The best book to read is the Bible

Recently my Dacia car told me it was unwell when an orange warning light appeared on the dashboard. Being not mechanically minded, I consulted the car’s manual, and it told me there was malfunction and to visit a garage as soon as possible. 

When things go wrong it’s well to have a go-to place to get help and this is where the Bible comes in. We read the Bible because we believe that it is God’s maintenance manual giving helpful hints for our everyday lives. 

To some the Bible is a made-up fairy tale, to others it’s a book full of boring rules, and some regard it as an irrelevant, outdated history book. But this is not true. The Bible was written to tell the story of everyday people living their lives amidst highs and lows, just like you and me. To provide help and wisdom in all aspects of our lives e.g. marriage, parenting, redundancy, retirement, illness and death. It was written to bring hope, peace, joy and love through the life and ministry of God’s son, Jesus Christ, in those times when we are feeling anxious or worried of what the future may hold. 

Psalm 46:10: Be still and know that I am God, 

gave me great comfort as my mum received end of life care. It calmed my fears and anxieties during her sudden, unexpected illness and brought peace as I grieved her passing. Christians are not immune from bad stuff happening but our faith in God through Jesus and reading the Bible helps us to cope. We believe, as the lovely children’s worship song goes: 

The best book to read is the Bible, 
the best book to read is the Bible, 
if you read it every day, 
it will help you on your way, 
Oh the best book to read is the Bible. 

Best wishes, 

Pastor Robert.

We have a pool inside the church...

In the hilarious BBC television sit-com "Keeping Up Appearances" super snob, Hyacinth Bucket, would often mention her sister Violet’s Mercedes, swimming pool and room for a pony to her friends and neighbours. 

Now while we certainly don’t have a Mercedes or room for a pony, we do have a pool inside the church. But this is not for swimming in although it can be heated. It is a baptistry used to baptise adults and young people by full immersion. 

So, what is baptism? Baptism is a public profession of faith and belief in Jesus Christ. It is an outward sign of the inner working of the Holy Spirit in the life of the new Christian. As the candidate goes under the water, their old life and sins (the bad stuff) are washed away and as they come up out of the water, they begin a new life and a new walk with Jesus, forgiven, cleansed and loved by God. 

Although Baptism is not an essential requisite to visiting or joining the church or becoming a Christian, we believe that it is a great witness to those family and friends who come along to support the candidates. 

We do it because Jesus was baptised in the river Jordan to set a good leadership example of not asking others to do something without being prepared to do it himself. Jesus said it was right and fitting. (Matthew 3:13-17.) We also do it because, as a local Baptist church, we are commissioned to go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19.) 

Want to learn more? 

Please and come on join us on Sunday mornings at 10:30am for worship followed by tea and coffee. We would love to see you and a warm and friendly welcome awaits you. 

Best wishes, 

Pastor Robert.

Why do we pray?

As a church we believe that the need to pray stems from when Adam and Eve, the first humans, disobeyed God. Genesis 3 describes how they were tempted by the devil, cunningly disguised as a snake, and ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Because they gave into temptation the good and perfect world God had created became tainted with sin which created a barrier between God and Human beings. Consequently, the entire Human race would experience pain, suffering, illness and death in their bodies and there would be jealousy and conflicts in families and wars between nations vying to rule the world.

Sound at all familiar? It is through these everyday difficulties that prayer became and continues to be necessary. Prayer is like having a telephone conversation with God and when we pray, we speak to God and He listens. You don’t have to select from one of the following options or wait in a queue – you are put straight through!

In the Lord’s prayer given to us by Jesus, we ask Our Father in heaven to give us this day our daily bread – to provide for our needs and for others like food and other resources to sustain life and to bring healing, peace and an end to suffering, pain and stress and anxiety. We also ask God to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us and not to lead us into temptation and deliver us from the evil one. God is sometimes blamed for all the earthly suffering, but God is not to blame. Suffering is caused by all the evil that exists in the world. God doesn’t want anyone to suffer. He loves us and suffers with us. And it is in these times we also pray for His Kingdom to come and for His will to be done. 

Amen. 

Best wishes and prayers, 

Pastor Robert and all at Headcorn Baptist Church.

Photo by Payton Tuttle on Unsplash