steve explores our strange relationship with our emotions and encourages us to demonstrate by how we live and what we display emotionally, what matters most to us. In this we will show how much our relationship with Jesus and God means to us.

Andrew Downton visits us with news from Riga, where he and Mel have been helping at the winter food kitchens for a few years. He brings with him the lessons learned from those they met, saw baptised and heard testimonies from. Not all churches have the same needs, but in Riga it’s simple: they all need each other, and the love they share, seeing each others problems and showing that love in any way they can to support one another. The lesson is clear - are we known by our love? Do we act with compassion and selflessness in all circumstances? And how much do we truly value our faith?

Ruth explores the concept of us having a good shepherd to protect, guide and comfort us along our faith journey. We draw on number of sources to illustrate how the good shepherd cares for us.

“With desire, I have desired to eat this meal with you, ________.” The Sykes’ thoughts, read by Sheila, centre around Mark’s rendition of the Passover meal shared by Jesus and his disciples before Jesus was taken to be crucified. It is a meal, shared with love, with passion, and with desire - to meet with us, and show us God’s love for us. What’s more we’re told it’s personal - God desires a personal relationship with us all.

Knowing we often suffer from a scarcity of joy, Andrew's encouragement came from Romans 15 and 16. To expand our joy, we can hold on to courage practically by not heardening our hearts and encouraging one another. We can rely more on God and we can practice resting - opening our awareness to God's blessings in our lives. In letting go and trusting in God, we can demonstrae our hope to others and partake in God's Sabbath.

What we do now matters! Jesus spoke many parables and they all related to right behaviour in some way. Mike looked at some of the hard teachings and tricky parables of Jesus and explored how they relate to us today.

God speaks to the people he cares about through the mouth of Jeremiah - that’s you, me and Israel - but they were stubborn and didn’t listen. Tony lays out the context for us and draws comparisons with the Pharisees that we read about in Matthew. He shows us that the messages echo between both Jeremiah and Matthew, that we need to dedicate ourselves to God and respond practically.

David begins this mornings thoughts on the recent news articles about some research that suggest we don't become wiser as we get older. So what wisdom are they talking about. What kind of wisdom should we seek, and how? God's wisdom is considerate, peace-loving and selfless.