Gorse Hill Baptist Church

At the state opening of Parliament, the reigning Monarch reads out a list of the legislation the Government will be bringing in the next session. Whilst this is effectively a statement of purpose for the kinds of areas the ruling party will focus on, it is often hard (without digging a lot deeper) to understand the motivation behind the words. It’s very different with the writer of Psalm 101 (which is seen by many as King David’s coronation address)...

Rockefeller the American billionaire described contentment as "A little more than you already have.“We’ll always want more if our life is run on the basis of comparison – the car someone else has, the job they do, where they go on their holidays and so on. In such circumstances, happiness only comes when you are up with the competition or, better still, one up on the competition. True happiness comes when we find real contentment...

30-Dec AM; Luke 2

When the angels appeared to the shepherds 2000 years ago and sang “Peace on earth”, it wasn’t pie in the sky but a message from heaven itself. Later, when Jesus said “My peace I give to you”, He wasn’t joking. He really wants to share in our lives, just as He did when He was born in Bethlehem.It isn’t every day that God came to live with ordinary people...

It’s said that you can see a candle flame on a still dark night over a mile away. Surely, something so small can’t make that much of a difference, can it? The story of Christmas is an account of an everyday life event – a birth – that changed history forever. Surely someone that insignificant can’t have such a tremendous impact, can he?The light shines in the darkness and that light is the light of men. Emmanuel. God with us.

An unexpected message, given to perhaps the most unlikely person. Who on earth would entrust a teenage girl from a rural backwater with a pivotal role in human history?God’s choice of Mary is both unexpected but also very welcome. It is a human story because many of us can identify with Mary’s amazement at being invited by God to take part in something special – even if our task isn’t what hers would be...

John’s audience has been waiting for a Messiah. They have particular (and set) views on what he would be like: from the family line of David, he would set the world alight and set the world right againThey have been drawn out into the desert to get right with God: to be baptized as sign of their repentance. They are going to get on the straight and narrow. But, that’s not the full storyJesus’ arrival was not the best thing on some kind of spiritual “wish list”...

Locusts and wild honey may not sound like haute cuisine but it serves its purpose. Taken with clothes made out of goat hair, it provides the essential basics for food, warmth and decency, leaving you free to focus on what really matters. The coronation of a new King is an exciting and busy time. There’s a lot to get ready - no one wants any hold ups on the day itself which might prevent the King from coming to His Kingdom and taking his place on the throne...

As we move into the Christmas season, let us not get so short sighted in single-mindedly over-preparing for Christmas, that we forget God’s vision for the world. What is at stake is not just another annual celebration or making Christmas memories with friends and family. What is at stake is the coming of the kingdom of heaven, which, as Jesus reminds us, is both already and not yet here.

Living by faith means that we are constantly making a statement about what we believe and who we believe in.A service of baptism invites us to stop and re-evaluate our relationship with God. For those being baptised, there is the immediacy of declarations to make (“I do”) and promises to keep (“I will”)...