Central Line Cristmas Crash Tonight!

Central Line guys n' galls are in the Main Hall tonight for the Christmas Crash, a night of pizza and dancing! (Preferably one at a time) ... so come on come all! Celebrate Christmas with a Crash!

The CalebClub NATIVITY

And Mary Rode in on a Skateboard ... or ... a ladder, or a what? Thanks everyone who was involved! Great fun!

Memory Verse 1. 2 Corinthians 5:21

"God made him [Jesus] who had no sin tobe sin for us, so that in him we might become the rightousness of God" [2 Cor. 5:21]

Caleb CLub Last Night!

If you missed Caleb Club last night.. gutted! Ben Slee led the music and taught us all one of his own songs, the band sounded great, Anna was amazing with the laptop as always, and we all looked together at -Jesus the Great High Priest (...and we had toast!).

A quick recap on the key things we looked at: - Throughout the Bible and God's plan to restore his broken relationship with mankind, there are three p's... people, person, and place. We said the 'people' are God's chosen people, (Israel in the OldTestament), the 'Place' is where God's glory touches earth (the 'Most Holy Place' in the Israelite Temple), the 'Person' is the mediator, or 'go-between' between the People and the Place (the High Priest).

But all these things in the OT were imperfect... they were incomplete, and so we came to Jesus. - The 'people' now are Christians, those who believe in Jesus Christ, the 'Place' is Christian's hearts, the Apostle Paul tells us that we are now the 'Temple' of God because he lives in us by the Holy Spirit. Remember at the crucifixion of Jesus, the curtain of the Most Holy Place was torn in two... God is no longer confined to a box room, he lives in His people! - Finally, the 'Person,' the mediator is Jesus Christ.

Jesus through His personal, perfect, and sinless sacrifice on the cross has bought us back into relationship with God. The People are us(!) and we are now completely clean and 'righteous' before God. And the Place is also Christians, because the curtain is torn and God lives now in His people through the Holy Spirit! - The People and the Place have been -perfectly- bought together through the Person Jesus! The relationship is restored!

The application was about knowledge. Namely know that you know have direct, personal, and relational access to the creator of the universe! When you pray you are praying -directly- to God and he hears and cares abut each word. And he delights to give good gifts to his children! You can trust Him and find Him in all and every circumstance, issue, persecution, confusing time, pain, choice that you could -ever- find yourself in!

And that’s awesome!

t.

Sessions Last Week!

"Could God Create a Stone So Heavy He Couldn't Lift It?"

Someone asked me about this question today, so here’s a quick throw together answer:

Could God create a stone so heavy he couldn’t lift it? Or Could God whip up a curry so hot he couldn’t neck it? Could God make a book so long he couldn’t get to the last chapter? – Heard questions like these? Difficult eh?

You might find it helpful to know that this isn’t a new argument, in fact it dates back to an Islamic philosopher called Averroes in the 12th Century…. and it certainly was knocked about before this. The argument in ‘big-n-cleaver’ terms is called the ‘Omnipotence Paradox.’ It basically runs like this:

a) God either can create a stone to heavy to lift or God can’t create a stone to heavy to lift
b) If He can – then He can’t lift it – so He isn’t all powerful
c) If He can’t – then He can’t make such a stone – so He isn’t all powerful
d) Therefore God isn’t all powerful.

So that’s our problem… but how do we solve it? What’s the answer? ‘Could God create a stone so heavy he couldn’t lift it?’

Lets start by thinking about the question:

A stone is a physical creation, so its bound by the rules all physical things are… it exists in time and space etc.

The action ‘lifting’ requires strength, leverage, and something to place under the stone (e.g. hands). Notice that all these things (strength, hands, etc.) are also creations so are bound by the same rules of the stone.

So lets test it! For us to carry out a fair and accurate experiment (any scientist will tell you), we need to place in a number of controls. First we need to make sure the lifted and the lifter are under the same conditions (as the action of lifting is created), so we need to ask God to bind himself by the rules of creation… i.e take on a body and be confronted with time + space etc.

Oh look, he’s done that already – lets call Him Jesus. – So God created all the stones in the world… and Jesus is God in flesh, could we find somewhere a stone that Jesus couldn’t lift? Absolutely Yes! – If we look at the question fairly, God has created a stone which himself in Jesus couldn’t lift.

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But your friend might say to you… but I’m not talking about Jesus.. I’m talking about Almighty eternal God! … This is where their question looses its umpth… because for their question to actually make any sense they must impose rules upon God from God’s creation. That happened in Jesus, Jesus was subject to the limitations of creation… e.g. he had to eat and sleep, and couldn’t lift some heavy stones.

But God is over and above all creation, so asking if HE in eternity could create a stone which is temporal so heavy he couldn’t lift it is a total nonsense, illogical, irrational, and dare I say stupid irrelevant question! Its just like asking how many numbers are in infinity! Its basically gibberish.

This sort of question is asked to avoid thinking about the actual important claims of Christianity, that all of us are accountable to God, and Jesus Christ was God in the Flesh.

So the answer is this … if the question is to be taken sensibly and scientifically – then sure, Jesus as a man couldn’t lift some stones.

If the question is not fair (which it normally isn’t) – then it’s a really stupid nonsense question which requires God to be 'created' rather than the 'creator.'

Whichever answer you give you will find that God is still all powerful, and the questioner still needs to think of the actual important claims of Jesus.

Hope this helps!

Tim

Sessions.

Hey everybody. If you've not been to a 'Sessions.' before, then SUNDAY 1ST DECEMEBER(!) is the time to do it! Fresh Singer Songwriters, Fresh Musicians, Maybe even a few laughs thrown in here and there!

Great opportunity to invite friends, hear good music, hear the Gospel in a non-threatening way, and drink good coffee with frothy milk!

Bless you gals n' guys... See you there!

tim.

Central Line; THIS WEEK!!!

Hey Central Line People.

Remember, CL is on this week(!!!). We're exploring further the armour of God from Ephesians 6, and discovering more and more how it's all about connecting with Jesus Christ.

If you've not been before... Great! Come this week! Central Line meets fortnightly from 7.30 - 8.30. We play games, hang out, eat lots of sugar and think together about life and what the Christian faith can teach us about it! We meet in theLounge at Christ Church Beckenham for ages 11-14.


All going well we might also be joined by members of the visiting Ugandan Choir! Awesome, talented bunch of African Guy's n' Gals singing from the heart.

Hope to see you guys there!

> Prayer Pit Stop <

Reminder to all you guys n' galls at CCB who have a burden to pray! 'Prayer Pit Stop' meets this Wednesday in the main hall from 8.00pm. This is a great chance to come together, to sing our Praises to God, and to seek God's heart for Christ Church. If you're a member of Caleb Club, and are free this Wednesday, I'd strongly urge you to be there! It's a great opportunity to show our part in the church and to meet with our brothers and sisters from CCB.

CCYM:Blog - Launch!!!

Heyho Guys n' Gals ... Tim here, and welcome to the fun, and possibly freaky Christ Church Youth Ministry Blog! ... This gives us all chance to communicate during the week and for me to let you guys n' gals know what’s happening in the world of CCB and CCYM! (Whoo... I hear you cry!)

Also gives me an opportunity to post embarrassing pictures so remember to be extra especially nice to me and you might avoid such a fate!

This also gives us a great chance to encourage each other from God's word and think together about the awesome things that God, our Father has done for us in Jesus Christ.

Also, let me know things that are happening with your CU's so we can stick them up on here too!

So feel free to browse, to comment (no profanities please), and to grab some hot coco as you explore the world of CCYM... blogger-style!

Bless you guys!

Tim