Tapton Church Blog

This service was taken by Darryl and featured more favourite hymns chosen by the Congregation. His theme was based around a sign he saw while driving through Bradford which read Live Simply, Talk Kindly, Love Unconditionally.

Darryl spoke about each of these in turn (with hymns in between) and illustrated each talk with a range of biblical readings.

For the Live Simply bit he talked about the fact that we are all relatively comfortable and many of us  tend to go out and buy things that we don’t really need.  As for Speak Kindly he reminded us  that this should apply to all our conversations throughout the week, the office gossip just as much as the polite church chat.  He  used the memorable phrase ‘there’s no if’ when speaking about the third part of the sign, Love Unconditionally – to sum up the love that we should have for others, even our enemies.

Frank writes:

I led this service and the readings were Jeremiah 23:23-29 and Hebrews 11:29-12:2. The hymns were Holy, Holy, Holy,  In heavenly love abiding, Amazing Grace,  Morning has broken, & At the name of Jesus. 

I had 3 messages which were as follows:

1.  Based on Jeremiah 23:23

God is omniscient but we are prone to forget this. When we remember   that God sees and hears all there are a number of consequences:

• It’s easier to forgive because we are reassured that whatever has been done to us God knows about it.
• We are relieved to know that God loves us and that he is merciful, since God is aware of everything that we do that doesn’t measure up to his perfect standards.
• We have to be able to let God love us, and while that sounds simple it’s easier said than done, because some people find it hard to believe that they deserve to be loved.

2.   Based on Jeremiah 23: 24-29

It’s a terrible thing to take human words and ideas and dress them up as the word of God, but that’s exactly what millions of Christians do when they insist that every word of the Bible is the Inspired Word of God, dictated by the Almighty Himself.

When God wanted to reach humanity He didn’t write a book, like Muslims believe about the Qur’an: he sent his son, Jesus.  The Bible is ever so important because it points us in this direction, so without it we’d be lost. But that doesn’t mean that it is  literally ‘The Word of God’. 

What is the Word of God? It’s the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I pray that eventually we might learn not to confuse the wrapping with the gift; the map with the destination; and the Bible with the Word of God.

3. Based on Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2 –

On being saved by faith:

Faith is an event that happens deep within your heart, beyond the reach of words or labels, and it changes you into a person that positively wants to do good without thinking about rewards.

Good deeds might be very good for your neighbour, your community, even the whole world, but unless they spring from a pure heart they will have no effect on your relationship with God.

Human beings have cut loose from their creator, and the only way for us to reconnect with God is by faith.  If we can do this (or rather let this be done to us) then we will be saved from fear, loneliness, sadness and a whole lot more besides.

The service ended with the shared Grace.

Afterwards we had a cup of tea and a slice of cake to celebrate Sheila’s 70th birthday – a jolly time was had by all!

On Sunday 15th August we had a ‘favourite Hymns service’ which was led by Sheila Lomas. On the previous few Sundays she had encouraged us to write down our favourite hymns, and we sang seven of them today – with the promise that the two left out will be included in next week’s worship.

It was well attended and enjoyed by all, and included readings from Phillipians about how we all have different gifts. Sheila, who has a keen interest in history, also spoke about Florence Nightingale and how her particular gifts became apparent.