[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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[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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[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during July 2025]
Thanksgiving is not simply an event; it is a lifestyle of returning, rejoicing and remembering the goodness of God.
Rev Alfred Kaire [1]
As Christians we live with an anticipation of God’s blessings but how often do we thank him in advance? With the exception of the traditional mealtime grace – “For what are about to receive …” – we are usually content to look back and give thanks for the blessings that we have received but neglect to to thank him for those blessings that we are yet to recognise.
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[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during July 2025]
Martin opened Sunday’s message in ‘Yours’[1] with the line “God Provides – Then and Now”. I wonder how many other people first read it – as I did – as “God Provides, Now and Then”? Such mis-readings can start a train of thought which can be the inspiration for a reflection. Other triggers may be a Bible verse, a line from a hymn, a portion of a sermon or even some secular event. The original thought may, or may not, make it into the final text – very often the reflection evolves along a course somewhat different from that initially anticipated.
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[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 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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