LEIGH BAPTIST CHURCH “MESSENGER” MAY 2023
VERNON ST / CHURCH ST . LEIGH. WN7 1BH
Website : www.leighbaptistchurch.org.uk Contact: admin@leighbaptistchurch.org.uk
Pastoral Leader – Val Hulme ( Day Off Fridays)
email : pastoral.leader@leighbaptistchurch.org.uk TEL 07817142192
Check LBC website for updates and info also LBC FACEBOOK page
Dates for your diary
Sunday 7th May: 10:45 am Val Hulme
Sunday 14th May: 10:45 am Worship Service and Church and Congregation Meeting led by Rev. Jane Henderson **
Sunday 21st May: 10:45 am Bible Study
Sunday 28th May : 10:45 am Communion Service Val Hulme
Wednesdays 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st May: Prayer Meeting . Meet at 9:45 am for tea/coffee/chat.
Thursday 25th May: 1:00 pm Deacons' Meeting
** We will be joined by Rev. Jane Henderson, NWBA Regional Minister and Joint Team Leader for a Worship Service and Church and Congregation Meeting on Sunday 14th May. Please put this important date in your diary.
Pastoral Prayers
We were saddened to hear that Vivien Hilton died on 6th April. Her funeral took place in Pontefract on 27th April. Our thoughts and prayers are with her son Andrew and his family, and the family of her late son, Ian. Continue to hold Kathleen M in your prayers as she recovers from a hip replacement operation. We pray for continued improvement in Margaret's health following a stroke.
Congratulations! Belated 90th Birthday wishes to Kathleen B. - April 21st.
Congratulations to Margaret and David W on their wedding on the Isle of Wight on April 26th. We pray God's blessing on their marriage.
Aglow International - Leigh, is a relaxed atmosphere meeting, where all ladies are welcome for food and friendship. Aglow will meet in our building on Thursday 11th May. All are welcome. Entry is usually £4 with food, or £2 without. Speaker and time to be confirmed. For more information, speak to Angie or Val.
Advanced date for your diary Community choir, All Singers Great and Small, will be performing their latest concert, The Street 2023, in church on Saturday 9th September. Tickets will be on sale nearer to the time.
Special Dates in May 2023.
I love the month of May when there are so many flowers of different colours and the leaves on the trees look so fresh and green. This year there are a number of special dates to look forward to.
On May 1st each year in many places in our country the ceremony of crowning the May Queen takes place and there is dancing round the maypole. Although not a Christian festival it brings back happy memories. I always think back to when I was nine and ten. Both school years were in the same class and that class performed a play in which the May Queen was crowned. The first time I was the ‘Old Queen’ and had to crown the new Queen who was the prettiest girl in the class. I imagined myself as being old and wrinkled! It wasn’t until years later that I realised that I was thought of as having been the May Queen the previous year.
Although of no real consequence, this amusing insight as to how words were used in the past shows how mistaken we can be in the way we view comments and events if we quickly jump to conclusions. We need always to take time to think so that we do not react in a way that will cause friction. Proverbs 15:1 says, A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
May 6th will be an exciting day for many people in our country and beyond with the crowning of King Charles the 3rd. It is for many people a once in a lifetime occasion. I was born just six days after the crowning of King George the 6th, but I remember the excitement of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd. Very few people owned a television then, but I remember all the family gathering at my Auntie’s house to view the event on her small black and white TV. I was thrilled to see the Bishop of Durham, who had presented prizes at our school Speech Day, taking part in the Christian ceremony in Westminster Abbey. The fact that our Queen was making her vows to God to serve this Nation and the Commonwealth and all her subjects was the main emphasis. King Charles will be doing the same. It is a position of great responsibility, especially in this day and age with so many tensions in this country and all over the world.
Let us join in the prayers for him on that day, remembering Paul’s words to Timothy, “I exhort --- that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, FOR KINGS and ALL WHO ARE IN AUTHORITY ---“ (1Timothy 2:1-2). Paul also urges us to “pray without ceasing.”( 1Thessalonians 5:17). We need, therefore, to keep praying for King Charles, bringing our prayers to God the Father in and through the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ who died to take the punishment for our sins, then rose again and now reigns in Heaven as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let us celebrate our King’s Coronation and heed the words of 1Peter 2:13, “For the Lord’s sake we should submit ourselves to every authority instituted among men, whether to the king, as to the supreme authority, or to governors.”
Ascension Day is remembered forty days after Easter. This year it is on Thursday, 18th May. Many Christians remember it in a Church Service. I remember we went to one each year at school then had the rest of the day off, and at College when trips out for the rest of the day were organised for us to choose from. St Luke 24:50-53 tells us that this day is special because of Jesus’ Ascension. He led the Disciples out as far as Bethany where He “lifted up His hands and blessed them.” As He was doing this He was taken from their sight up to Heaven. We might think that the Disciples would be extremely sad as they realised that this was Jesus’ final parting from this earth, but instead they were filled with joy, and were continually in the Temple praising God. It was not the end, but the beginning of something new. Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit who would enable them to continue the work begun by Him.
This brings us to Pentecost, or Whit Sunday, which, this year, is on 28th May. It is the celebration of the birth of the Church when we remember the anointing of the Disciples with the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts 2. There came like a rushing mighty wind filling the house where they were all sitting. They also saw what seemed like a tongue of fire on each of them. They were filled with the
Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues so that a great crowd of people ‘from every nation under Heaven’ could each understand them in their own language and began to wonder what had happened. Acts 2 goes on to record Peter’s great speech explaining about everything that had happened; how after His death Jesus was raised to life and has been “exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.”(v33 NIV) V41 says that about three thousand people were baptised and added to the church that day and in v47 we read that “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Let us remember that the Christian Church has existed through two thousand years and recommit ourselves to continue to witness to the saving power of Jesus Christ, our exalted Lord.
Kathie. Bible Quotes: NKJV & NIV.