Queen's Road Cell

There is no pic of Ellie climbing up our grilled door until she was above head level!

Some of us had the opportunity to join many others from FFMC for this!

Grace was sharing about her experience in a church in London that seemed to over-emphasize the Bible as the only source of God speaking to us. The role of the Holy Spirit seemed to be primarily that of interpreting Scripture to believers. We spent some time discussing the idea of revelation: "general" revelation (Rom 1:18-20) is sufficient grounds for condemnation, but "special" revelation is necessary for salvation. The Bible is special revelation. God has revealed Himself most fully in His Son (Heb 1:1-2). I think we are to distinguish this foundational idea of how God reveals Himself to man from the idea that God communicates His will and desires to us in ways that are outside Scripture. He uses dreams, or a Christian brother's/sister's encouragement, the worship time in church, or circumstances to point us to Him. The key consideration is that all these means of communication must never go beyond what Scripture teaches - this is still the final authori...

We started with Question 3 then moved to Question 2 before ending with personal sharing on Question 1. I asked the question: What is it (except for the last red/blue part characteristic) about the blue bar column that is distinctively Christian? Put another way, can a non-Christian be a 'blue-bar' person, or can only Christians be 'blue-bar' people? Our answer was that non-Christians can indeed have blue-bar characteristics, but never for the reasons and basis on spiritual truth that Christians have. For a disciple of Christ, every aspect of his or her life - both blue and red bars - is radically God-centered. All we do in both in our outer appearance to others and our inner lives is done before the face of God. We need both external accomplishments as well as inner substance. We did say that it was not helpful to be very spiritual but quite useless in a job! We also asked if this whole idea of red and blue bars was a Biblical idea at all? Certainly the Bible celebr...

The 3 gifts of Christmas: The gift of frankincense – worship 19  The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21  Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:19-24) Introduction Frankincense is part of the holy, exclusive anointing oil (Ex 30:34), It is used in grain and food offerings (Lev 2:1-2, 15-16), but not in sin offerings (Lev 5:11) or offerings of remembrance to t...

Selwyn shared about the Rapidly Advancing Discipleship (RAD) programme that Siew Leong is using in China and Bangladesh. This is a method of sharing the gospel, setting up small churches and helping members to be accountable to one another with specific Scripture passages following the principle of 1 Tim 3:16.. The programme seemed so simple that we felt that might work best  in particular cultures with a strong sense of community and where there were not many intellectual reservations regarding the gospel. The programme seems to have strengths in its speed of transmission, in the accountability structure and in the provision of Scripture to guide behaviour. Traditional structures can be simplified to achieve rapid expansion. The programme might be less effective in Singapore, though. We will need to learn more! We spoke about John Allen Chau, the young missionary who was recently killed by North Sentinelese tribesmen when he (illegally) chartered a boat to share the gospel with ...

BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Gk.‘ baptizo’ = immersion In all baptisms, 4 parts: The baptizer The baptized The element (en) The purpose (eis = into) e.g. repentance Mt 3:11 Jesus is the Baptizer in the Spirit   Jesus is the one who “baptizes in/with [Greek en ] the Holy Spirit” 1 (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33) cf. Ac 1:5, 11:16 The purpose of the baptism/fullness of the Spirit In the OT Creative tasks (Ex 28:3, 31:3, 35:31 Bezalel, “the skilful”) Leadership (Dt 34:9 “Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom”) Teaching/Proclamation (Mic 3:8 “But as for me, I am fill ed with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.”) In the NT Inspired witness ( Lk 1:41 “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42  and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”; Ac 4:9 “Pe...