Royal Wedding

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Events | Leave a comment

Congratulations to William and Catherine! Ah, it was a wonderful wedding!

I watched it with one of my best friends and his family. I especially loved Parry’s ‘I was Glad’. Great choice!

Bishop of London was alright too. And I thought the wedding was real. Will and Kate clearly love eachother. Let’s hope this lasts. I bet the Queen was proud of them too.

Anyways, off to Llangasty now for my weekend away to discern God’s calling on my life!

Jesus the Conqueror

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Events, God, Jesus, Salvation | Leave a comment

So today was Easter, Resurrection Sunday!

Today is the most important date in the Christian Calendar: the day that Jesus rose again to bring us eternal hope and everlasting life. He conquered death, hell and the grave. He conquered sin. He conquered everything.

This was the completed work of Christ manifested in this glorious event. And now, for anyone who believes, resurrection life is what Jesus offers to them.

Today we had a brilliant time at church as we looked at Jesus the Conqueror. People saw Jesus for who he was, is and will be and became Christians! Praise God! If you haven’t become a Christian, and you don’t know Jesus, this time of year is the golden opportunity. You have nothing to lose!

It’s been a great day. I’m going to end with the lyrics from an old hymn I remember. Happy Resurrection Sunday everyone

Jesus The Conqueror Reigns – Charles Wesley.

Jesus, the Conqueror, reigns,
In glorious strength arrayed,
His kingdom over all maintains,
And bids the earth be glad.
Ye sons of men, rejoice
In Jesus’ mighty love,
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice
To Him who rules above.

Extol His kingly power,
Kiss the exalted Son,
Who died, and lives, to die no more,
High on His Father’s throne;
Our Advocate with God,
He undertakes our cause,
And spreads through all the earth abroad
The victory of His cross.

That bloody banner see,
And in your Captain’s sight,
Fight the good fight of faith with me,
My fellow soldiers, fight!
In mighty phalanx joined,
To battle all proceed;
Armed with the unconquerable mind
Which was in Christ your Head.

Urge on your rapid course,
Ye blood besprinkled bands;
The heavenly kingdom suffers force,
’Tis seized by violent hands;
See there the starry crown
That glitters through the skies!
Satan, the world, and sin, tread down,
And take the glorious prize.

Through much distress and pain,
Through many a conflict here,
Through blood, ye must the entrance gain;
Yet, O disdain to fear!
Courage! your Captain cries,
Who all your toil foreknew
Toil ye shall have; yet all despise,
I have o’ercome for you.

The world cannot withstand
Its ancient conqueror,
The world must sink beneath
The hand which arms us for the war;
This is the victory!
Before our faith they fall;
Jesus hath died for you and me;
Believe, and conquer all!

Maundy Money? No… Maundy Meal!

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Events, Serving | Leave a comment

This isn't a picture from today's Maundy service! But you get the picture!

OK, so the Queen gave out Maundy Money today to celebrate Maundy Thursday , but we at St Paul’s had a Maundy Meal followed by communion!

It was such a great time. I loved being with my church family. Some great conversations were had, and we listened to a short talk by Justin on being a Servant, just like Jesus was as he went to the cross for us.

It was a time for encouragement, family bonding and happiness. Tomorrow, we will be remembering the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross for us, and we are continuing to wait for Sunday!

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Events | Leave a comment

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

That’s what we were saying today in church as we remember Jesus coming into Jerusalem as King.

Not as any king though… the servant king. Jesus didn’t cling to the worldly stuff that kings cling to, rather he came in humility, preparing himself for his death upon the cross for us. This event was foretold in scripture hundreds of years before it happened. And today we remember the fulfilment of that scripture.

⁹ Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

This prophecy is taken from Zecheriah 9:9. What an amazing thing!

When Jesus next comes, however, he will come in all his majesty, and all will recognise him for who he truly is.

Today is the great start of Holy Week. If you don’t know about Christianity, or you feel it’s time to come back to God, let this be the week that you do it. You’ll never look back.

Calm before the storm.

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Evangelism, Events, Life Issues | Leave a comment

The best week of the year will kick off tomorrow with Palm Sunday:

It’s the start of Holy Week! We at St Paul’s have so much planned. It’s gonna be such an exciting time, and it’s going to be great to see people meet Jesus and hopefully some people are going to meet him for the first time.

If you’re a Christian, please be expectant for what God is going to do in people’s lives. God loves faithfulness to him, and expectancy. If we believe in a God who can move mountains, then this shouldn’t be a problem to us. Holy Week / Easter is a great time for people to come to know Christ, and I encourage you all to really pray over this week that the Holy Spirit may fall on our world in great, great power. That hearts may be broken and re-formed so that they may know Jesus for who he is, and enter into everlasting relationship and life with him.

Amen and Goodnight x

I’m giving up blah for Lent…

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Devotional, Events, Jesus, Worship | Leave a comment

Today is the start of Lent. Lent is the time of year where we spend 40 days (not including Sundays) giving up something in remembrance of Jesus’ time in the wilderness before his death and resurrection.

The thing is, I’ve been feeling as if loads of people are giving up stuff just for the sake of giving up something, or to be religious, or to do it for the sake of ‘Lent’. In other words, I feel that the meaning of Lent just isn’t there anymore.

To go even further, I don’t think Lent should be what we think it should be!

In stead, I have a different proposal. If you follow the Liturgical year (that is, the Church calendar) you will know, as I said before, that today is the start of Lent. The start of Lent has a very special name attached to it. And that name is Ash Wednesday.

What a peculiar name! What does ash have to do with giving things up and stuff like that?!

WELL -Ash Wednesday is a time where people go to churches all across the world and are marked with an ash cross on their forehead. Bit strange you may think….

Well, yeah, it is strange, but the meaning is completely amazing. The ash symbolises the fact that we are made from the dust of the earth. It also symbolises sin, mourning and repentance.

The act of ‘ashing the head’ is a symbol of saying sorry to God and turning around our lives in readiness to remember his ultimate

sacrifice on the cross for us. That’s what I think Lent should be about. Not necessarily the whole ‘I’m gonna give up chocolate’ ‘I’m

gonna get rid of Facebook for forty days’, but remembering who we really are in comparison to who God is.

From that, we can acknowledge him as our Heavenly Father who loves us and gave Himself for us, and that if we come and truly repent, we shall be healed and saved from hell and the grave.

If you are giving up something for Lent, I’m not saying that you’re being stupid or that it’s a silly thing to do! All I’m saying is that the real reason for Lent is found in Ash Wednesday – the Christ who gave up himself for us.