St. Luke's, Ramsgate

With the death of Queen Elizabeth, feelings of great sadness and grief can emerge as well as a sense of uncertainty and concern as we enter into an unfamiliar new era. How can we respond? The book of Lamentations was written at a time of extreme grief and insecurity for God’s people. Yet, it’s central verses hold out a sense of hope in such circumstances.

When we realise the extent of Jesus’ forgiveness it transforms our lives, for we have been forgiven much.

Hebrews 13:1-16 paints a picture of the ‘sacrifices’ of living a Christian life motored by Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice of love for us.

There are many things in life that are uncertain, but the writer of Hebrews wants their listeners to know with certainty how ‘the mountain of joy’ is unshaken.

What super power do we need to persevere as Christians, even when there is pressure to give up? Faith! This was the super power of the heroes of the Old Testament according to the writer of Hebrews.

Jesus has brought about a massive change. The Old Testament has been fulfilled in his once and for all sacrifice. But how are we to respond?

How can you deal with your guilt? How can you approach God as a sinner? Jesus provides the better answer, as the one who makes the better sacrifice to bring us cleansing. This talk is an all age talk.

What is better to be rich or poor? The answer is not straightforward and Proverbs taken as a whole gives a broad and nuanced teaching on how to be wise about wealth.

God did not create us to live in isolation. In fact we need to relate to one another in order to grow in our faith.

Is the internet a good thing or a bad thing? The internet is communication on supercharge, but just as face to face speech can be used for good or bad so can the internet. What we need is wisdom to speak for good in both face to face relationships and online. God's wisdom in Proverbs can help us with this.

Proverbs are written to help form a wise character. In this talk we consider two things to embrace and two things to avoid as we seek a wise character formation.

We are bombarded with pithy little sayings put together by advertising agencies that want to make us better consumers. Isn't it better to listen to pithy little sayings written to make us better people? That's where Proverbs comes in...

In Proverbs 8, wisdom is described as a person calling us to follow her. But where does she call from and who is she and why does it matter so much that we follow her?

God breaks the chains of Paul and Silas thrown in jail for proclaiming the gospel. However, in this story other ‘chains’ are being broken. The chains based on making the wrong things important in our lives: money grabbing, people pleasing and success.

As we look at the first coming of the good news about Jesus recorded in the book of Acts we find four grand openings created by God.

Peter was in trouble! He had spent time at someone's house that was not a Jew. For the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem this was scandalous! So, when Peter returns to Jerusalem he explains what had happened and how God was calling them to a radical new way of thinking about the world.

We long that people would see Jesus and come to believe in him. How does that happen? Acts shows us disciples who are constantly pointing people to Jesus. In this talk Claire Coleman shows how two disciples, Peter and Dorcas, point others to Jesus.

In this account of the conversion of Saul a number of different labels are used for Christians. As we think of the meaning behind each label and how it relates to this conversion account we find some deep insight as to what it means to be a Christian.

We live in a world of competing ideas. If we are to fulfil Jesus's call to make new disciples then we need to be confident in the gospel and courageous in sharing our faith. How can we manage that? The story of the early church in Acts is a great place to look.

This is an All Age Talk recorded on Easter Sunday 2022. Where can we find hope we can be confident in? Especially in times of darkness? The resurrection shows that we can have a confident hope in Jesus.

We love to hate rich people that seem to have behaved badly, but how does Jesus feel about them. In this climactic encounter in Luke's gospel Jesus meets Zacchaeus, a rich chief tax-collector, probably the most hated man in Jericho. How did Jesus respond to him?

We love to hate rich people that seem to have behaved badly, but how does Jesus feel about them. In this climactic encounter in Luke's gospel Jesus meets Zacchaeus, a rich chief tax-collector, probably the most hated man in Jericho. How did Jesus respond to him?

What does Peter do when Jesus enables a massive catch of fish? Does he employ him as a new business partner? No! He falls at Jesus' knees. Peter has realised something profound about Jesus and himself. Now his life will be transformed.

Mission statements are common for many businesses and organisations today. In this passage, Jesus reads part of Isaiah and applies it to himself to show what his mission was.

Giving in to temptation leads to disaster. It is a tragedy common to us all. Yet Jesus never gives in to temptation. How does he do it? How can we become more like him?