Sunday 27th September:
Major Graham Bailey
The Salvation Army's international Annual Day of Prayer for Victims of Human Trafficking
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Join with members of the international Salvation Army to pray for victims of modern slavery and human trafficking on Sunday 27 September.
The Salvation Army's international Annual Day of Prayer for Victims of Human Trafficking is an opportunity to stand together in prayer and raise a collective voice to say that we believe a world without modern slavery and human trafficking is possible. Use the links below to learn more about the Annual Day of Prayer for Victims of Human Trafficking. https://www.salvationarmy.org/isjc/IADPrayer https://issuu.com/isjc/docs/_beyondthedark https://www.salvationarmy.org/isjc/SAfightforfreedom |
Click on the image to hear the Franciscan Blessing
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Announcements
1- Message From Lt. Colonel Dean Pallant - Situation Update from THQ on 23rd September
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Click on the video image to hear the message.
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2- Sunday Stroll
3- Corps Prayer Diary: October to December
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The Prayer Diary for the next quarter is now available and can be collected at the hall or can be downloaded here. Click on the link to download the file to your computer/device.
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4- Harvest Sunday 4th October
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This year we do not have our usual Harvest Envelopes for you to use for your Harvest donation. We would encourage you to use the Corps Just Giving page to make your donation. Why not pause now and click on the link below to make your Harvest donation:
https://www.justgiving.com/ or you can send your donation to: The Salvation Army Commercial Road Bedford MK40 1QS |
5- The Muga [The games area attached to the Woolpack Hub]
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If you come down to the hall on a Tuesday you are likely to see, and hear, the Muga (Multi-Use Games Area) being used and enjoyed by the pupils of Priory Primary School.
The School have asked if they can use the space for games and PE during term time every Tuesday. Another example of us being able to be of service to our local community. |
6- Prepare for a Zoom next week [4th Ocober]
7- A Warning..........BE AWARE
We have heard of reports of bogus scam telephone calls being made in the Bedford Area. Callers are claiming to be from the NHS and stating that you may have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus and that you have need to have a test kit sent out to you. The caller stresses they are from the NHS THEY ARE NOT...... They ask for your bank details claiming that the test kit costs £55. DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR BANK DETAILS.
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Call To Worship: Psalm 148 New International Version
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Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above.
Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created,
and he established them for ever and ever— he issued a decree that will never pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding,
you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds,
kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth,
young men and women, old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted;
his splendour is above the earth and the heavens.
And he has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his faithful servants,
of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above.
Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created,
and he established them for ever and ever— he issued a decree that will never pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding,
you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds,
kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth,
young men and women, old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted;
his splendour is above the earth and the heavens.
And he has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his faithful servants,
of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the Lord.
Song: This is My Father's World
Salvation Army Songbook # 66
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We sang this song together in Sunday worship on 22nd September 2019 - it was our Harvest Sunday, giving thanks to God for his creation and his provision for each of us.
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Prayer:
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Click on the image and the prayer will advance automatically.
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Songsters: Rest in Me
Ian Feltwell
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This recording of Bedford Songsters was made during worship on January 26th this year.
The Songster Leader writes: In the front of the book where this song is found, the Salvation Army Music Editor writes the following:- "This song brings a quiet and reassuring strength to those who experience and believe in the promise of a God who cares completely for us as individuals." As our lives continue to change with new, and necessary, restrictions we can hold onto the knowledge that God does not change - He is faithful. May we rest in His love and peace each day, and know that He is with us. |
Song: Made in the Likeness of God
Salvation Army Songbook # 381
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Click on the image to start the song, this is a recording of us singing the song together in worship on Sunday 8th December 2019.
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Bible Reading: Romans 8, The Voice Translation.
Click on the image to hear Bob bring the reading to us.
Thought:
It doesn’t seem possible does it that, 6 months ago this last week, we went into lockdown?! Who had ever heard the phrase?! As I was preparing this thought for you this week, the Prime Minister announced a few more curbs to our daily lives again in order to fight the virus – these are still such uncertain times!
Whatever way you look at it, it feels like we are in the middle of a storm on the sea where we are being tossed about, this way and that. Some are trying to make sense of it all and have come up with countless conspiracy theories as to why we are where we are. If you read social media, then I understand that there are theories being given for just about every situation!
One of those looking at the ‘big picture’ of what’s going on at the moment is Bill Gates. He said last week that he felt the global pandemic had set the global health situation back decades. Economists are certainly saying that it has put economic growth back a long way.
For us within the Church, there is much debate about what we are supposed to be doing in terms of safely getting together with some Corps’ & churches that are saying that they won’t open at least until next Easter and others are already open!
As I say, there is a real unrest & angst amongst people and a ‘not knowing’ that is causing all sorts of issues.
It’s not easy is it? But what are we to do during this time? How do we cope with all this uncertainty? What is it that can sustain us when all around us is chaos?
We need to take the time to rest, as Miriam reminded us, to commune with God – the song that says, ‘It is well with our soul!’
We also need to remind ourselves that this is not it; this is not all that there is! We have the hope of a future - because of Jesus. The reading that we heard earlier from Romans 8 is like the climax of a great band piece where you know, you get goose bumps going up your spine. Paul, in the first 4 chapters of the letter to the church in Rome, has looked at how the Divine call of Abraham is the answer to the sin of Adam and has shown that what we have in Abraham is therefore the promise that God will deal once and for all with sin and the death that it brings in its wake. Then, he tells those who were hearing the letter read, more explicitly the story of the human race from Adam to the Messiah and onto the final promise of renewed creation, which is where our reading comes in.
Throughout chapter 8, Paul hints at a key theme from the Exodus and from early Christianity as a whole: as God’s presence guided the Israelites through the wilderness, coming to dwell in the Tabernacle, so the Spirit leads the ‘Messiah’s people’ into their inheritance, which actually turns out not to be a single ‘promised land’ as the Israelites were expecting but now encompassed the entire whole renewed creation! Wow!
And then, since the entire renewed creation is the ‘inheritance’ of the Messiah and His people, as in Psalm 2, this means that human beings are at last, as Psalm 8 & our previous song said, ‘crowned with glory and honour’ & ‘given dominion (authority) in all the earth’ that’s what was promised to Abraham, the Israelites & now us from the beginning!
So, although things feel very much like they are up in the air at the moment; nothing is solid under us, seemingly, verse 18 says, “Now I’m sure of this: the sufferings we endure now are not even worth comparing to the glory that is coming and will be revealed in us.” We might not be undergoing sufferings in the same way that Paul was, but there are certainly many people who are suffering during this time, and I think that we are all finding many challenges during these days.
The fact that we don’t know what is going to happen next week, let alone next month, can cause us or make us feel as though we are flailing around as though we are out of our depth in water.
But we have hope! We have this future, when creation – so amazing that we can hardly conceive that it could be any better – will be renewed, and so will we! God will be our all in all.
We have, as a result of Pentecost, a foretaste of God’s presence, by His Holy Spirit, but then ‘We shall see Him face to face’!
As Paul says, “Though we have already tasted the first fruits of the Spirit, we are longing for the total redemption of our bodies that comes when our adoption as children of God is complete— for we have been saved in this hope and for this future. But hope does not involve what we already have or see. For who goes around hoping for what he already has? But if we wait expectantly for things we have never seen, then we hope with true perseverance and eager anticipation.”
We wait with eager anticipation for that which is promised remembering that, as we do so and as many things impact our lives, God is always with us!
Paul concludes chapter 8 triumphantly, ‘But no matter what comes, we will always taste victory through Him who loved us. For I have every confidence that nothing—not death, life, heavenly messengers, dark spirits, the present, the future, spiritual powers, height, depth, nor any created thing—can come between us and the love of God revealed in the Anointed, Jesus our Lord.”
It’s a theme Paul always returns to when speaking from his deepest heart and mind: he says in a couple of places ‘the Son of God, who lived me and gave Himself for me’; he says, “the Messiah’s love makes us press on”
As Tom Wright says, “Roman 8 is the richest, deepest, and most powerfully sustained climax anywhere in the literature of the early Christian movement, and perhaps anywhere else as well!”
May this reminder help you, in the way that it has helped me in these days, that we have a real and strong hope in God that, although all around us is uncertain, we can trust the future to Him.
Again Miriam in her meeting, said about us taking time to reflect on God’s word & it’s so important that we do that, isn’t it? It isn’t all about us being spoon-fed answers, we are to ‘grow up in our Salvation’ (1 Peter 2:2). It’s down to us to find out what God says.
Try to take time this week to read and re-read this chapter, actually, if you can, read the whole letter in one sitting, it will lift your heart!
Our hope is in Jesus, and we’re going to ‘sing’ two songs that reflect that just now, the first says, “In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song” & the second, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness”
May we each be confident of the presence of the Holy Spirit with us and of the hope that we have that can sustain us in these times and give us a strong foundation when all around feels like sinking sand!
May God bless us all
Whatever way you look at it, it feels like we are in the middle of a storm on the sea where we are being tossed about, this way and that. Some are trying to make sense of it all and have come up with countless conspiracy theories as to why we are where we are. If you read social media, then I understand that there are theories being given for just about every situation!
One of those looking at the ‘big picture’ of what’s going on at the moment is Bill Gates. He said last week that he felt the global pandemic had set the global health situation back decades. Economists are certainly saying that it has put economic growth back a long way.
For us within the Church, there is much debate about what we are supposed to be doing in terms of safely getting together with some Corps’ & churches that are saying that they won’t open at least until next Easter and others are already open!
As I say, there is a real unrest & angst amongst people and a ‘not knowing’ that is causing all sorts of issues.
It’s not easy is it? But what are we to do during this time? How do we cope with all this uncertainty? What is it that can sustain us when all around us is chaos?
We need to take the time to rest, as Miriam reminded us, to commune with God – the song that says, ‘It is well with our soul!’
We also need to remind ourselves that this is not it; this is not all that there is! We have the hope of a future - because of Jesus. The reading that we heard earlier from Romans 8 is like the climax of a great band piece where you know, you get goose bumps going up your spine. Paul, in the first 4 chapters of the letter to the church in Rome, has looked at how the Divine call of Abraham is the answer to the sin of Adam and has shown that what we have in Abraham is therefore the promise that God will deal once and for all with sin and the death that it brings in its wake. Then, he tells those who were hearing the letter read, more explicitly the story of the human race from Adam to the Messiah and onto the final promise of renewed creation, which is where our reading comes in.
Throughout chapter 8, Paul hints at a key theme from the Exodus and from early Christianity as a whole: as God’s presence guided the Israelites through the wilderness, coming to dwell in the Tabernacle, so the Spirit leads the ‘Messiah’s people’ into their inheritance, which actually turns out not to be a single ‘promised land’ as the Israelites were expecting but now encompassed the entire whole renewed creation! Wow!
And then, since the entire renewed creation is the ‘inheritance’ of the Messiah and His people, as in Psalm 2, this means that human beings are at last, as Psalm 8 & our previous song said, ‘crowned with glory and honour’ & ‘given dominion (authority) in all the earth’ that’s what was promised to Abraham, the Israelites & now us from the beginning!
So, although things feel very much like they are up in the air at the moment; nothing is solid under us, seemingly, verse 18 says, “Now I’m sure of this: the sufferings we endure now are not even worth comparing to the glory that is coming and will be revealed in us.” We might not be undergoing sufferings in the same way that Paul was, but there are certainly many people who are suffering during this time, and I think that we are all finding many challenges during these days.
The fact that we don’t know what is going to happen next week, let alone next month, can cause us or make us feel as though we are flailing around as though we are out of our depth in water.
But we have hope! We have this future, when creation – so amazing that we can hardly conceive that it could be any better – will be renewed, and so will we! God will be our all in all.
We have, as a result of Pentecost, a foretaste of God’s presence, by His Holy Spirit, but then ‘We shall see Him face to face’!
As Paul says, “Though we have already tasted the first fruits of the Spirit, we are longing for the total redemption of our bodies that comes when our adoption as children of God is complete— for we have been saved in this hope and for this future. But hope does not involve what we already have or see. For who goes around hoping for what he already has? But if we wait expectantly for things we have never seen, then we hope with true perseverance and eager anticipation.”
We wait with eager anticipation for that which is promised remembering that, as we do so and as many things impact our lives, God is always with us!
Paul concludes chapter 8 triumphantly, ‘But no matter what comes, we will always taste victory through Him who loved us. For I have every confidence that nothing—not death, life, heavenly messengers, dark spirits, the present, the future, spiritual powers, height, depth, nor any created thing—can come between us and the love of God revealed in the Anointed, Jesus our Lord.”
It’s a theme Paul always returns to when speaking from his deepest heart and mind: he says in a couple of places ‘the Son of God, who lived me and gave Himself for me’; he says, “the Messiah’s love makes us press on”
As Tom Wright says, “Roman 8 is the richest, deepest, and most powerfully sustained climax anywhere in the literature of the early Christian movement, and perhaps anywhere else as well!”
May this reminder help you, in the way that it has helped me in these days, that we have a real and strong hope in God that, although all around us is uncertain, we can trust the future to Him.
Again Miriam in her meeting, said about us taking time to reflect on God’s word & it’s so important that we do that, isn’t it? It isn’t all about us being spoon-fed answers, we are to ‘grow up in our Salvation’ (1 Peter 2:2). It’s down to us to find out what God says.
Try to take time this week to read and re-read this chapter, actually, if you can, read the whole letter in one sitting, it will lift your heart!
Our hope is in Jesus, and we’re going to ‘sing’ two songs that reflect that just now, the first says, “In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song” & the second, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness”
May we each be confident of the presence of the Holy Spirit with us and of the hope that we have that can sustain us in these times and give us a strong foundation when all around feels like sinking sand!
May God bless us all
Song: In Christ Alone
Salvation Army Songbook #861
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Click on the image to start the song. The accompaniment for this song comes to us courtesy of Kettering Citadel Band.
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Band: Worthy Is The Lamb
Warren Brooks
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Click on the image to hear the band piece.
The Bandmaster writes: There's so much that we need to thank God for and today's piece ‘Worthy is the Lamb’ has these words. "Thank you for the cross Lord, Thank you for the price you paid." It’s one of those pieces that reminds us of His great sacrifice for us, all those years ago. Allowing us to live our lives knowing that our Saviour is by our side, through the good and the not so good/difficult times in our lives. Let's hope that over the coming weeks we will be able to do some small part in whatever way we can to share the news of our Lord and Saviour to those around us. |
Song: My Hope is Built
The Salvation Army Songbook #662
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Click on the image to start the song. The accompaniment for this song comes from the Pendelton Corps Band in Western Australia.
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Song: He is the Lord, and He Reigns on High
The Salvation Army Songbook #365
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Click on the image to start the song. The accompaniment for this song comes from Tunebook piano accompaniment CD.
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Benediction:
Romans 15:13
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Note: Our 'take-away' Sunday worship started on the 22nd March. To find the previous week's services go to the Archive section of the website listed under the 'more.....' tab at the top of the page. On the 'C-19 Worship' section of the website we will only keep the current and previous month on this section of the website before moving them into the Archive.
Can you help?
In this current situation when our church doors are closed to our normal activities but our work to support those in need continues our normal source of funds (Sunday Tithes and Offerings) have reduced dramatically. We need your help, so that we continue to be ready to meet the ongoing needs of our community that will undoubtedly impact beyond this lock down period. If you are willing to help please visit our Just Giving Page to make a donation to this work. https://www.justgiving.com/