Church of the Resurrection Belfast

Here's James sharing from Psalm 103 as we continued our summer series in the Psalms. James focused particularly on verse 7, where we find a contrast between Moses' deep relationship with God, whilst the rest of God's people engaged with God at a distance. They knew God's works, but they did not know His ways.

Here's Danielle kicking off our summer series in the Psalms.

Here's James drawing our four-part series in Philippians to a close, and helping us consider how a less anxious heart might free us up to pour our lives out for others. The writer Paul invites us all to school up on the secret to contentment and rejoice in the Lord always.
 
James mentioned a wonderful Christian organisation, but gave the wrong name. So to clarify, ‘Mind and Soul’ have some great resources on things like stress, managing change, resilience, leadership and grief. Here is their website if anyone is interested… https://www.mindandsoulfoundation.org .
 
James also mentioned therapist, Jo Hargreaves’s ideas on gratitude and anxiety. https://www.instagram.com/thefaithfilledtherapist?igsh=MXBsZHI3cGRoYXNkaw==  and drew a lot of his thinking from Max Lucado's book, 'Anxious for Nothing'.

Here's Freya sharing from Philippians 3 as we continued our series in Paul's letter to the Philippians, where we discover God's love abounding through Paul despite his circumstances. Freya challenged us on where we find our confidence and to come to know the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ our Lord.

Here's Phil sharing for Philippians 2 as we continued to explore how God's love can be poured out into our whole lives, no matter what our circumstances are. God's love cannot be boxed in. It will abound.
Phil helped us to consider what is ours in Christ and how loved we are by Him. So loved in fact, that we do not need to grasp at anything for a sense of significance or security. Instead, we can selflessly love others and be wholeheartedly obedient to God, because we know who we are to Him and we have nothing else to gain or prove.

Here's James Collie sharing from Philippians 1 as we began our new 4-week series exploring God's love being poured out in and out of Paul's prison cell as he wrote to encourage the early church.

Here's Danielle sharing at our end of year celebration, where we marked a year of our student community living together. Danielle shared to us from 1 Samuel 7 and encouraged us all, regardless of whether we have been at university or not this year, to look back and trace the goodness of God through our lives.

Here's James sharing from Acts 2 as we celebrated Pentecost Sunday at our all age service.
----
This recording begins with a spoken word rendering of Acts 2, beautifully written by Rachel Hood ( https://www.instagram.com/rachaelhoodwrites/  ) for a video by 'Go Chatter Studios'. We have adapted the script slightly for the purposes of last Sunday. Please see the original video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpU8GM32EOc . And to support the work of Go Chatter Studios, you can donate here - https://gochatterstudios.org/give .

This week marked the final week of our Gifts of Grace series, as we explored the spiritual gift Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12 as “gifts of healing.” At some point, many of us will find ourselves desperate to know whether God still heals: when sickness comes, when a loved one is suffering, or when pain feels beyond our control.
Paul’s answer is a resounding yes: God heals, and He chooses to administer healing through ordinary people like us. Paul uses the phrase “gifts of healings” — both words are plural. Healing is not a permanent status or title someone possesses, but a moment-by-moment grace God may give for particular people and situations.
This protects us from making the gift about ourselves. We are not spiritual specialists who carry power in ourselves. Jesus is the Healer. God graciously allows to participate. Healing is His responsibility; availability is ours.

Our friend Glynis Matchett from New Wine Ireland helped us explore the spiritual gift Paul names in 1 Corinthians 12 as the ability to distinguish between spirits. This gift is a gift of discernment. It is the Spirit-given ability to recognise what is truly from God, what is simply human, and what may be spiritually harmful or deceptive. In a world full of voices, influences, impressions, emotions, and spiritual activity, this gift helps the Church remain faithful to Jesus.