[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during May 2025]
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Luke 11 v2 [NKJV]
These words are taken from the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, after they had asked him to teach them how to pray.[1] The prayer-lesson was recorded by both Matthew and Luke and it serves us as an example of the way we should structure our prayers.
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[This reflection by Helen Ruffhead was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 11/May/2025]
For the past few months Connect in Faith have been studying the life of Daniel, who as a young teenager was taken from his home and family and deported to Babylon, where he and his 3 friends were forced to serve the enemy of their people, King Nebuchadnezzar. This king was not only extremely powerful, but cruel, childish in his rages and mentally unstable.
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[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during May 2025]
Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
Psalm 119 v49 [NKJV]
This extract from the psalmist’s prayer encourages us to refer back to God’s promises when we pray; that in turn requires us to know what God has promised. The NIV identifies over 200 references to God’s promises; to individuals in particular circumstances, to the nations of Israel and Judah or to those who follow him in faith. How many can you recall?
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[This reflection by Dazz Jones was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 04/May/2025]
Recently, I was talking with a friend who said, “I’ve ‘unfollowed’ [insert famous church leader here] because of what he said about …”
The leader in question had posted a written prayer on Instagram about a particularly emotive subject. I had a look myself and, interestingly, I thought it wasn’t clearly aligned with either side of the issue — but perhaps that was just my perception.
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[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during April 2025]
In this manner, therefore, pray: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name”.
Matthew 6 v9 [NKJV]
This is the opening phrase of the template prayer that Jesus used to demonstrate to his disciples how they should pray. It is a regular component of worship services in more traditional denominations and many of us have learnt the prayer verbatim. But does the familiarity of the words mean that their significance is diminished?
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[This reflection by Michael Goble was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 27/Apr/2025]
There are two accounts of the resurrection of Jesus that I find most moving. The first is when Mary thinks she sees a gardener at the tomb of Jesus. When Jesus says to her, “Mary”, she realises that He really was the risen Jesus who was speaking to her. Her sorrow was turned to joy (John 20:15-16). The other moving occasion is when two followers of Jesus, after His death, were walking from Jerusalem to their home in a village called Emmaus, and at that time Jesus came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognising Him (Luke 24:13-35).
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