The Bethel - Old Trafford Christadelphian Church

97% reliability used to be a good measure of reliability for everyday products. Today, companies tend to achieve a 99.9997% reliability in manufacturing. Colin talks us through an approach to the only thing that is always 100% reliable - God our heavenly father.

Whilst summarising the Youth Weekend talks, Richard shocks us with a staged heckling, but this talk is really about listening to what you might not want to hear. Jesus told the crowd the story of Naaman, but those listening were so angry that they wanted to throw him off a cliff. Sometimes we hear what we don't want to hear, sometimes we get disillusioned, but we're not the first. It is all part of our own journey as God's children.

What does God ask from us? Does he ask us to follow a list of rules? Or does he offer us something much simpler?

An exploration of the life of David reveals that it was in some of his toughest moments that he wrote Psalm 34. The words in verse 8 'taste and see that the Lord is good' show that David trusted and relied on God even in the most troubling circumstances. The only way we too can experience that God is good, is by leaning our trust on Him; to let go and put our faith in God, even when life is most challenging.

Sometimes in life we get so focused on our own lives that we forget what it truly is to be Christ-like. Rob guides us through what it means to be a living sacrifice, whether it's at work, at home or at church. Christ's example shows us that others come first, that God's love for us calls us to love others and share God's love.

How often we are distracted from and too busy to notice we are in the presence of God. Are we losing our ability to live with our attention on the here and now as society and consumerism con us into thinking we might miss out on something. Chris grounds us again to refocus on the present and taking the time to tase and see that the Lord is good.

Last week, we thought about an invisible God. This week was about the same God who leaves his mark in creation, in history and in our lives. He is a God who wants a personal relationship including making a mark in your future.

If we do something that is big and impressive, we always like to put our signature on it. It can seem at times thath God is not like that and prefers not to reveal his hand so obviously. Mike suggests that God wants us to search for him, to seek him to discover his hand in this world. It's all about tasting to see that the Lord is good.

Taking us through three very different examples of the way that we might be trained or changed as followers of Christ, Pete demonstrates that we are all different and God is working to transform us in a way that He knows best - whether its Olympic level training, a leap of faith to walk on water, or the heating and cooling of metal to forge us into swords.

Sorry for not being able to provide the service audio this week.