The Bethel - Old Trafford Christadelphian Church

How can our Joy be complete as is asserted by Jesus in John 15:11? We were encourraged to think of God continuing his daily work in us, developing a people for himself, and that as Jesus sees that, his desire is to join in. This process gives Joy to both Jesus and God. And hopefully, as we realise that God and Christ have great joy in us - joy enough to make them sing over us, we will be inspired...

The Question "Where does Prayer Begin?" inspired three answers from Malcolm. 'I Can't, God Cares, God Can' was the response. Our humble, feeble, desperate, troubled prayers begin with a yearning for good to come into our world and they are received, not because of the power of the request, but because of the kindness of the recipient. Malcolm reminded us that there is no secret to prayer, but that...

"Resurrection is not routine!" Was the cry as Andy encouraged us to be amazed and surprised once again and loose the apathy that we often develop, having heard the Easter story many times.

Using 'Desert Song' by Brooke Fraser, David walks us through how a common thread of prayer anchors and links four seasons of our lives with God - the only thing we can truly rely on.

Rob shows us the awesomeness of God through examples of characters in the Bible who had visions of his power and glory revealed to them.

"God is interested in intimacy with us, not some kind of blind rule-following by us". Steve fully expanded some of the ideas of what that intimacy with God can look like in our lives.

Charles and David share duties this week providing words of encouragement from the story of Zacchaeus and 1 Cor 3

All superheroes are flawed because they rely on some boosted and beefed-up human 'power'. Mike takes that theme on and explores what is meant by the phrase that appears throughout scripture "God is my strength" with perhaps surprising conclusions.

Mark Encouraged us to pray for justice, benefitting us, so we are constantly reminded of our responsibility to others that we should be, where possible, the way God will bring justice in the places we touch by whatever means we have at our disposal.

If we can accept the premise that we are all essentially evil, how we deal with that and how we respond to evil is the significant question we tackled this week. Ben encourages us to confront evil with Love, in the way Jesus did, in the way we live daily.

Pete looks at how our lives and beliefs are shaped by our backgrounds and ways to build our relationships with God.

As we share the 'Lord's supper', David reminds us of the freedom that Christ's sacrifice gives us and that our freedom and salvation is all about Jesus' shed blood, nothing about the quality of our lives but all about the quality of Jesus' death.

Using Romans and Psalm 51, Jack explains God's gift of grace and our response to it.

Mike walks us through the Christmas story, taking less-common angles on the story, not being scared to connect with the very real dirt and grime of the most remarkable birth in history.

An exploration of the Wells used by Abraham and Isaac reveals some lessons about learning from the past, not repeating the mistakes but repeating the successes. Tim encourages us to open up the wells of truth and be overflowing with 'living waters'.

Following an admission that his prayer life was faltering, David encourages us to make prayer the biggest priority in our lives and to simply be with God.

In a desperate attempt to dust off the cobwebby cliche's from the phrase "God loves you", Alex turns to scripture, a children's story book, a university application letter and an 18th century story about an eastern european rabbi.

Olly provides us with encouragement for the new year, focussing on a simple message that is often overlooked, to put our lives in God's hands.

1 Peter 1:4 talks of an 'inheritance beyond spoiling'. 1 Peter is a model of pastoral care: a combination of Christian Faith & Duty, within which we are encouraged to distance ourselves from the selfishness that makes us aloof from the world's needs.

Works of faith are born of and grow from an increased knowledge, understanding and experience of God's grace.

When we have doubts, do we fight against them? Or, as Mike suggests, would we be better to embrace them and explore them because they will eventually lead us to a richer, more fulfilling faith.

Our job is not to do big exciting things, but to slowly, methodically, plant seeds and let God do the rest. Malcolm uses the story of Elsiard Bouphea to illustrate how we are encouraged to live and help spread the message of the Gospel

Tony looks at the impact the good news of Jesus had on the apostles in Acts 18 &19. And how they were God's chosen instruments to deliver his gospel, that he loves us and wants to know us.

Charles delivers two exhortations in one from acts 8, focussing on the differences between Simon the sorcerer and Philip and then the scarcity of bananas in world war 2.

Andy looks at how we build barriers in our lives, between ourselves and between us and God. He argues that no barriers are good and that God is always tearing them down. to try and have a relationship with us.