Tapton Church Blog

Trinity Sunday
Leader : Ray Bridden (from Bakewell)
Readings : Psalm 8
John 16 5-1`6
Acts 2v 33 Peter talks about the Trinity “Jesus received from The Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured what we now see and hear”
Trinity is part and parcel of the church year it is a difficult subject to preach about and has been likened many times to different things : i.e clover with its three leaves, a milking stool with three legs, an egg with its shell, yolk and white but all these are imperfect illustrations even though they have three different constituents.
The early church had difficulties and to try to solve it they wrote The Creed which is still used in different forms today – I believe in ….
God, Jesus The Holy Spirit
It is interesting that the word Trinity does not appear in scripture although the three God/Jesus/Holy Spirit are mentioned on numerous occasions. All work in harmony.
They are the centre of the Christian faith.
God The Father – Creator, Loving – we are God’s children
Jesus – The Son our example, our saviour.
The Holy Spirit- The comforter lives in our hearts and minds so we can be what God intends – to share the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

We were honoured when the President of the Congregational Federation and his wife called in and joined our afternoon service.

There will NOT be a service at Tapton on Sunday 15th May. Whit Sunday. We will meet with friends from other churches at Hampden View, to share singing, games etc., picnic from 12.30p.m all welcome.
Please bring your own food.

Leader: Rev Alan Hindmarch
The Ascension
Readings : Acts 1 1-11
Luke 24 44-53
Farewell, Goodbye. It is much easier to greet someone than to say goodbye.
Jesus appeared to his followers several times during the 40 days since the crucifixion and he was telling them that he would leave them with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Then he ascended into heaven to be with His Father
Heaven is where God’s spirit is – not afar off above the clouds.
Receive the Holy Spirit and go into the world and spread the good news that Jesus died and is risen.

Service led by Rev Suzanne Nockels.

Readings from
Nehemiah 13 v 4-18
2 Peter 2 v 20-22

How do we like a good novel to end? Nicely tied up? happy ever after? No loose ends to leave us frustrated.
As the wall is finally completed around the Holy city of Jerusalem great celebrations take place and the ‘ending’ seems complete. Unfortunately this is not the ending for the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah has to leave Jerusalem for several years and people’s commitment to following God diminishes. Amongst other things they stop respecting the Sabbath as a day to have time with God. Sound familiar to today’s world? We have such busy lives and sometimes we forget to trust in God that he will give us enough time to accomplish all we need to do and still have time to save Sunday for him!
Commitment is not always easy.
A question posed was ‘How much does it affect our commitment to God if our friendships and relationships are with non Christian people?’ Does it move us away from God or towards him? Something to think about?
Nehemiah does not have a nice tidy ending or a happy ever after, very much like real life. It also shows how hard commitment is and how we can sometimes take the wrong path. The good news is as the New Testament begins we look at building less walls and more bridges and finding out how to have real commitment to Jesus.
Hope for tomorrow!

The service was followed by Communion which we encouraged everyone to share.