[This reflection by Helen Ruffhead was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 16/Mar/2025]
Many people will be surprised to learn how much the Bible talks about money. There are numerous verses in the Old and New Testament about caring for the poor. Jesus himself said: “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6 v24) and told parables about the dangers of greed. 1 Timothy 6 v10 says: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”.
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[This reflection by Michael Goble was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 09/Mar/2025]
During recent Thursday group meetings we have been taking an overall look at each book of the Wisdom Literature in the Bible – Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and lastly, The Song of Solomon. That sounds pretty daunting, but each week we have heard things that gave us guidance and wisdom about living our everyday lives, how to cope with our experiences in life, what we need to understand about Who God is and our relationship with Him.
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[This reflection by Martin Shorey was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 23/Feb/2025]
Battleship Faith: Holding On When Prayers Go Unanswered
In the past week, the question of suffering and unanswered prayer has arisen a number of times. How do we feel and respond when God doesn’t seem to answer prayer? Why does the Bible encourage us to “present our requests to God”[1] only for us to sometimes feel as though our prayers are ignored or unanswered?
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[This reflection by Dennis Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 16/Feb/2025]
Martin’s teaching last Sunday was very challenging! Especially his closing remark that what the Father wants of us is to “follow Jesus”.
In our home group on Monday we explored that together. I drew our attention to 1 John 4 v7-8. The phrase that puzzled me was in verse 7: ‘… everyone who loves is born of God and knows God‘. Everyone? That brought us to Martin’s question about me being In or Out of God’s Kingdom.
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[This reflection by Chris Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 09/Feb/2025]
How blessed we are to be able to share our faith in Jesus with each other in our country.
There are many people we know who have come over to our area seeking asylum from other countries because if they had stayed in their own country would have been persecuted for their faith in Jesus, tortured or even killed. It’s not an easy task to come over here, penniless leaving all they had, wives, children and so much more.
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[This reflection by Helen Ruffhead was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 02/Feb/2025]
One thing I have never been able to understand is why people tend to be rated according to their wealth. You see it in playgrounds where children with the latest phone or designer clothes are respected and those without these things are bullied. Adults want to be seen driving an expensive car, wearing the latest fashions or showing off their lovely homes. Those in poverty are made to feel ashamed if they have to ask for help and are too often blamed for their situation.
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