the magazine of broadmead baptist church · this is but one example of the way in which humans are...

Mr Thomas Ewins preaching

from the prison, 1664

The Magazine of

BROADMEAD BAPTIST CHURCH

June, 2018

16 40

welcome! If you are curious and have come to see us

If you are weary and have come to rest

If you are grateful and have come to share

If you are hurt and have come for solace

If you are listening and have come to pray

If you are seeking and have come for answers

welcome!

BROADMEAD BAPTIST CHURCH 1 Whippington Court, The Horsefair

Bristol BS1 3HY Tel. 0117 929-1387

Minister: REV. JOHN HOUSEAGO, M.TH, M.A., B.SC.

Tel. 0117 951 4091 (Home) 0754 896 8252 (Mobile)

[email protected]

For your information SUNDAY WORSHIP: 11 a.m. every Sunday; there will be no even-

ing services except for special occasions. (Communion on the first and third Sunday mornings.)

CITY PRAYERS: Tuesdays at 1.10 p.m.

CITY COMMUNION: Thursdays at 1.10 p.m.

The minister will usually be at church on Thursday mornings. You are always welcome to pop in for a chat, but please phone first if you are making a special trip as events frequently mean that the minis-ter’s plans have to be changed.

1 THE RECORD, JUNE, 2018

A S the result of David Attenborough’s series Blue Planet II we are

all acutely aware of the danger that plastic poses to the health of our planet. This is but one example of the way in which humans are degrading the environment. Is this the only way to live?

Psalm 104 offers an idealised picture of a harmonious creation, with mankind part of the whole. For the Psalmist all life depends on God and he provides for each according to its needs. Too often we think that God is concerned only with people. But God caused all life to be

and he cares about it all. The earth is not an expendable item. It is the place where the mystery of life is played out.

The story of a great flood is found in various forms in several ancient Middle-Eastern cultures. In the Bible it concludes by affirming the fundamental dependability of the earth, “As long as the earth endures, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22).

The Hebrew people found nature’s dependability a rich source of images with which to teach about God himself. They saw that the creation reflected God’s nature. You can find these images through-

out the psalms and the prophets, especially in the middle chapters of Isaiah.

The world of nature provided Jesus with a number of metaphors to teach people about God and his kingdom. We can learn from the mustard seed of the power of faith, from the sower about the hard realities of preaching, from the seed of the inevitability of growth and change, from the lilies, about futile human pride and from the birds about living by trust in God. Jesus saw the natural world as a reflec-tion of the creator.

Paul’s theology is also rooted in creation. He wrote in Romans that “creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay” (8:21). In Colossians he says that not only did God create all things through Christ, but that he will “reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross” (1:20).

God wants us to care for His creation. In the past people acted out of ignorance. Today we have no such excuse. Science has opened our


Edited for the Internet

matters

eyes to the wonderful and fragile nature of life. We must take care of

it. I wonder what Jesus would see of God in our poisoned rivers, the plastic swirling in ocean currents, and the smoke palls rising from

forests destroyed to plant commercial crops. JOHN HOUSEAGO

Sermon themes All services are at 11 a.m. and will be led by the minister

unless otherwise noted.

27th May, 2018

Joint Service with BC3 led by REVD MARK DETZLER

3rd June, 2018 Treasure in clay jars. 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 and Mark 2:23 - 3:6

10th June, 2018 Do not lose heart. 2 Corinthians 4:13 - 5:1 and Mark 3:20-35

17th June, 2018 REVD KEVIN DURRANT

24th June, 2018 MR NEVILLE LINTERN

Please submit copy for the next edition of The Record any time BEFORE

SUNDAY, 10TH JUNE. If you are offering something which has been

written by another person, or printed elsewhere, please make sure you have

asked permission first. Your own contributions are always welcome.

JACK APPLETON, Editor


CHURCH MEETING The next Church Meeting is on Wednesday, 19th September, 2018, at 2.15 p.m. in the Hiley Room.

All members are encouraged to attend.

A BIG IDEA 15th July, 2018, is the bicentenary of a big idea – the issuing of

a Prospectus of a ‘College for the instruction of Asiatic, Chris-tian and other youth in Eastern literature and European sci-

ence’ in India. The college “was intended primarily to educate the children of native Christians ... It was also intended to give the benefit of it’s literary and scientific instruction to other

youths, Hindoo or Mahomedan, but without placing any strain on their consciences.” Another reason for setting up the Col-

lege concerned evangelism – those witnessing to Christ should know the beliefs of those to whom they were witnessing.

The Prospectus was drawn up by an unlikely character – Josh-ua Marshman was born (in 1768) in a village lacking adequate school facilities and spent most of his youth as a weaver, his

father’s profession. However, he was a voracious reader and in 1794 his abilities enabled him to move to Bristol as a teacher at

3rd June Marion Tunnicliffe

10th June Chris and Maureen Pannell

17th June Bonnie West

24th June Clifford Moss and family (In memory of Shirley)

Church

Flowers


The Baptist Times Round-up

BUILD ME UP - DON’T PUSH ME DOWN! We all need encouragement from time to time - this is what it

is (and isn't). By Colin Sedgwick

A man turned to me once after a sermon which had been, in essence,

a word of encouragement: “You know, it’s really refreshing to hear

this kind of message. All these ‘challenging’ and ‘hard-hitting’ ser-

mons we keep getting are all very well, but so often you just end up

reeling, feeling guilty and a failure.”

Encouragement: it’s a key word in the Christian life. Or should be.

When Paul was on his missionary journeys he didn’t usually stay

very long in one place. His method was to preach Christ first to his

fellow-Jews in the local synagogue, to gather around him a group of

new believers, and then to move on to the next place.

But he made an exception for the big, bustling city of Ephesus, a

focal point of political, economic and religious power. We learn in

Acts 19 and 20 that he stayed there for over two years; and his stay

was anything but uneventful, to put it mildly. To cap it all, the city

erupted into a riot - what Luke calls “uproar” - triggered by the

preaching of the gospel, and Paul decided it was time he was on his

way.

But before he left there was something he was keen to do. Luke tells

us that he “sent for the disciples” and “encouraged” them. He then

a Charity School supported by this church. He joined the

church, felt the call to become a missionary, and in 1799 (with

his wife and their two children) sailed to Serampore in Bengal. It was there that Joshua Marshman together with William

Carey and William Ward set up Serampore College.

Today, the College has over 2000 students. Its Arts, Science

and Commerce Department is affiliated to the University of Calcutta, but the College awards its own degrees in theology. We send congratulations on its bicentenary and give thanks for

the big idea of its founders and, in particular, of Joshua Marshman.


tells us that, after leaving, he “travelled through that area, speaking

many words of encouragement to the people.”

Paul, of course, is among people who haven’t been followers of Jesus

for all that long, people who live in an area dominated by dark forces

such as the worship of the goddess Artemis (or Diana) of the Ephe-

sians, people whose society is corrupted by all kinds of immorality. If

these infant Christians are to thrive after his departure – well, they

need all the encouragement they can get!

The circumstances of many of us today are very different, thank God.

But the fact remains that life brings all of us many troubles and

pressures – and not least the Christian life. Whether you look at the

“developed” or the “undeveloped” world, the powers of darkness,

ignorance, superstition and sheer wickedness sometimes seem over-

whelming. How can the people Jesus called his “little flock” (Luke

12:32) possibly survive, never mind thrive? Sheep among wolves in-

deed.

Encouragement is vital.

But what is encouragement? What does this quite common word in

fact mean?

It’s an elastic word – you can stretch it different ways. At its sim-

plest: to encourage someone is to give them a boost. And this can be

done in various ways ... A simple word of thanks for something done.

An arm literally or metaphorically round the shoulder. A word of

advice, guidance or rebuke. Even perhaps a bit of a scold (as long, of

course, as it’s a loving scold). A practical gift to meet a particular

need.

In essence, the person on the receiving end of encouragement will

feel that they have somebody standing with them – somebody who

loves and cares and who has power to help them. In the New Testa-

ment the ultimate encourager is the Holy Spirit himself – in John

14:26 Jesus calls him “the Advocate”: and that word could be trans-

lated “Encourager.”

Of course it’s not only preachers who can offer encouragement in

their sermons; in fact, they may be the people who need it most! It

can seem a thankless task preaching your heart out to what some-

times seems like a brick wall.

The fact is that encouragement should be like a perfume that fills the

whole church. Just as flowers blossom in the spring sunshine, so

Christians blossom under encouragement.


A word of warning, though: let’s be careful not to confuse encourage-

ment with flattery.

Flattery can be described as false praise, given in order to worm your

way into somebody’s good books so as to get something from them.

That is obviously wrong.

But well-meaning Christians can also be guilty of false praise. Why?

Because we don’t like hurting people’s feelings by being frank and

honest, and so we offer syrupy words of praise instead – and we im-

agine that we are somehow doing them good.

This too is wrong. We need to learn how to speak the truth in kind

and loving ways, ways that allow scope for further talk and, hopeful-

ly, solid building up.

I love the wise words of Proverbs 27:6 - that “wounds inflicted by a

friend” can in fact be “trusted”; whereas the person who “multiplies

kisses” is an “enemy”.

Worth thinking about, that!

A TALE OF TWO VILLAGES:

PROVIDING CLEAN WATER IN UGANDA Disease, infection and

chronic pain. All a result of

drinking dirty water. For millions of

people, unsafe water is all they have to

drink. But thanks to your giving, bore-

holes in northern Uganda are providing

clean water for hundreds of people,

preventing illness and transforming

communities.

Today, there are over 663 million peo-

ple living without a safe water supply

close to home, spending countless

hours walking to distant sources, and

coping with the health impacts of using

contaminated water. Everyone de-

serves access to clean water, but the problem is so large, it can seem difficult

to know what to do, or how to fix it. When faced with an issue like this, the

best way to tackle it is to install boreholes, working in village after village,

providing safe water and preventing disease until one day everyone has access.

A borehole in Abwoch


And that’s exactly what BMS is doing.

In Abwoch and Pajaa, two villages in the north of Uganda, people didn’t have

access to a safe supply of water. The main borehole in Abwoch was contami-

nated, and in Pajaa the nearest clean source was a half an hour’s walk away –

most families had to make two to five trips per day, spending up to five hours

fetching the water they needed. Disease was rife, all because of bacteria in the

water.

BMS has drilled a borehole in Abwoch, and another in Pajaa, providing over

350 people with clean water, free from bacteria and infection.

BMS environmental consultant Tim Darby gathered local leaders, church lead-

ers and community members together in each village. They decided where the

borehole would be built, and agreed to provide sand and gravel as resources

to help construct it. The communities also agreed to provide accommodation,

food, and water for the team drilling the hole and building the water pump.

In the space of seven days, the two boreholes were built, providing clean

water for hundreds. A fence was built around each water pump, preventing

animals from contaminating the supply. The villagers were then taught hygiene

skills, and elected a committee to help with maintenance and to ensure the

water remained clean.

Both boreholes are free from bacteria, providing safe drinking water for the

hundreds of people who use them. Charles Opiro, part of the borehole

committee in Pajaa, says that people have not been sick from water-related

diseases since the new water pump was built, as now they don’t have to drink

water taken from puddles or dirty lakes.

Having clean water is helping Pajaa community in other ways too. The bore-

holes are providing new economic opportunities for the community. Charles

used the clean water to make bricks during the dry season, which he then sold

to fund the school fees for his younger siblings. He’s also seen more women

participate in the economy – his neighbour took her goods to sell at the mar-

ket because she no longer had to spend such a long time collecting water.

Your support for our work in Uganda is providing safe water to hundreds,

preventing disease and saving lives. It’s transforming the way villages in north-

ern Uganda operate. And the project has barely begun. “I just want to say

thank you,” Tim says to our generous supporters. “You’ve enabled so many

people to access clean water already. We’re so grateful.”

JUST A THOUGHT

Action is the foundational key to success.

PABLO PICASSO


THE BRAIN DRAIN

WHO CAME FIRST? Can you put these Old Testament characters in chronological order within the bible stories? (based on NIV, © 1984 by the International Bible Society)

Esau, Samson, King Belshazzar, Rebekah, Jethro, Jacob, Nathan the prophet, Balaam, Naomi, King Josiah, Deborah, Elijah.

ANSWERS TO CULINARY PLANTS QUIZ They are from the NIV, © 1984, by the International Bible Society.

1.Grape, Jas 3.12; 2. Olive, Jas 3.12; 3. Lentils, 2.Sam 17.28;

4. Wheat, Gen 30.14; 5. Rue, Lk, 11.42; 6. Barley, Ruth 1.22;

7. Mint, Lk 11.42; 8. Raisins,2 Sam, 6.19 9. Beans,2 Sam, 17.28;

10. Dill, Matt 23.23.

MOUSE v. CAT Magdelene College is one of Oxford’s loveliest Colleges.

On the evening of September 19th, 1931, an Ulsterman named C. S. Lewis, a fellow and tutor of Magdalene College, was strolling in the grounds of Addison’s Walk with guests whom he had entertained to dinner, one guest being J. R. R. Toltrew, Professor of Anglo Saxon. C. S. Lewis, long an atheist, was discussing religion and saying that he felt he was being searched by God.

He had once stated, “A young atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully.” He admitted that he had no more been searching for God than a mouse would search for a cat, but in the Trinity Term of 1929 he wrote, “That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me . . . I gave in and admitted that God was God and knelt and prayed. Perhaps that night the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England . . . was brought in kicking and struggling, resentful and with darting eyes in every direction for a chance to escape.” *

*Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis CHURCH MOUSE

PRAYER AT BROADMEAD You are our peace, O Lord. From the thousand wearinesses of our daily life, from the disappointments, from nerveless and senseless haste we turn to you and are at peace. The clamour dies, and we are alive in

the sunshine of your presence. Even so come Lord Jesus.

3rd - 9th June

God of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God yesterday, today and for ever – we bow before your holiness and righteousness, ashamed at the shoddy deceit of our lives. Yet you love and forgive us, and we are amazed at your patience with us, picking us up each

time we fail and fall, and working tirelessly for our health and salva-tion, always aware of our deepest needs. One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit help us to worship and adore you. AMEN.

10th - 16th June

Lord Jesus Christ, alive and at large in the world, help us to follow and find you there today in the places where we work, meet people, spend money and make plans. Take us as disciples of your kingdom and help us to see through your eyes and hear the questions you are asking, to welcome all with your trust and truth, and to change the

things that contradict your love, by the power of your cross and the freedom of your Spirit. AMEN.

17th - 23rd June

Father, we have many doubts and questions, but we leave the future in your hands. Give us power to live the Gospel and vision to see the true needs of those around us. May we be obedient to your com-mands and show love, which alone provides the motive and the means. Help us to trust and walk faithfully with you each day of this week. AMEN.

24th - 30th June

Loving Lord, we hold before you those we know to be sick in body, mind or spirit. Help them to be aware of your healing presence with them. Sustain them through the time of trial and grant them your peace. We pray for the doctors, nurses, carers and counsellors who try to aid the healing process. Give them the wisdom they need to treat each patient. In Jesus name we ask it. AMEN.

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