LEIGH BAPTIST CHURCH “MESSENGER” NOVEMBER 2024
VERNON ST / CHURCH ST . LEIGH. WN7 1BH
Website :www.leighbaptistchurch.org.uk Contact: admin@leighbaptistchurch.org.uk
Pastoral Leader – Val Hulme ( Days Off Tuesdays and Fridays)
email : pastoral.leader@leighbaptistchurch.org.uk TEL 07817142192
Check LBC website for updates and info also LBC FACEBOOK page
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Sun 3rd NOV 10.45am Worship service Val Hulme
Sun 10th NOV NO Service* at LBC. Remembrance service at Cenotaph
Sun 17th NOV 10:45am Sunday Bible Study Val Hulme
Sun 24th NOV 10.45am Communion Service and Church and Congregation meeting Revd Neil Brighton
Wednesdays 10-11am prayer meeting (coffee and chat from 9.45am)
Thurs 21st NOV 1pm -3.30pm Coffee + .
Saturday 23rd NOV 10:00am-12:30pm Walking with You Group
Mon 25th Nov Music Group
Tue 26th NOV 10am-12.30pm Dotty Art Christmas Workshop** £5 please book a place
Saturday 30th NOV putting up Xmas decorations
Other Users of the Building
Mon 25th Nov 1pm WDP committee meeting
Tuesdays 1.30pm -3pm Private Support Group
Thu 7th and 21st NOV 7.30pm LGGS choir
Wed 13th NOV 1pm Churches working Together in Leigh Leaders’ meeting TBC
Thursday 14th NOV 7.30pm-10:00pm AGLOW
NEXT CHURCH MEETING SUNDAY 24th NOVEMBER this will be our Annual General Meeting. Please make a note of the date and try your best to be there.
- The annual service of remembrance will be held on Sun 10th Nov at the cenotaph.There will be no service at LBC to allow people to attend this event.We will however be serving tea/coffee etc to those passing by before or after the service. We will need people to help with this .See Val or Jean
** We are looking forward to hosting Dotty Art Christmas Workshop when we will be shown how to paint using a “dotter”. It’s an easy technique producing lovely results. All materials provided. We need a minimum of 10 for the workshop to go ahead. Book a place with Val.
The Second Coming
‘Word for Today’, 20th October, quoted Revelation 3:8, “I have set before you an open door”, from the Letter to the church at Philadelphia which goes on to say in verse 11, “I am coming soon.” “Hold on to what you have so no one can take your crown.” There is also mention that Jesus will come again in the Letters to the churches at Thyatira (Chapter 2:25) and Sardis (3:3)
I remember a time when the last book in the Bible, also known as ‘The Revelation of St John the Divine’, was hardly ever read. It was said to be too difficult to understand. The exception was the first three chapters known as the Letters to the seven churches in the province of Asia, namely, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. St John was a prisoner on the island of Patmos when he heard a loud voice like a trumpet telling him to write down on a scroll what he saw and to send it to the seven churches. He later had dreams and visions about what would happen in the end times, leading to the final defeat of Satan and the return of Jesus, and the setting up of God’s kingdom with a new Heaven and a new Earth.
The phrase, “I am coming soon”, is also in Revelation 22:7 where Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.” In verse 12 He says, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” This makes it clear that it is God’s Son Jesus who is coming soon. I am reminded of Jesus’ words to His disciples in John 14:3, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me.” Acts 1 tells us about Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven when two men dressed in white appeared to them and said, ”Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken into Heaven will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into Heaven.”
Matthew 24 tells about the signs of the End of the Age and in verses 27, 30 and 31 we read about the Return of Jesus Christ. “As the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man”; and “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the Earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory, and He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from the one end of the Heavens to the other.” Verse 42 tells us to keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come”, as we also learn from the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. It was only those who were ready and waiting with plenty of oil in their lamps who were able to follow the Bridegroom into the wedding banquet. The others were left outside. “Keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour.”(when your Lord will come). “He will come when you do not expect Him.” (24:44)
With everything that is happening in the world today, could we be getting very near to the return of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ? We are certainly a lot nearer than in the previous centuries, but only God our Father knows when that day will be. Many Christians are suffering terrible atrocities and persecutions, but one thing is clear, life in the world goes on as usual, many unaware that there will be a day of judgement. There will be those who have ignored the call to repent, acknowledge Jesus as their Saviour and commit their lives to Him, and will therefore not be in the Kingdom of Heaven, but all those who belong to him look forward to rising again and being with Him for ever in the new Heaven and Earth. One thing we know is that God is in control and will bring to pass that which He has planned. Let all Christians heed the warning to the Philadelphian Church to “Hold on to what you have, so that no-one will take your crown.”
Are we ready to meet Jesus when He returns or calls us home?
“Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.” Rev. 22:7
Kathie. Quotations from NIV Bible Quotations from NIV Bible