Ed Flint

,

Jesus, power for good.

,
Jesus, power for good.

In a rare moment when Jesus does not appear in the gospel, Mark tells the story of Herod’s beheading of John the Baptist.

Herod’s story is a cautionary one about the misery that comes when someone devotes their life to the pursuit of earthly power. Where Herod’s power destroys, Jesus’ power, exemplified in the life of John, by contrast, creates, redeems and sets free. It’s his power that we are made for and we find it by dying to our broken versions of power and rising with him in his mighty strength.

By Ed Flint

,

Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath.

,
Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath.

Jesus declares himself Lord of the Sabbath. This is less about him arguing over Sabbath law, and more about him establishing his Lordship over everything, including that which we most hold dear.

This is confrontational and necessarily requires his hearers, as well as us, to consider where our hearts have wandered to other gods. When we’re confronted like this we have a choice: we can react defensively, with avoidance, or rejection. Or we can choose to humble ourselves and receive his Lordship over our lives - to do so is to experience not enslavement but freedom, life not death. His offer is of Sabbath rest for all of us - reconnection to God, and life as it was alway intended.

By Ed Flint

,

Jesus, the forgiver of sins.

,
Jesus, the forgiver of sins.

Jesus first encounters opposition to his ministry when he begins to proclaim the forgiveness of sin.

Things get confrontational when Jesus refuses to be limited to the surface issues of our lives. Declaring himself as the one who forgives sin means not only equating himself with God, but tells us we have a fundamental problem which only He can solve.

Often our requests to Jesus reveal that we only really want him to scratch the surface issues of our lives. But Jesus is primarily fixated on the state of our hearts. If we let him, he will transform our hearts to be ones after his own. This is where lasting peace, joy, praise, and freedom is to be found.

By Ed Flint

,

Jesus, the inaugurator of the Kingdom.

,
Jesus, the inaugurator of the Kingdom.

Jesus’ first public pronouncement concerns the arrival of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is God’s just rule over the universe where all pain and evil cease and joy and peace abound. The Kingdom has come because Jesus, the King, has come. So entrance into the Kingdom is available to all who follow him. Its markers are evil banished, the sick healed, and the authority of Jesus revealed.

By Ed Flint

,

Jesus, the prophesied one.

,
Jesus, the prophesied one.

Jesus doesn’t enter the world in a vacuum, he’s the long awaited Messiah. But he’s more than a human deliverer. He’s the divine Son of God.

This intro to the series is an invitation to expand our view of who Jesus is, and a challenge where we’ve restricted who we’re willing to let him to be.

By Ed Flint

,

Sabbatical Reflections: Living with limits.

,
Sabbatical Reflections: Living with limits.

Part of maturing as a Christian is learning to identify and live within the limits God places on our lives. There are limits to our capacity, our resources, our gifting and our calling. When we push beyond the boundaries of where God would have us we end up causing ourselves and others pain, and harming our relationship with him. We do this inevitably when we reject God’s lordship of our lives and choose to become arbiters of our own destiny. Jesus calls us back to himself. He loves us too much to see us hurt ourselves by stretching ourselves too thin. We can trust his limits to enable us to thrive.

By Ed Flint

,

Seven Years: The value of the experience of the holy spirit.

,
Seven Years: The value of the experience of the holy spirit.

We were made for experience and the Bible is a book of countless peoples' experience of the one true God. And yet for many, their Christian faith has become more about belief and behavior than experience. Pentecost is the day we celebrate the Holy Spirit being poured out on all believers. He meets us as a felt experience and a powerful experience. He renews and empowers. There is always more of him. And the more full of him we are, the more we will live the lives we were created for. So, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

By Ed Flint

,

Seven Years: The value of generosity.

,
Seven Years: The value of generosity.

Before bread was even a church, people connected with the idea of bread have been incredibly generous towards it. We want to continue that marker of generosity in everything we do.

This should be no surprise. To be a Christian is to be generous: it is who we are. The more we experience God’s grace - his unmerited generosity - the more generous we become. The key is having him as our bottomline, as opposed to money, or success, or anything else.

When we operate from grace, our giving becomes active and regular, rather than passive and irregular. And the benefits are invaluable- God's glory and His kingdom extended in our lives and all the lives of those connected to us.

By Ed Flint

,

Seven Years: The value of rest.

,
Seven Years: The value of rest.

The importance of rest is instituted in the very first verses of the Bible. After six days of creation, God rests. We, as people made in his image, are called to rest like him. Sabbath is more than just a day off each week. Sabbath means to stop, rest - but also to delight in creation, worship God and receive from him. A regular weekly rhythm of rest is essential for us to live as the images of God we were created to be.

By Ed Flint

,

Seven Years: The value of team.

,
Seven Years: The value of team.

The goal of any church is to build the kingdom of God. And that can best be done when we work together as a team. What it means to be part of a team is demonstrated brilliantly by Barnabas in the book of Acts. Barnabas was a wonderful encourager. And we can be too. Encouragement dispels fear, promotes grace, releases potential and restores the fallen. Bread has had some excellent encouragers down the years. Let’s continue! The more we receive the encouragement of God, whose spirit is the Great Encourager, the more we will be empowered to encourage one another.

By Ed Flint

,

Easter is about hope.

,
Easter is about hope.

Easter is about hope: the sure, concrete, touchable hope that is found in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. It’s a hope based in his power (he swallows up death forever) and based in his kindness (he wipes every tear from all faces). Easter declares Jesus as Lord of all, which sets us free from having to bear the burden of being our own lord. His lordship sets us free to worship and surrender and be made alive by his power and in his kindness.

By Ed Flint

,

Galatians: freedom for faith.

,
Galatians: freedom for faith.

Our beliefs govern our behavior. Paul confronts Peter who has stopped believing in the fullness of the grace of Jesus. As a result, his behavior has become divisive and hypocritical. Paul reminds him and us of the truths of the gospel. When we believe the correct thing about God, ourselves, and the world, godly behavior will follow. We become people not bound by the law, but free to live lives of faith and of the Spirit.

By Ed Flint

ALPHA - Week 5: The Bible

Alpha is a six week course exploring the big questions of life. It’s for anyone interested in discussing spirituality, god and the christian faith, in a non-judgmental open-minded context. Each week there’s a great meal, a short talk, and discussion in small groups. People who come to the course are from lots of different backgrounds - no faith, other faiths, brought up christian, and agnostic. Everyone is welcome. Catch up on each week’s talk here.

,

Galatians: freedom from gracelessness.

,
Galatians: freedom from gracelessness.

There is no more important word for a Christian than the word ‘grace’. It is the beginning, middle and end of the Christian life. Its vital importance is seen in how passionately Paul responds to the Galatians who have had the gospel of grace polluted with gracelessness. We are all susceptible to doing something similar. So let us have the same no-holds-barred response of Paul. We should take no prisoners in our battle to hold the shocking grace of Jesus, in all his unconditional love, unconditional forgiveness, and unconditional rescue of us, at the very heart of our lives.

By Ed Flint

ALPHA - Week 4: Prayer

ALPHA - Week 4: Prayer

Alpha is a six week course exploring the big questions of life. It’s for anyone interested in discussing spirituality, god and the christian faith, in a non-judgmental open-minded context. Each week there’s a great meal, a short talk, and discussion in small groups. People who come to the course are from lots of different backgrounds - no faith, other faiths, brought up christian, and agnostic. Everyone is welcome. Catch up on each week’s talk here.

,

Moses: pass it on.

,
Moses: pass it on.

In this final talk on Moses, we look at how Moses passes leadership on to his successor Joshua. We, like Moses, are called to do all we can to help the next generation of leaders emerge, and to do all we can to help them succeed. And, like Joshua, we’re called to develop both our gifts and character so that we can best step up into leadership when the opportunity and God’s call come. The challenge for all of us is like Moses - to find younger leaders we can invest in; and like Joshua - be the sort of person more mature leaders want to develop. The kingdom of God is, fundamentally a kingdom of people. So when our attitude is, ‘How can I best develop my gifts to serve others, whilst working to help others thrive so they can best serve too?’ God’s kingdom grows.

By Ed Flint

ALPHA - Week 3: Why Did Jesus Die?

ALPHA - Week 3: Why Did Jesus Die?

Alpha is a six week course exploring the big questions of life. It’s for anyone interested in discussing spirituality, god and the christian faith, in a non-judgmental open-minded context. Each week there’s a great meal, a short talk, and discussion in small groups. People who come to the course are from lots of different backgrounds - no faith, other faiths, brought up christian, and agnostic. Everyone is welcome. Catch up on each week’s talk here.

,

Moses: believe in more.

,
Moses: believe in more.

Moses risks everything to pursue God’s presence. Even though God promises to deliver his people, to protect them from their enemies, and to bring blessing, that God’s presence won’t go with them is not enough for Moses. This never-ending desire for more of God is at the heart of what it is to be a leader. We follow Moses in this by admitting where we’ve lost God’s presence and doing everything we can to regain it. The reward is nothing less than the felt experience of God’s goodness.

By Ed Flint

ALPHA - Week 2: Jesus and the Evidence for the Resurrection

ALPHA - Week 2: Jesus and the Evidence for the Resurrection

Alpha is a six week course exploring the big questions of life. It’s for anyone interested in discussing spirituality, god and the christian faith, in a non-judgmental open-minded context. Each week there’s a great meal, a short talk, and discussion in small groups. People who come to the course are from lots of different backgrounds - no faith, other faiths, brought up christian, and agnostic. Everyone is welcome. Catch up on each week’s talk here.

ALPHA - Week 1: Who are you? What are you for?

ALPHA - Week 1: Who are you? What are you for?

Alpha is a six week course exploring the big questions of life. It’s for anyone interested in discussing spirituality, god and the christian faith, in a non-judgmental open-minded context. Each week there’s a great meal, a short talk, and discussion in small groups. People who come to the course are from lots of different backgrounds - no faith, other faiths, brought up christian, and agnostic. Everyone is welcome. Catch up on each week’s talk here