Good News for Bad People

[This reflection by Helen Ruffhead was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 10/Aug/2025]

Happy are those who know that they are spiritually poor; the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
Matthew 5 v3 [Good News Bible]

These are the opening words of the famous Sermon on the Mount. We are so familiar with the teachings of Jesus that it is hard for us to understand how radical they were. The people of that day would naturally have expected the kingdom of heaven (God’s kingdom) to belong to those who most closely obeyed the laws of Moses, like the Pharisees, not to those who struggled and often failed to follow these laws.
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Contributor: Helen Ruffhead
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Speaking of the Future

[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during August 2025]

Last week we took a brief look at the prophecy of Amos, one of the minor prophets whose accounts are included in the second half of the Old Testament. The term ‘minor’ relates to the lengths of the books that bear their names; it certainly does not signify that their messages were of any lesser importance.

Are we often tempted to dismiss these minor prophecies as being largely historical and not relevant to our time? A few of the stories, such as the scandal of Hosea’s wife or Jonah attempting to sail off into the sunset, may catch our attention but are we at risk of missing the messages that the rest of these texts may have for us?
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Contributor: Steve Humphreys
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Peace Be With You

[This reflection by Michael Goble was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 03/Aug/2025]

In our entrance hall at home we have a small ceramic plaque showing the word “SHALOM” which we bought on a visit to Israel. The word means basically peace or tranquillity, as I remember a sermon about it one Sunday. At the time of our visit to that land there was peace in and around Israel, although it is hard to imagine that today.

We even visited the Palestinian Territories and also stayed in a Palestinian hotel for a week before moving on to an Israeli hotel on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. I don’t think I would like to go there today even if I could now, at least not until Jesus, the Prince of Peace, returns to rule over a cleansed, forgiven and redeemed Israel, and also reign over the whole world. Then there will be true peace everywhere.
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Contributor: Michael Goble
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Rebuilding More Than Walls

[Transcript of Martin’s Midweek Message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube[1], 29/Jul/2025]

Well, hello. I wanted to kind of do a bit of a series wrap-up. We have just been looking at Nehemiah rebuilding more than walls. And I hope you’ve enjoyed. If you’ve missed it, you can catch up on our YouTube channel.

There’s four parts to it where we look at the story of Nehemiah who with the help of God and the people of Jerusalem rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. And it’s been a really good story picking up on various different points. But I really just wanted to, as I said, wrap the series up because when I trained at Spurgeons, we were told everything points to Jesus. Sometimes it’s difficult to see how that fits with Old Testament stories like Nehemiah, but actually it really does point towards Jesus. So, we’re going to be looking at that just briefly in this video over the next few minutes.
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Contributor: Martin Shorey
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Past, Present, Future

[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during July 2025]

The Wikipedia entry for today[1] attributes the destruction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem to this date in 587BC. Solomon’s Temple was a magnificent structure, described in detail in the books of I Kings and II Chronicles. For several centuries it served as the focal point for the worship of God in Israel.

But the good times did not last. Moses instructed the Israelites to teach the laws of God to their children and their children’s children[2] but, as the years passed, the sincerity and enthusiasm of earlier generations gave way to formality, indifference and eventual neglect. Can we recognise a similar pattern in more modern times?
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Contributor: Steve Humphreys
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What Christianity Is Really About

[This reflection by The HBC Team was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 27/Jul/2025]

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2 v8–9 [NIVUK]

Have you ever felt like religion feels a bit empty?

Maybe you’ve seen too many people go through the motions on a Sunday but live unchanged lives the rest of the week. Maybe faith has felt more like a box-ticking exercise than something that actually brings life. Or maybe you’ve been wondering what Christianity really looks like when you strip away the ritual and get to the heart of it.
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Contributor: The HBC Team
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