No.29 - Lord and Saviour

Joshua Menon
Apr 27
4 min read

Preaching prep, bible courses and a loving life group.

Verse of the Week

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

Acts 2:36

What incredible news, God did not leave Christ in the grave. God raised him up, not only to new life but to his right had, where he is now Lord of the universe. The Christ whom we serve is Lord of the universe! We do not need to fear the world, for everything is under his good plans, even our struggles.

But, like the Israelites, this can also be terrifying news. We know our holy God requires us to be holy, and the more we see how God wants us to live the more we have our eyes opened to just how much we let him down. Every day we reject the king of the universe, we should face his judgment.

However, God did not just raise Christ as Lord, he raised Christ as Messiah, our saviour. Through Christ, our sins are paid for. He has taken God's wrath upon himself, and we can be counted as God's holy beloved people. We are part of his family, not because we don't mess up but because of God's matchless grace.

Praise be to Christ. Praise be to Christ, for he is our Lord and our Saviour.

Amen.

Encouragements

I found out that I'm going to be preaching at my home church for the first time in June. Praise God, I'm really excited and have been very much enjoying starting to prepare.

My Cambridge bible training course started back up for the first time since easter, and I had a wonderful time. It was great to chat to other ministry interns and a real joy to learn more about how to read the bible. One thing I found interesting was learning about some of the differences between the gospel accounts.

I also had a great time this week with my life group. God was very good to us in helping us see more of the joys of Christ as Lord and Saviour. It was great to be able to pray and encourage each other to keep trusting Christ throughout the week.

One other thing to add. For the past few weeks, we have been living with my grandparents to try and support them. Gramps has dementia, and while he doesn't remember much, he is such an encouragement to us in that the one thing he does remember is his love of Jesus and the bible.

A Little Update

Here are a few of the things we've been up to and some of what we've got coming up. Praise the Lord for he is good!

The Last Week

Prepared for - 2 Samuel kids talk, Bible study, Bible handling talk, Preaching
Wednesday - TEAM Bible Course restarted
Thursday - Attended our Life group meal and bible study
Friday - Led a mid-day bible study group
Sunday - Gave a children's talk before church on 2 Samuel 7

The Next Few Weeks

Mid-day bible study, Life group
30th April - Helping with our Church Members Meal
2nd May - Leading an evangelistic event - leading the singing and giving a short talk
11th May - Giving a children's talk before church
14th May - Attending a Church Trustees meeting
18th May - Giving a talk on studying the bible at our teaching session before church (Joining The Dots Adults)
29th May-1st June - Attending the St Helen's 10am weekend away
8th June - Preaching at Grace Church on 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
10th-11th June - Attending a Presbyterian Christian Conference (Catalyst)
12th June - Leading sung worship at my Grandma's funeral

Prayer Requests

I haven't been feeling too well this week, and so would very much love your prayers that I could balance getting enough rest, caring for my family and seeking to serve the church.

I currently don't find it that easy to rest, so I'd love prayer that I could both work with all that I have to serve the church and be able to rest well, trusting in God's good plans.

Praying for you all,

Much love :)

Joshua & Luci.

P.S. - If you want to hear more about how I've been delighted by Christ over the last week, feel free to listen to the video below. I hope you may find it encouraging :)

TEAM Study Notes

Bible overview

Acts - what Jesus is doing by his spirit through the apostles

Now all Christian are given the spirit

The spirit help’s people to focus on Jesus

Fruit of the spirit - having the character of God

The Holy Spirit is the only way we can

Have a relationship with God
Become like God
Work for God

New testement letters are mainly to Christian helping them to be holy

Handling the gospels

Gospel - Announced Good news

Mark’s Gospel

60’s AD
To Majority Gentiles
Fast paced, Action packed

Big themes

Jesus is God’s king
Jesus came to suffer die on the cross and rise
How will you respond
God’s king come to set up God’s kingdom

Mathew’s Gospel

60’s AD
To majority jews
Slower paced, like sitting at Jesus feet and learning from him
5 big blocks of teaching