Living Mosaic’s motto - know freedom (part 2)

Back in January I encouraged us to think about making Paul's breathtaking statement from Philippians 1:21, "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain," our motto for the year and how if we did this it would lead to true freedom. We're now coming up to halfway through the year and I wonder how you feel you are getting on? Can you say that for the first 5 months of 2009 "for me to live is Christ"? Today I want to look at the second part of the statement "to die is gain" and again help us understand what it is to live 'in freedom'.

magine if you met someone in the streets who said “I would like to die”. What would you think? You’d probably think they needed help and were emotionally unstable. You’d probably try and comfort them and persuade them that wishing to die wasn’t a very good thing. However, the great apostle Paul was so confident of what would happen when he died that he was looking forward to it. Although death is an evil intruder into God’s perfect world, through his death and resurrection Christ defeated death once and for all meaning that those who are “in Christ” have no need to fear death; death has lost its sting (1 Corinthians 15:43-57). For a Christian, death is no more than falling asleep and waking up in the arms of your Creator and Paul knew that. He knew that if he died he’d go to a place that was “better by far”.

The practical implications of this are enormous because if you do not fear death then you will not fear anything. If death doesn’t threaten you, nothing will. If you can stare death in the face with confidence you can stare anything in the face with confidence. If you know death can’t ultimately harm you then you’ll know that nothing can ultimately harm you.

Look at Paul’s example: Paul sits in a prison cell, his freedom and comfortable lifestyle have been taken away from him (1:12-14); Paul is being slandered by fellow Christian leaders who are using his imprisonment as a way of ‘getting one up’ on him (1:15-18). However Paul is not down, Paul is not fearful, Paul is not anxious; he is full of confidence and joy. For Paul, knowing Christ and knowing that death was defeated meant that he could lose his physical freedom, lose his reputation and even lose his very life but he could never lose his greatest joy, Jesus. That is why he says “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain”. He was free! Nothing could take Jesus away from him - not even death. In fact, death was only “gain” because then he would see Jesus face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12).

If you want to know true freedom, you not only have to put Christ first and know him as your greatest joy; you also need to be confident that nothing, not even death, can take away that joy. Why not take a few moments now to (1) ask yourself if Christ really is your greatest joy in life and (2) whether you really do know that he has conquered the grave and that “to die is gain”.

Let’s live by this motto and know true freedom.

God bless
STEVE

LOVE:NATIONS

Even though I'm absolutely shattered, my mind is still racing trying to take in all that has happened in the last few days. What an incredible weekend!

Our hope for LOVE:NATIONS was to create a passion for global mission using a mixture of worship, drama, prayer and preaching.  Our prayer was for God to share his heart for the people of the world with us.  All I can say is that he did that..and then some!

I think the presence of the Holy Spirit was thicker and more tangible than I can ever remember at Mosaic.  God spoke again and again though the excellent preaching of Dave Devenish who taught from the book of Jonah and his many prophetic contributions.  Jon Darby led our worship with incredible annointing and skill.  David Capener (Belfast)  and Andy Martin (Bedford) provided some raw, honest and practical seminars helping us apply all that we were hearing.

All the visiting speakers were amazed at the number of people volunteering and serving hard behind the scenes.  All of them told me how much the enjoyed the weekend and Andy Martin didn’t want to leave! 

The talks will be online shortly and I’ll post some photos soon.

Love Holbeck - bigger and better!

Back in January we did our first ever Love Holbeck day which was a huge success and this time was no different. In fact we managed to make it even bigger and better....we even had sunshine!

Firstly, a huge thanks to everyone who came and helped out, especially those on set up and set down; it was great to see so many of you there. And a special thanks must go to Louise Wood who did all the work behind the scenes to make it happen.

In terms of the event itself; hot off the heels of their cup success the footy boys (including Matt Hobbs & his broken leg) ran the football cage. Emily Bosworth, despite battling hyper-active boys managed to keep the masses entertained with parachute games. Jenni Hill did stirling work again with the arts and crafts. Jade Beakhouse, Lydia DeSaintOurs and their teams were busy hair braiding and face painting and Jane Mitchell oversaw the huge quantities of food and drink (thanks again to Jos McLaren’s mission group for making so many cakes!).

Mark Sunderland led the way with the music and was followed unexpectedly by a brilliant team of African drummer, headed up by our very own Anselm. They brought a carnival-style feel to the whole event with their funky rhythms and smooth voices. After that we finished with the dulcet tones of Mikey Walker who nearly got one of the elderly locals dancing along - he certainly had the biggest fan club (and the cheesiest selection of songs). It was also great to see some members of City Evangelical pop down to help out as well.

However the event is all about “loving Holbeck” and the highlight for me was talking to various local people who had remembered us, were pleased that we had come back and were really enjoying the day. I spoke to one lady who was very keen to speak to a certain Mosaic person because she had remembered their conversation and had really appreciated it. That is why we do it and it really feels, with more and more of the church moving into the area, like we are starting to build relationships with the locals which is fantastic.

Next we are joining in with the Holbeck Gala on Saturday 11th July - so get the date in your diary, come along, muck in and LOVE HOLBECK!

Annual Report 08-09

Roughly twice a year we gather everyone at Mosaic to look together at some of the highlights of our community life then talk about our hopes and challenges for the coming year. This church wide meeting is a crucial communication point for the church. Anyone can ask anything (and usually do) about the running of the church.

Last Sunday we held this meeting and if you missed it, here is the annual report which summarises all that we presented. Enjoy!
Download the Annual Report 08-09