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Listen to our new Liberty Church Podcast! Newsletter and Notes 7th Febuary 2012
Sunday 6.30pm Liberty Church Worship. See When and Where. Wednesday Bible Study/Discussion. See When and Where. Disability Hate Crime Support Have you been sworn at, verbally abused, or harassed in any way because you are disabled? Or witnessed this happening to a disabled person? Contact Karen, Hate Crime co-ordinator for advice and support. Tel 07904 658 331 10am- 4pm Mon to Fri. Regional LGBT Conference at Lesbian and Gay Foundation in Manchester on Sat 25th Feb. Funding for travel expenses available from LGF. Subjects include Transaction Plan and Campaign re Gay Marriage Equality. For information Tel 0845 3303030 or email info@lgf.org.uk Extract: Jim’s preach Jan 22nd ‘In Him we are bold to approach God’
Reading from Luke 8:43- 48 In the crowd that day was a woman who had been subject to menstrual bleeding for twelve years, but no doctor could cure her. She came up behind Jesus and touched the hem of his garment, and immediately her bleeding stopped. "Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you." But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I felt power go out from me." When the woman realized that she couldn’t remain hidden, she came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then Jesus said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace." This is the last one of the seven ‘In Whoms’ we’ve been looking at in the book of Ephesians where ‘In Whom’ means ‘in Jesus’. ‘In Jesus’ and through faith in Jesus we can boldly approach God with freedom and confidence. That confidence is faith. We each have faith to different degrees. Jesus said that even faith that is as tiny as a mustard seed is enough for him to work with. In tonight’s reading the woman, who was slowly bleeding to death, forced her way through the crowd to Jesus. It was a daring and bold thing to do. This woman’s condition made her ceremonially unclean/contaminated. Religious rules prohibited her going out in public. She was forbidden to touch anyone as she would contaminate them and make them unclean too. But this woman had faith to overcome the religious rules that restricted her and condemned her to a life of isolation. As this woman reached out and touched Jesus, instead of Jesus becoming unclean, His purity flowed out to her and healed her, made her clean.
Her faith in Jesus made her bold enough to touch Him. That touch set her free. In amazement she realised that at last she was free from this terrible condition that had ruined her life and cut her off from everyone. But joy turned to fear as Jesus suddenly said ‘Who touched me?’ Fear gripped her. She knew the religious law discriminated against her. But instead of Jesus being angry and giving her a rollicking He was delighted with her and with her faith. Faith can make you daring/bold. Religious rules bring guilt and fear. How many of us have tried to get near to Jesus only to let religious rules come and convince us we’re not good enough and frighten us off? It happened to me. Has it happened to you? The last ‘in whom’ of Ephesians says that in Jesus and through faith in him we may ‘boldly approach the throne of God with freedom and confidence’. These words feature in Charles Wesley’s Hymn called ‘And Can It Be?’. Charles asks this question ‘Amazing love, how can it be?’ because he was simply amazed at what Jesus had done for Him. In the first verse of his hymn he expresses his wonder as to why Jesus would die for him. He has to confess it’s a mystery and he cannot fathom the hugeness of God’s mercy. As the hymn continues Charles realises that Jesus gave himself because of the sheer depth of God’s love. And Charles discovered it’s all free. This grace is without limits.
Limitless grace fuels God’s endless mercy. Charles can’t grasp how immense the mercy is… it’s beyond his finite mind but what he can grasp is that the mercy is free and has made him free. Charles had felt imprisoned, bound up in a religious system that told him his guilt stopped him being worthy. It put demands on him he could never quite achieve. Life was full of more guilt and a sense he could never be good enough for God. Spiritually he felt enclosed in a dungeon of darkness. But then came that glorious day when Jesus, the light of the world, shone in to end his imprisonment.
The chains of religion, the man made rules that told him that no matter how hard he tried he could never be good enough, the chains that wore him down and restricted him from freely relating to God, were gone. He wrote the famous words: ‘My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee’. He discovered he was free! The condemnation and guilt he used to carry were gone. The rules that once controlled him had vanished. As he knew that he was in Jesus he discovered a boldness to approach God Himself
In Jesus, Charles had the boldness of faith to claim the crown of righteousness that Jesus had bought for him. The righteousness that allowed him access to God at any time, no matter what was happening in his life. Jesus has bought our righteousness. Like the woman who touched Him, reaching out to rely on him makes us clean. Relying on Him we can freely, confidently approach God knowing that we are always guaranteed a welcome.
Also see Preaching Also see Teaching On Sunday the 7th of May Jim preached on Rejection. CD’s or tapes are available free of charge. Ask Jim To Contact Us Email nina@libertychurchblackpool.org[dot]uk or Tel/txt 07 9555 97771 or write to Liberty Church Blackpool, PO Box 75, Blackpool FY1 1DD |
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