DIY Sunday Service Kit - 21/05/2023 - It's going to be ok ... and here's why. Colossians 1:16-17

 

Welcome to the DIY Sunday Service Kit for May 21st 2023 with goodies from the livestock mart, Colossians 1 and a bunch of good worship songs (FREE!) straight off YouTube.

I'm gradually improving in health and have been back doing outreach in marts this week, but haven't been able to get to Poland as I was supposed to this week to represent y GRWP at the European Leadership Forum ... which would be a disappointment but for the things we're looking at in Colossians 1 today. (Colossians 1 is powerful stuff ... don't miss it!)

There's a trailer for it here:

So without any more chatter, let's get to worshipping the One Who sorts it all out ...

Here's the Word for the Week video 

... who might you be able to share it with?

Now let's pray

Sudan

Please continue to pray for the situation in Sudan. there has been no progress towards peace and news reports speak of devastation being caused in the capital, Mogadishu, as close quarters hand-to-hand fighting has been taking place through the streets of the city for some time.

People are still living in these areas and the effects on the civilian population must be severe.

Let's pray for international efforts at reconciliation to prevail and for peace to break out.

Northern Ireland

Quite a major shift in power towards the Nationalist party, Sinn Fein, took place in the local elections in Northern Ireland this week. Sinn Fein now have majorities across Local and National Government.

Please pray that the men of violence will not find occasion in this to resort to violence again, and that peace, justice and freedom for all will pervade the experience of all the people of the province, and that the gospel will have free course and bring life changing spiritual freedom to many there.

War in Ukraine

The conflict in Ukraine seems to be ratcheting up ahead of the long-awaited Ukrainian spring offensive. President Zhelensky has been successfully touring the capitals of the free world securing promises of enhanced weapons and Russia has been threatening those nations offering them.

Please pray for the people of Ukraine and for the peace and security of Ukraine and of the West as a whole.

The Station Café

Following up on the rather negative developments last week with regard to our renting the Station Café we have been pursuing two other organisations who may be about to take over responsibility for it in place of the company that held that responsibility but is now winding itself up.

In the course of the week, both those organisations have decided which one of them is going to be responsible for the administration of the building in future, and that organisation has decided which of their employees will be speaking to us about the matter (when she returns from her annual leave!)

We had negotiated a deal we could afford with the last company, but it is by no means clear that the new deal will work out as well for us, or even if we'll be offered one at all. Please would you continue to pray? It ain't over 'til it's over and our God is Almighty so He can do anything He pleases!

When you've prayed, please click the link below to join in 

worshipping our Living God

Click the Bible below for today's reading

Celtic Worship will lead us in singing God's praise ...

The sermon is on the studiocam video here

If the ministry has affected you today or left you with questions to resolve, please feel free to be in touch.

There is a link on the offering bag below to take you to our giving page, and if you feel you can support the work of y GRWP please click on that.

But now let's close our time together in prayer.

Lord and loving Heavenly Father we thank you that you feed our bodies with food and our souls through our minds with the spiritual food of your Word.

Feed our minds and our souls this week with thoughts of your Word to the Colossians about the awesomeness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and inspire us to walk more closely with Him.

We ask for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

DIY Sunday Service Kit 14/05/2023 - 'I don't know which way to turn!' - Colossians 1:15

 

Welcome to the DIY Sunday Service Kit for May 14th. 2023.

Today we'll be praying for some not so well known issues for our fellow believers in India, Sudan and Llandovery and we'll be looking at what Colossians 1 can teach us about how to 'hold it together'.

But first let's come with gratitude to our God ...

Let's pray

Lord of love, mercy and grace we bring you thanks and praise for watching over our lives in every detail of our experience in the last week.

When things haven't gone as we wish and we haven't trusted you ... we ask your forgiveness ... your mercy by your grace.

When we've felt things were against us, we thank you that your love has upheld us.

As we have become conscious of needs that we had you have been gracious and shown us the care of an outstanding Father.

Please re-focus out hearts and minds and the privileges we have in you and the blessing we have received from you, drive bitterness and regrets from us and build gratitude and graciousness in us ... we pray for Jesus sake.

Amen.

Here's a trailer for the sermon that's coming soon ...

(Click the pic.)

Let's intercede in our prayers for ...

India

Violence has erupted in Manipur, in Northeast India, claiming 60 lives, burning and destroying 50 churches, and displacing tens of thousands of people. Most of the dead are believed to be Christians.

According to Indian media, 10,000 troops have been brought in to restore order. At the same time a hearing of India’s Supreme Court claims there is no persecution against Christians in the country.

Indian media reports that violence erupted in several states, focused mainly in the Imphal Valley and Churachandpur.

Soldiers have been sent in with orders to shoot on sight to restore order and curfews have been imposed.

Reports coming from India say Christians have been attacked in 27 villages, sometimes in plain sight of state police and military, while mobs roamed the streets.

Meanwhile the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) and other parties have filed a petition at the country’s Supreme Court, calling for an agency to be set up to monitor attacks against Christians in the country.

The EFI, along with Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore and the National Solidarity Forum have brought the petition to try to halt what they claim are widespread attacks against Christians in the country.

In response, the government has denied that any persecution is taking place against Christians in India.

Instead, the government claims that any trouble Christians face is from personal disputes rather than communal crimes.

The Evangelical Fellowship of India has pointed out to the court that the government itself has disclosed that political groups linked to the ruling party have been involved in communal crimes.

They say that ultra-nationalist right-wing organisations such as the ‘Hindu Sangathan, Hindu Vadi Sanghatan, Hindu Jagran Manch, members of RSS, Bajrang Dal, VHP’ have been involved in the attacks.

The petitioners claim a rising tide of violence against Christians in the world’s largest democracy. They report 505 instances of assault in 2021, rising to 598 in 2022. And they say that in the first two months of 2023, there have been 123 assaults.

Let's pray for our brethren seeking to serve God faithfully in India, often described as the world's largest democracy, but where Christians face harsh daily opposition.

Sudan

After South Sudan won its independence from Sudan, Christians in Sudan suffered. Pastors were arrested. Other Christians were denied their basic rights as citizens. Church properties were closed or taken by people linked to the government system.

Now Christians in Sudan are just trying to survive the fighting ... Until this week, most of them lived in Khartoum ... but for many the quest for survival means that they are simply on the run in a dysfunctional country where you can't access money and very many people are like them totally displaced.

They’re fleeing a rapidly deteriorating situation. Khartoum’s morgues are full, dead bodies lie in the streets, and the healthcare system is collapsing. Electricity and running water are often unavailable, food is growing scarce, and the internet is unstable.

And amongst the sea of refugees is a small band of marginalised and unpopular Christians. There weren’t many to begin with. Sudan is mostly Muslim; Operation World estimates just 2.5 percent of the population are evangelical Christians. On top of that, Sudan’s ethnic and religious persecution was so severe that in 2011, the majority-Christian South Sudan broke away to form their own country.

That didn’t make things safer for Christians left in Sudan. Christian women and girls are in danger of rape and forced marriage. Christian men and boys have been beaten and imprisoned. In 2023, Sudan ranked in the World Watch List’s top 10 hardest places in the world to be a Christian.

Let's pray for our brothers and sisters fleeing, and living life on the edge.

Llandovery

On Friday I received a very disappointing email from the company I've been dealing with for over 18 months trying to get them to agree to rent us the Station Café in Llandovery, with which we'd hoped to be able to replace Ty'r BUgail.

In the last two weeks things have moved very fast, involving a lot of extra work to try to sort things out, but the efforts of quite a few months seem close to being frustrated altogether. The last resort now for us if we're to get this place seems to be to go back to square one to try to persuade  from scratch the freeholders (a large corporation as you might imagine) that they could rent the place to little old us. 

I'll be giving it a go early this week, but for a number of reasons this currently looks like a rather long shot.

This is a battle we've been fighting for a while, and these latest developments are a bit confusing, so please pray that if this is what the Lord wants He will sort it out, and that if He has other plans He will show us what we need to do about that very soon?

Thanks.

Lord we commit these issues that tug at our hearts to you in the pursuit of your Sovereign purposes. Intervene we pray in your world, with its troubles ... and show your greatness and your Glory, for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

Let's read God's Word, 

please click on the Bible below to be linked to the reading

Our friends at 20 Schemes lead our hearts out in worship

Click on the little man below for the sermon recording

Here is the studio cam video of that sermon

Let's think the sermon over as we sing ...

Finally now, let's pray

Father, we thank you that we have all we need by virtue of the faith you give us to stand fast in the Gospel and walk with the Lord Jesus by His Spirit, according to your Word.

Clear the clutter in our lives we pray that keeps us from knowing Him more.

Watch over us this week in our thoughts and our reactions, ad keep us close to the Saviour as we face the challenges and the blessings that the next week brings.

We ask for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

Thanks for being here today.

Please pray for us as we seek to put things in place this coming week that may be important for the future direction of the work of y GRWP, and also continue to hold one another up before God in prayer.

If we can pray for you or be of help to you please contact us by email or by texting, WhatsApp or Signal on 07748 644958 ... where it's appreciated if you can text to see we're not dealing with something or somebody else before phoning - thanks for your understanding.

As ever, our giving link is on the offering bag below.

May God bless you with His felt presence in the coming week.

DIY Sunday Service Kit - 07/05/2023 - Colossians 1:13-14, The Centrality of Jesus

 

Hi guys

It's been a rough few weeks health-wise and I'm just trying to get back into work, with varying success!

I'm very grateful for the progress made but this will be a very 'cut-down' DIY Sunday Service Kit this week I'm afraid.

Let's just take a moment for gratitude to God for His perpetual goodness, whatever the situation, as we start ...

Let's pray

Lord and loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for the kindness and the love that we experience from our Father's hand day by day.

We thank you for the beauty of creation, for the warmth of love we sense from others who was with you and for the many material and spiritual blessings that we enjoy.

Please focus our hearts and minds this and every day on the supremacy and the centrality of the Saviour, the eternal love of God our Father and the sufficiency of the Spirit's help with each fresh challenge of every day.

And take us deep into a fresh understanding of you from your Word today we pray.

In Jesus' Name ... Amen!

Many thanks for your patience while I've been unwell.

Please continue to pray for a return to better things!

As ever the giving link is on the offering bag pic below, and your support for the on-going work is as ever much appreciated.

Now may the God of peace - the God of rescue, repatriation and redemption - grant us all joy and peace in believing, that we may live by His grace to His Glory.

For Jesus' sake.

Amen.

DIY Sunday Service Kit - Easter 2023 - 'Ransom! Matthew 28 v 20'

Welcome to Easter Day worship with the DIY Sunday Service Kit!

In  2 Timothy 1:6-10 Paul writes:

"For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 

So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. 

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 

but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

We have GREAT reason to be ever so grateful for that last bit ... so let's get straight to worshipping the One Who has brought life and immortality to light for us through the Gospel of His perfect life, His atoning death and His life-giving resurrection from the dead ...

Here's a hint  of where we are going with this, then a hymn to get our worship started follows after that.

Today we mainly give thanks for so great a salvation ...

Lord and loving Heavenly Father we give you thanks today for your great patience towards us in our human weakness, sin and failure.

We turn again to you from the sins, the acts of wilful rebellion and disappointing failure that have peppered our lives in the last week.

We ask you once more, by virtue of your blood shed on the Cross, to cleanse us from our errors and our faults, our sins and our rebellious failures.

We take comfort again in your unfailing love which shows such immense grace and patience towards us and all who turn from sin to place eternal trust in you, and we praise you for the covenant loyalty you continue to show towards s as your imperfect people.

Fill our hearts today we pray with songs of your redeeming grace.

Fill our minds today with thoughts of your love and your care.

Establish our personalities as people grateful for your grace, moulded by your mercy and battled in repentance and baptism which lead to life.

And build in our hearts we pray a compassion that becomes like yours for those who are lost, who stand in need of your grace and salvation, giving us feet to follow in the ways of the One Who reached out His hands and His life to bring ransom and redemption to those who will turn from sin to put their trust in Him.

Build amongst us we pray communities of the people of God, fellowships of those bound together in their life in the Spirit and buzzing with a passion for Christ's cause and Kingdom.

And build your church here and throughout your world today we pray.

For Jesus' sake.

Amen.

Click the Bible for today's Bible reading

The video of the sermon recording is here:

Let's pray

At the beginning of his great treatise on faith and salvation written to the first century church in Rome the apostle describes his grace and apostleship to preach the Gospel we've been looking at today and He describes the Gospel in these terms. It is:

"... the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake."

And then Paul writes these astonishingly re-assuring words:

 "And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ."

Lord and loving Heavenly Father, grant us today the assurance of faith in you, your life, death and resurrection, that Paul sought to in the early Roman church.

Take our hearts and minds often to the things we've considered today, and make us people of resurrection faith and hope.

We ask for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

If you'd like to join us in giving to propagate this faith, please click the offering bag below to go to our giving link.

May God bless you as you seek to live for Him today and every day.

 

DIY Sunday Service Kit - 02/04/2023

 

Welcome to Palm Sunday worship with the DIY Sunday Service Kit.

This week we have a mix of traditional and more contemporary hymns and songs to celebrate as we come close now to the events of Easter week up at Jerusalem at that epoch-changing Passover time.

We're concluding this week our look at the psalms the Lord sang in the Upper Room with His disciples immediately before going out onto the Mount of Olives and into the Garden of Gethsemane where He would meet powerfully with His Father and await there arrival of His betrayer ...and in that contact, it's a very powerful psalm that Psalm 118 turns out to be ... here's a taster:

But first let's sing a very traditional Palm Sunday hymn.

Lord and Father we thank you for those fixed points in the year that remind its of key time and events in the history of salvation.

As we contemplate today the beginning of the last week before Christ's crucifixion, would you once more turn our hearts from our sins and weaknesses to him and re-orientate our minds to His service.

We ask for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

This Palm Sunday we pray for Israel, for the Chinese province of Henan and for the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC) where believers continue to follow the Lord into the sort of hostility and persecution that He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to face.

Israel

Israel has been shaken by days of protests by tens of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets to protest controversial proposed judicial reforms. 

The controversy of the reforms centres on the newly elected government coalition's proposal to prevent the Supreme Court from striking down laws of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) that it deems undemocratic. 

The controversy has led to nation-wide strikes and resulted in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in favor of the judicial reforms, calling for a pause in pushing forward the reforms until the next Knesset session in an effort to preserve national unity.

On 28th. March new legislation was published in the Israeli parliament to punish any conversions to Christianity with imprisonment.

The law proposes a 1-year imprisonment for “someone who solicits a person, directly, digitally, by mail, or online in order to convert his religion”. It also stipulates a 2-year imprisonment for the same act towards a minor.”

Considering past failed attempts to pass similar legislation, it appears unlikely at this point that the law will pass. It does come at a significant time when the current governing coalition are attempting controversial and large-scale overhauls to the judicial system in response to their own frustrations at the Supreme’s Counts historical blocking of more extreme initiatives made by parties such as UTJ, including on religious freedom issues.

Efforts to reduce the power of the Supreme Court to strike down “undemocratic” laws have long been pushed by more radically leaning religious Jewish groups that have recently gained unprecedented influence in the newly formed coalition government, perhaps the most radically religiously Jewish leaning government in Israel’s history. 

Encouragingly, in response to the expressed concerns of Christians’ freedoms in Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu tweeted “We will not advance any law against the Christian community”, but prayer is nonetheless very much needed for the peace of Jerusalem.

Lord have mercy.

Henan Province (People's republic of China)

In March, news broke about a Chinese government requirement that people in the Henan province register before attending worship services. They’re supposed to use a “Smart Religion” app, which records each person’s name, address, date of birth, occupation, and government ID number.

Ever since COVID, the lockdown policy has given power to a lot of government agencies. Many church gatherings were broken up in the name of COVID.

We’re also seeing an increase in house church pastors charged with financial fraud because they collect tithes. In the eyes of the government, the only legal pastors belong to the Three Self Church. They say it’s cheating to call yourself a pastor and receive money from people if you aren’t officially registered.

Because of government pressure, and because ideas of church aren’t very solid in China, we’ve seen many churches adopt online gatherings as their normal way of meeting. The government will stop any streaming services if they can detect them, so churches have been developing their own video streaming services and encouraging their congregations to use that for Sunday services. People will gather in small groups and watch together.

In some provinces, like Henan, it’s now extremely hard to find a church gathering in person.

The main tool the Government use to teach nationalism and atheism is the school system. Because of that, some Christian families have been opting to send their children to classical Christian schools.

However, the persecution against these schools has been severe in the past two years.

Before 2020, there were a number of Christian schools. Now it’s very hard to find any.

Lord have mercy.

Democratic Republic of Congo

In just two weeks, 72 Christians have been killed in Nord Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the Islamist rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). 

Mulinde Esemo, a key church leader in Butembo, DRC, confirmed that the past two weeks have been a period of “great anguish” for the body of Christ in Congo.  

He said, “We are living in a very tense situation here in Eastern DRC, both in towns and in the villages. Scores of believers have been killed in cold blood by the ADF rebels. It is a massacre like one killing animals.” 

These attacks are happening just two months after twenty-three people were killed in Makungwe on January 23, 2023. Unabated, the ADF militants have been on a killing spree as they push their agenda of the Islamization of the majority Christian Eastern side of the DRC.  

Here is the two-week chronology of the attacks as reported by Mulinde Esemo, the leader of the Nord Kivu diocese.  

On March 9, the ADF rebels attacked the Mukondi area and butchered thirty-six people.  

On March 12, nineteen people were killed in Kirindera village, and houses were set on fire by the same group, the ADF.  

Earlier this week, on March 14, seventeen Christians were killed in Mabuku, among them an Episcopal priest who was leading service when the attackers raided.  

All these villages are about 20 km from Butembo town, which has led villagers to flee to save their lives. Defiling the Pope’s call for peace and respect for human dignity during his trip to the DRC a month ago, the ADF has left thousands of displaced and living in deplorable conditions with no one to help.  

Mulinde Esemo continued,“Families that fled from all those villages are now living as refugees here in Butembo, despite the fact that the town and the suburbs are overpopulated. Women and children are the most affected since they are most vulnerable. You will occasionally hear them crying for the lack of food, as the men look for casual jobs to buy something for the families.” 

Bishop Mulinde has sent out a word to believers asking for help to the Congolese believers that have been left by loved ones due to the persecution and have fled their homes for fear of being killed.  

Lord have mercy.

So, Father we pray for your people throughout the world who are living with the threat and with the experience of persecution. 

We pray for the peace and security of the people we have just mentioned in Israel, China and the DRC.

We pray in particular for the calming of violence, the protection of the young and vulnerable and for those who lead the people of God and their churches through difficult times.

We ask that at this Easter time the power of the risen Christ to transform human life might be cleary seen, and that His light will yet shine in the darkest and most dangerous of places.

And we ask for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

Click this open Bible to be taken to the reading

Here's today's sermon on Psalm 118 ... first the audio (click the little man) and then the video

Here now is the sermon video recording

Let's sing

Let's pray

Would you Lord please, 

especially as we celebrate your death and passion in the coming week, 

embed within our consciousness a deep and fresh appreciation of your sacrifice made for us 

and motivate our hearts and wills a passion to serve your cause 

in imitation of your character and ways.

For we ask for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

Thank you for worshipping with the DIY Sunday Service Kit today.

If you would like to join us in worshipping through giving, please click on the offering bag below to be taken to our giving site.

May God bless you powerfully as you seek Him this Easter!