This attractive New Testament includes 8 pages of photographs from the Coronation and the Queen’s life, plus Bible references to help readers understand the Good News of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection and its relevance today.

As a church we have bought 500 of these to be given out. If you have a street party this would make a great gift to give to all those who come along. Maybe you would like to give some to a group of friends or work colleagues? These Bibles are for use in the local area.

If you would like some please let me know how many you want and I will try and make sure everyone gets as many as they want.

daniel.beckett@godmanchesterbaptist.org

If you want to buy some Bibles for your own church here are the details of how to do so

Parents have a tough time dealing with the new-found independence of older teens. It can be a very trying time. The innocence of childhood gives way to opinions of young adults- a lot of opinions. Parents can no longer set out the lines that aren’t to be crossed. Their teenagers have now reached the stage in their lives where finding those lines is their own responsibility.

In a Bridge special we’ll look at some of the key pinch points for parents with older teenagers as relationships change and new ground rules are formed about curfews, drinking, friends sleeping over, moving out, coming out, money, jobs and sex.

Thursday 28 June at 8pm – coffee, cake, understanding and some wisdom provided.

Our friends at Szentendre Baptist Church, Budapest, Hungary have invited us to visit them from 28/30 September 2012.  So far 11 or so folk have shown an interest and we have begun making our flight bookings. You will be very welcome to join us for the weekend.

We will be leaving London Luton at 8.15am on Friday 28 September and returning at about 8.30pm on Sunday 30 September.  Currently, flights cost about £150 return. Transport to and from the airport will be arranged.

The programme for the weekend isn’t finalised yet, but should include at least a mission event based on a ‘British’ theme, sightseeing around the beautiful city of Budapest, time with our hosts, and worshipping with the church on the Sunday. Accommodation will be with church families. You can even extend your stay if you so wish by simply booking later flights and making your own arrangements for accommodation.

Let John Smith know if you would like more information.

This year we are taking 51 people in total to the Soul Survivor festival in Shepton Mallet 7-12 August.

To help pay for the camping equipment and a van to transport the equipment we are having a meal on the 30 June at 6pm at GBC church centre.

Those attending in the summer will prepare, cook, (under supervision) serve your meal with a big smile. There will also be a short presentation to give you a feel of what it is like to be at Soul Survivor.

Tickets are a suggested donation of £5 per person and £15 for a family and will be available from Daniel. If large numbers respond it will be first come first served.

Every day children and young people are accessing mainstream pornography on the internet, including the most hard-core, violent and abusive images. Evidence clearly shows pornography has a detrimental impact on children and young people including premature sexualisation, negative body image and unhealthy notions about relationships.

Premier Christian Media and Safermedia have an on-line petition calling on the government to force Internet Service Providers to make accessing pornography an adult only opt-in service.

Find out more at www.safetynet.org.uk

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Genesis 6:9 – 7:5

Firstly Content

Given that many children’s story books greatly embroider the story it might be good to run through the salient points that the Bible gives us.

God is grieved at the evil practices of people on the earth. He decides to send a great flood to put an end to all people. He saves Noah, Noah’s family and enough animals to re-stock the earth. God does this by telling Noah to build a big boat, the Ark.

When the flood is over God promises not to curse the ground in this way ever again and puts the sign of this promise, this covenant, as a rainbow in the sky. God initiates the whole thing from the very beginning. It was not Noah’s idea to build an ark. It was God’s.

There is more about what Noah did later, but we are not looking at the full story now – just the part where God tells Noah to build the ark and he builds it.

Secondly Meaning

Isn’t it just a story? Why should it have any meaning other than a straightforward account?

I did wonder myself when I was first given this passage to consider.

At this point I reminded myself of the words of Paul to Timothy:

“Ever since you were a child you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to Salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults and giving instruction for right living so that the person who serves God may be fully equipped to do every kind of good deed.” 2 Timothy 3:15-16.

All Scripture – the story of the building of the Ark included.

1. “Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him” and the similar verse Genesis 7:5 “Noah did all that the Lord commanded him”.

Noah was a man of action, not words. How many of us, when confronted with the commands of God, just get on and obey them like Noah? God does a lot of speaking in this part of the Noah story. Fourteen of these nineteen verses are the direct words of God. And Noah is not recorded as saying anything at all in response to God. Unlike Moses, who, when spoken to by God, objected quite a bit. Moses eventually did great things, but not without some discussion. “Why me? What makes you think I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?” “They won’t trust me. They won’t listen to a word I say” “Look at me. I stutter – why would Pharaoh listen to me?” On and on goes Moses with his objections at every encounter with God! (These are various verses taken from “The Message”.)

But Noah just gets on and does things – encouraging for those of us who prefer doing things to talking about them. Belief and obedience are the attributes that characterise Noah here.

“Now Noah was a righteous man, blameless among people of his time and he walked with God.”

Noah’s actions in building the boat are a result of believing God. It was as a result of his faith. And this is where the righteousness from God comes into play. It is recorded in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7, that “ in holy fear Noah built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” Noah believed God. He received the righteousness that comes by faith.

It is the same with us – our righteousness as believers is not our own – it is the righteousness of Christ received in us through faith. Paul in Romans chapter 10:4 speaks of Christ, saying “He, Jesus, is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Jesus, who is God, is the only one who is truly good and only in him do we have any righteousness at all.

2. “Noah walked with God”.

Other people are recorded as having walked with God. Here are a few:

Enoch, an ancestor of Noah, is recorded earlier in Genesis as having walked with God and one day he just could not be found – he had walked off with God and God just took him away.

Adam, the first man, walked with God in the garden of Eden.

Abraham, that great patriarch and the one given great promises by God that he would have as many descendants as the number of stars in the sky, was told by God to walk before him and to be blameless. This is in Genesis 17:1, “The Lord appeared to Abram and said: “I am the Lord Almighty, walk before me and be blameless”.”

Moving to the New Testament, the disciples in a sense ‘walked with God’ as they followed Jesus and spent time with him day by day. In 2 Corinthians 6:16 Paul quotes Leviticus 26:12, where God says: “I will live with them and walk among them and I will be their God and they will be my people.”

It seems to be something that God values highly – He wants to dwell with us. To be in our lives, in our daily round of activities and part of everything we do. Never think that any activity of your life is too insignificant to be blessed by God’s presence.

Honour has been given to those who have been seen to be walking with God. For example there was a man working in the kitchens of a monastery, not a monk but a lay brother. This man, Brother Lawrence, served God in the washing of pots and pans, and other kitchen work, and through his constant awareness of the presence of God he gained wisdom. He eventually became very well known for the wisdom God gave him. His sayings were collected in a book, “Practising the Presence of God” – well worth reading!

3. The ark itself.

I have read that the ark dimensions given here are such that it would be extremely seaworthy. Also, it was not going to let water in – the people and animals were going to be safe in there. In what way is the ark a picture of salvation? Well those in it were certainly saved. But there are a few other aspects to look at here:

a) It is God’s initiative.
He provides the blueprint for the Ark, and without the Ark Noah would not have been saved. In the same way God sent His son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sins, to die in our place, to save us by dying for us on the cross. It is God’s doing, and we are saved because of God’s actions and not because we have any goodness within ourselves.

b) There is only one door in the Ark
If you wanted to get into the Ark, you had to enter by the door! One way to get in! A picture of Salvation –Jesus said of himself in John 10:9 “I am the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be saved.”

Jesus is the door. I have quoted the KJV; the NIV version has “the Gate” and in another place (John 14:6) Jesus says, of Himself “I am the Way.” There is only one way of Salvation – Jesus. It is recorded in Acts 4:12 that Peter, full of the Holy Spirit stood before the rulers and elders of the people and spoke about Jesus. He said “Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved”.

c) The ark offers atonement
There is yet another aspect which can enhance our understanding of the Ark as a picture of Salvation. In explaining this I am indebted to those who have put together concordances and other study materials. The original work used for the Ark it occurs in two stories in scripture – once for Noah’s Ark and once for the little waterproof basket that baby Moses was floated in on the river Nile.

It has nothing to do with the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle – that is a different word.

The interesting bit, in my view is, although two arks were both made waterproof there is an interesting contrast in the wording. The waterproofing material used for Moses’ little basket is the usual Hebrew word for bitumen, or tar. That word holding within it the idea of a sticky tarry substance that will make something waterproof.

But with Noah’s Ark – the word used for the waterproofing substance is different. Here it has much more of an emphasis on covering rather than what is doing the covering. The King James Version has it “Pitch it with pitch, within and without”. Cover it completely! The particular Hebrew word used here for this “covering” occurs a lot in the Old Testament and in the overwhelming majority of other places where it occurs it is translated “atonement”.

Here is one example:

Exodus 30:10 “Once a year, Aaron shall make atonement on the horns of the altar, This annual atonement must be made with the blood of the atoning sin offering for the generations to come. It is most holy to the Lord.”

The atoning offerings were looking forward to the day when the ultimate atonement for sin was made, when Jesus the Lamb of God would give his life for the sins of the people to bring us close to God. When those who know Jesus could have the knowledge that their guilt is atoned for and their sin is covered. Covering, the same word used for covering the ark is the word that is used for atonement.

Interesting! The ark as a picture of Salvation!

Thirdly, what might we do?

1. Listen for the voice of God.
Lets make it our aim to walk with God so that we can hear it. God will not tell us to start Ark building, because He’s already done that one, and we have his covenant rainbow in the sky to tell us that he is not going to do it again. But where we do find a clear instruction in the pages of our Bible we can attempt to follow it. Let’s get some enthusiasm to do the will of God and God will direct us. Listen for his voice and you will hear it. There is a lot of angst amongst Christians about guidance, sometimes in big but sometimes in rather trivial matters. Now this is my own personal opinion, but I think that God gives us common-sense to use. He has given us the Bible to read and the Holy Spirit to help us understand what we are reading. To a certain extent, sometimes it does not matter too much about details in what choice we make if the principles of scripture are followed in the way we do this choosing.

2. Have faith in God.
Those are not my words. Those are the very words of Jesus. Mark 11: 22. This is one of those clear instructions in Scripture that I referred to a moment ago. And what is faith?

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see”.

The King James Version puts it like this: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.

Noah was commended for his faith. He is mentioned in Hebrews 11 – a chapter full of the names of those who did things by faith. Faith is belief, but a belief that is not simply a mental acquiescence to some truth, but a much more vigorous process – it’s a belief that leads to action. The actions themselves then demonstrate the presence of this faith. Faith must be living. James 2:15-17 states:

“Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

The words are clear. Belief and action are intertwined. This, I feel, is why the eleventh chapter of Hebrews is such a round up of people who did things – they did these things by faith.

How do we get faith? What creates faith? One thing it is important to say is that trying very hard to believe does not create faith. In ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Lewis Carroll created a character, the White Queen, who practised ‘believing’ and now can believe six impossible things before breakfast.

We are not versions of her! We do not believe in the impossible, but in our wonderful, creator God. It’s not a case of believing the impossible, or even believing the possible, but in believing the very, very certain – that God, who cannot lie, will do what he has promised.

We receive salvation by faith. God has promised salvation to those who believe in Jesus. Ephesians 2:8,9 says:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, though faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no-one can boast.”

If we ask for faith, we shall receive faith, and this pleases God, Hebrews 11:6 ‘No one can please God without faith’. Jesus said “Have faith in God.”

3. Understand what salvation is.
Grace, the gift of God. His doing, his choosing. Good news to tell others.

Jesus said we should become like little children. Children in our enthusiasm for the Kingdom! But not children in our understanding! Stories for children focus on the ark, Noah’s family, animals going in two by two. . . all very sweet – getting them all in out of the rain. The Bible is not so coy. The purpose of the flood was annihilation – many drowned! Remember, those who are not saved in this life are going to a godless future. Do good to those around you – and the greatest good and the greatest gift is a knowledge of Jesus the Saviour. There are some aids to explaining salvation. The brochure, “Why Jesus?” is very good although quite wordy. A simpler outline is the little strip of symbols, the four points of the Good News. There is a fuller explanation on the back. We could learn how to use these, in case we need to. And we can pray – for those around us, for the missionaries we support, for the work and witness of this church and other churches who reach out in this locality. We can find out what God wants us to do – and then do it!

4. Do some building –
Not an Ark, but building good things into your life.

Firstly get the foundations right. Noah based his construction on the instructions of God. Good foundation! Jesus told a story about some builders. One took the easy route and built his house on sand. One took more care and dug foundations into rock. And then the rains came, and the wind blew and beat upon the two houses, with predictable results. There is one foundation – Jesus Christ. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:11

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss, he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”

Paul is exhorting us to consider our building materials. He mentions gold, silver and precious stones and these would clearly be the ones that might survive the fire – wood, hay and stubble would not. But, how do we build with gold, silver and precious stones? In general terms this does mean the best that we have – our treasures and the best that we can do. That much is obvious really. This is picture language, this talk of building with gold silver and costly stones. So let’s approach it as such and draw out a little more about this imagery.

Gold – Valuable, durable. Royal crowns were made of gold. Gold was one of the gifts presented to the infant Jesus, signifying his kingship. Much of the Lord’s Temple was made of wood overlaid with gold. Many of the bowls, lamp stands and other utensils in both the tabernacle and the temple were made of gold. The New Jerusalem in Revelation is described as a city of pure gold. The imagery of gold goes along with the idea of honouring God as King of kings and worshipping Him. In our worship, as we focus on our Lord, sing his praise, speak to him and give him our love and obedience we could be said to be ‘building with gold’.

Silver – many of the temple furnishings were finished with silver. It also used to refer to coinage and as such could be judged to refer to our money and resources. We are responsible to God for how we use that which God has given us. Not just money, but natural abilities and spiritual gifts too. Offer our resources to God and use then in a responsible way for good and we could be said to be ‘building with silver’.

Precious stones – two references here – first of all from the Old Testament – the high priest wore a breastplate covered with twelve precious stones when he entered the presence of the Lord. The twelve stones were inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The New Jerusalem has twelve foundations and the names of the twelve apostles are written on them. Each foundation is decorated with many different types of precious stones. Malachi 3: 17 says, referring to God’s people, “They shall be mine”, says the Lord of hosts “in that day when I make up my treasured possession.” These are people, his people.

So much ‘costly stones’ imagery in scripture is of people. So, by inference, building with precious stones can refer to how we deal with the people that God puts in our path. Do we pray for them? How do we talk with people – are our words a blessing, are they kind words? Do they hold a challenge?

This is how we agree to act towards others: As church members here at GBC we make promises to each other before God in our church covenant. One of these promises is:

“I will do my best to grow in my faith and make disciples by:

· Accepting others as Christ has accepted me

· Speaking with kindness, honesty and wisdom and refusing to gossip

· Sharing my faith in Jesus Christ by word and action, and

· Willingly living my life in my community in a way that is consistent with being a Christian.”

Paul writes to the Colossians:

(Colossians 4:5) “Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

We need to be gentle but pertinent, caring but challenging. Noah was called a preacher of righteousness. I think his actions probably spoke as loud as his words. But, let us be ready at any time to give a reason for the hope we have in Jesus.

So, to conclude: We have looked at the story of Noah, seen his faith, and seen how good God was to him. We have considered the importance of faith, and observed how the Ark is a picture of salvation. We have looked at the need to hear God’s voice, to walk with God, the need to have faith, and the importance of sharing the Good News of Salvation. We have looked at how to build good things into our lives and daily actions. May God bless us all in our efforts to follow Him!

Holiday at home is a week of activities for older people who fancy a different sort of holiday. The week will consist of different activities covering many interests and will be a great opportunity to join in, meet new friends, learn something new and have fun. Each day will consist of a morning activity and an afternoon activity with lunch in between.

Cost is £5.00 per day including lunch.