Snowy Times

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David emerges from the snow!

Our plans for the outreach in the High Street this morning were somewhat scuppered by the five inches of snow that fell during the morning.

The original idea was to spend 45 minutes in the High Street giving out invitations to the Candlelit Carol Service, as well as two or three giving a short word about Christmas.  In addition, we had prepared some wordsearches and bubbles to give away to the children.

Following a short time of prayer, we decided to head through the snow into the High St and split our resources to have people at every entrance to the Nicholson’s Centre. 

Maidenhead High Street in the snow

The snow was falling heavily and we decided to focus on handing out invitations to the Carol Service rather than anything else.

We were able to give away over 250 tracts and invitations to the Carol Service altogether, and although our original plans weren’t able to be completed, we felt that it was still a worthwhile exercise to have carried out and pray that there may be those who will come along tomorrow as a result.

Afterwards, we gathered in Costa Coffee to thaw out and review the exercise before heading back to Parkside to retrieve our cars buried in the snowy car park.

Close Fellowship

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Close fellowship for our Prayer Meeting in the kitchen!
During the last week we’ve been getting our carpets professionally cleaned at Parkside.  As a result of this we ended up moving all the chairs, tables, piano etc into one of the back rooms.
 
One upshot of this was a wet carpet in the normal room used for the Prayer Meeting on a Thursday evening.  
 
We decided to move chairs into the only non-carpeted room available – which happened to be the kitchen!  
 
In total there were sixteen of us shoehorned in – close fellowship indeed! 
 

Back to winning ways!

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Parkside entered two teams into the annual Datchet Bible quiz.  This post was kindly prepared by Becky, who was present during the evening.

There were 6 teams:

2 from Maidenhead (James & Chelsea) (Sam & Ben)
Fetcham
Hurst
Datchet
Datchet & Fetcham combined

Ken Hill chaired. Jon Colman was quiz master. Paul & Sue Surry were judges.  Alan kept score.

7 rounds. Time limit of 30 seconds to give your answers. Everyone did very well. The rounds got harder as they went along, with judges being called on a few times to make decisions on scores. The last round was down to 10 seconds for the answer!

It’s been 10 years since Maidenhead won but we did it tonight!  It was a tie for second place between Maidenhead (James & Chelsea) and Fetcham.  It was very close and went to judges for final say. Fetcham were declared second.

John from Corsham did an epilogue about not just having knowledge but being wise.

Trophies were then awarded to the victorious team!

November Conference – Introduction to 1 John

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We had our first in this year’s series of Winter Conferences from 1 John, on the subject ‘The disciple whom Jesus loved’. Our opening speaker for the series was Mr Ian Jackson.

Below are live tweets from the evening:

We’ll be live tweeting from tonight’s conference on 1 John.

Meanwhile, also tonight, we have two teams from @parksdchrstnfwp taking part in the annual Datchet Bible Quiz.

Opening readings from John 13:21-26; John 19:25-27; John 20:1-4; John 21:4-7,20-25

Three areas: John himself; Writings of John; References to the disciple whom Jesus loved.

John never mentions his own name in his any of his letters. A humble man who only refers to himself as the ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’.

John wasn’t loved any more than any other disciple. He was just ‘loved by Jesus’.

John’s father was Zebedee and he had a brother called James. Jesus committed His mother, Mary, to John to care for, while on the cross.

John’s mother asked Jesus to let her two sons sit with Jesus in His Kingdom. Jesus had to emphasise the need for humility.

By nature John wanted position, to exercise power and had to learn lessons to find grace and humility.

John was a FISHERMAN. He was also a FAVOURED disciple (with Peter and James). He was prepared to FORSAKE all to follow Jesus.

He was present at Jesus’s Transfiguration and saw Jesus’ Glory and Moses and Elijah. Also at healing of Jairus’ daughter from the dead.

John is also featured several times with Peter on his own, particularly in Acts.

Final reference in John 21 is that John was FOLLOWING.

Generally accepted that John was the last of the New Testament writers. 1 John written that readers might ‘know’ eternal life.

John writes about the ‘family’ and the ‘children’ of God. 1 John 2:1 ‘My dear children…’ Not writing forensically but familiarly.

1 John contains a number of evidences of ‘life’ mentioned throughout the book. Do we as Christians show evidence of life?

1 John contains a number of mentions of the phrase ‘we know’ by revelation from God.

Eternal life is a state or condition of being with God the Father and is made available through faith in Jesus Christ.

John lived daily in the enjoyment of the love of God. A challenge to us as Christians.

Heard that our two teams from @ParksdChrstnFwp finished first and third in the Datchet Bible Quiz. Congratulations to all of them!

You can listen to, or download the conference by clicking on the link below:

Discipleship

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This is the latest in our series of talks on Practical Issues in relation to my daily Christian life

We’ll be live tweeting on tonight’s subject of Discipleship.

In our Western culture we have a watered-down view of Christian discipleship. Very challenging subject.

Two readings: Matt 16:24-26 – Cost and benefits of following Jesus. Luke 14:25-35 – ‘Unless…you CANNOT be My disciple!’

Disciple in New Testament times meant an apprentice or a student. Many Rabbi’s would have ‘followers’ or disciples.

John the Baptist had disciples but told his disciples to follow Jesus. Being a disciple of Jesus is never ending. We are always learning.

All Christians are disciples of Jesus. Jesus called His original 12 disciples literally.

When we become a Christian we realise that we didn’t choose Him, but rather that He chose us! We are called BY Him and TO follow Him.

We are called to OBEY His commands. We are called to His SERVICE. We are called with a PURPOSE. We are called to SUFFERING.

We are called AS WE ARE. 1 Cor 1:26-31 – Not chosen based on influence, wisdom etc to show the power of God rather than men and women.

Seven Requirements to be a disciple: Requirement of LOVE both for God and for others. Requirement to DENY ourselves and put God first.

Requirement to TAKE UP THE CROSS – to fully identify ourselves with Christ. Requirement of FOLLOWING Christ and being like Him.

Requirement to CONTINUE to read and apply the Bible to ourselves. Requirement to FORSAKE everything & follow Him. Everything belongs to Him.