LEIGH BAPTIST CHURCH “MESSENGER” MARCH 2022
VERNON ST / CHURCH ST . LEIGH. WN7 1BH
Website : www.leighbaptistchurch.org.uk Contact: admin@leighbaptistchurch.org.uk
Pastoral Leader – Val Hulme ( Days Off Wed and Fridays)
email : pastoral.leader@leighbaptistchurch.org.uk TEL 07817142192
Check LBC website for updates and info also LBC FACEBOOK page
World Day of Prayer Service. Friday 4th March at St. Peter's Church, Firs Lane, 7:00pm. All are welcome.
Sunday 6th March: All - age worship led by our Pastoral Leader 10:45 am
Sunday 13th March: Service led by the deacons 10:45 am
Sunday 20th March: Service led by our Pastoral Leader with a message by Mrs. Miriam Simon 10:45 am. The Church and Congregation Meeting will follow this service at 12:30 pm
Sunday 27th March: Family service for Mothering Sunday with Communion. Also on Zoom.
Tuesdays 1st, 15th, 22nd and 29th March: Toddlers@LBC 9:30 am - 11:30 am
Wednesdays throughout March: Prayer Meeting 10:00 - 11:00 am Meet for coffee/tea and chat at 9:45am
Saturday 12th March: Coffee+ 10:30am - 12:30 pm
Thursday 17th March: Deacons' Meeting 1:00pm.
Thursday 24th March: Coffee+ 1:00 - 3:00pm
At our Church and Congregation meeting in January, we faced some stark financial updates. We have therefore decided to hold bi-monthly meetings in order to discuss business and plan better for our future. The dates for these meetings are: Sunday 20th March 12:30pm; Sunday 22nd May 12:30pm; Sunday 24th July 12:30pm; Sunday 25th September 12:30pm; Sunday 20th November AGM 12:30pm.
Please add these dates to your diary and prioritise them.
Fundraising
Many people now shop online, and we have been made aware of a scheme by which we could raise funds for our church. An account has been set up with easyfunding. By signing up with them, and clicking on their link before purchasing online items, our church will receive a percentage donation. So if you, or family members shop online, please sign up and click on the link to your favourite retailers It won't cost you anything but will benefit our finances. Here is the link to sign up https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/cause/leighbaptistchurch/
Congratulations to David Ward, on becoming a granddad. His daughter Victoria and her husband were blessed with the arrival of Owen Ellis on Saturday 12th February. May God's blessing be on them all.
Linda Davey is undertaking a sponsored colouring challenge. On April 12th, she will spend the day colouring (9:00am - 9:00pm) to raise money for Open Doors, which supports our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters around the world. Listen out for more details nearer to the time. Let Linda know if you are able to sponsor her.
Our Pastoral Leader will be at the NWBA Minister's Conference from Monday 7th March - Wednesday 9th March. The church phone will be with a deacon. The church phone will also be with a deacon from Monday 21st March - Saturday 26th March, as our Pastoral Leader has been called for Jury Service.
LENT .
March 2nd is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Many people think of it as a time to deny themselves by giving something up. Other people prefer to spend more time reading the Bible or books about the Christian life.
In the Churches it is the time to remember the Temptations of Jesus. He had just been baptised in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. As He had come out of the water the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, had descended upon Him and a voice from heaven had said, “This is My beloved Son whom I love.” (Matthew 3:17). Those words consist of two quotations. Bearing in mind that different versions of the Bible express the same thing with slightly different wording, we find them in Psalm 2, which is about the Lord’s Anointed One who is also described as His King on Mount Zion. Verse 7 reads, “You are My Son.” “In whom I am well pleased” is found in verse 1 of Isaiah 42 which is known as being a description of ‘the suffering servant’. For Jesus this must have been what we might call a ‘mountain top experience’. He had the approval of His Father in Heaven and the anointing of the Holy Spirit which then led Him into the wilderness. He was there for forty days. Because we know that throughout His time on earth He regularly went to a lonely place to pray to His Father in Heaven we can assume that He was preparing Himself in prayer for His ministry and for what He knew would lie ahead of Him.
But what often follows times of success or elation? There is only one way to go and that is down, so we read that the devil came to Him in the wilderness to tempt Him to use more sensational ways to attract people to follow him, but He knew that they were wrong. He was tempted, but He never gave in. Instead He quoted the Word of God.
There were three temptations. They were inner struggles in thoughts and desires. How would Jesus react?
1) After forty days He must have been hungry and thirsty as there would be no vegetation of any kind. William Barclay suggests that there were flat stones that could easily have made Him think of bread, so the devil suggested that He could turn them into bread. But Jesus knew that He was in the world to conquer sin by His death on the cross and that the only way to do that was to do the will of God the Father. His answer to that temptation was therefore, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4). That is a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3 when the Israelites were in the wilderness journeying to the Promised Land.
2) The devil then tempted Him to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple and said, “If you are the Son if God, throw yourself down.” He even quoted Psalm 91:11-12, saying that it is written that angels would lift Him up to stop Him from hurting His feet against a stone. It would have made people take notice of Him and want to follow Him, but that was not the way for people to be reconciled with God. Jesus answer was from Deuteronomy 6:16, “It is also written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
3) When the devil took Him to the top of a high mountain and said that he would give Him all the kingdoms of the world that He could see if Jesus would bow down and worship him, Jesus answered, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’ ” (Deuteronomy 6:13)
As human beings we are often tempted and easily give in to temptation. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We also read in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be alert, be on the watch! Your enemy, the devil, roams round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” We are told in verse 9 to be “firm in your faith and resist him.” Following Jesus example, we can quote scripture and tell Satan to go away. Paul wrote in 1Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (NKJV) That is a promise that God will help us to overcome temptations if we trust Him.
So let us be aware of these things by reading the Word of God and by praying to God through Jesus who said, “No-one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6). Let us make this Lent a time to deepen our faith and put these things into practise.
Kathie.