[This reflection by Chris Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 17/Aug/2025]
Come To Jesus and Live!
When we attended the Baptist Church in Edenbridge there use to to be a gentleman who always said: “One touch from the King changes everything”.
In Luke 19: 1-10, Zacchaeus encountered Jesus, Jesus changed Zacchaeus’ life just by speaking with him, and taking notice of the condition of his heart.
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[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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[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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[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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[This reflection by David Makanjuala was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 20/Jul/2025]
It’s that time of year, so picture a tennis ball lying in one corner of Centre court at Wimbledon. On that tennis ball – one of many scattered around the court – there are tiny specks of dust. A couple of them – we shall call them speck 1 and speck 2 – start to talk to each other (allow your imagination to take over from here).
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[This reflection by Dennis Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 13/Jul/2025]
We have recently enjoyed a week of beautiful weather and familiar surroundings in Dorset! While sitting at an outside table overlooking the water, the three of us started talking about church stuff – as you do. On the Sunday, Chris and I visited a large church in Christchurch which friends had recommended. They called it a ‘Spirit-filled’ church.
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