The Salvation Army Chatham

This week we begin with congratulations to our two young people who have received A level examination results this week. Further education now beckons for Rachel Abbott and Matt Smith. Matt has been offered a place at the University of Roehampton and, at the time of writing, we are still waiting to hear about Rachel.

Rachel & Matt

We anticipate having more exam results to bring you next week.

Now to Sunday. In the morning our meeting was led by Major Drew who took as his theme ‘Jesus and Faith’. Songs chosen from the Salvation Army Song Book were 17, 754, 645 and 769 and from Songs of Fellowship, 707 and 841. Two references to scripture were brought, Hebrews 12:1-2 and Mark 2:1-12 and musical ministry was brought by the Singing Company, with ‘Sing, Children, Sing!’ and the Songsters, with ‘Shine on Us’.

In his message Drew said how is your faith? Faith can be looked at in three ways, faith in action, faith shared and the length and breadth of faith. It is not just words. It requires us to do something even if there are obstacles to what we want to do. So what is our reaction to the barriers that sometimes appear? These we must overcome and, in doing so, find Jesus. Not with independence but with inter-dependence. ‘God so loved the THE WORLD!’ We need each other and sharing our faith brings mutual encouragement. It also gives us more than we expect. We can do things beyond our expectations. We can indeed ‘rise up and walk’ and we are taken beyond the understanding we have of our faith. This freedom removes limitations. It will help us to allow friends to support us when in need because God loves us and wants us to have the best. At the conclusion of the message many people recorded their prayers for others at the front of the hall.

Major Drew McCombe

In the evening Major Beverley was the leader and she chose songs 48, 741, 773 and 504 from the Salvation Army Song Book together with 514 and 707 from Songs of Fellowship. Scripture used was Psalm 103 and Hebrews 10: 35-39 and music provided by the Songsters was  ‘Somebody Prayed for Me’.  Once again a period of personal testimony was included.

‘The Righteous shall live by Faith’ was Beverley’s theme and she asked what do you rely on to get you through life? Sometimes the law cannot be relied upon to protect people. Does that sound familiar? God often raises people to do something for Him who you would least expect to do it. This may not always make sense to us as people of faith and we can be troubled and perplexed by it. We ask ‘where is God – why isn’t He doing something?’ In these situations we must have faith and listen to what God has to say. Pride, self-sufficiency and greed have no place, just trust in God. Salvation is through faith and we must not be afraid of it. The highs and lows of faith are not that important if they are about our feelings. Too many Christians are miserable and downtrodden because they try to live by law and not by faith in Jesus. Only faith in the truth of the gospel is required to gain eternal life because Jesus has, himself, done all that is necessary. So what is living by faith? It is simply reaching out to God for everything. That is what we must rely on to get us through life.

Major Beverley McCombe

Today we have at last begun the work of alteration to our building, the first stage of the development of our premises as a community ‘hub’. For the next twelve weeks our building will undergo a makeover which will make it more attractive to members of the public. It will be possible to use the building for all the normal midweek activities but on Sundays we shall have to make different arrangements. Being the Bank Holiday weekend we shall only have one meeting next Sunday (10am) and this will be in our secondary hall in our Church Street premises. However, after that we shall hold our morning meeting in the Fort Pitt Grammar School for Girls (10am) and we shall be sharing worship in the evenings with our friends at the Emmaus Church in Clover Street (6.30pm). We look forward to meeting all who wish to worship with us.

God Bless and have a great week.