[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 Dazz Jones was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 29/Jun/2025]
In church, people sometimes talk to me as if I have mystical powers – or as though I’m God’s favourite, just because I’m one of the pastors. Other times, they take on a different tone or demeanour when they speak to me, compared to how they talk with others. They might try to sound more profound or, for lack of a better word, more spiritual.
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[This reflection by Helen Ruffhead was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 22/Jun/2025]
When studying the book of Daniel at Connect in Faith recently, I was struck by the number of references to Jesus in it.
In chapter 2, Jesus is the rock which shatters the statue in King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. As Daniel explained to the king, the statue represented 4 great kingdoms and in the time of the 4th kingdom (Rome), God would establish a kingdom which would destroy all the earthly kingdoms but his kingdom would last forever.
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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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