Last week's service started with a beautiful time of praise and worship, with a sense of the presence of God.
A visiting speaker, John Angliss from Reading, spoke about all the different names of God. The Bible uses different names throughout when referring to God and these names tell us about God and His character.
One of God's names means 'the Lord will provide', from the story in Genesis 22 of how Abraham obeyed God and was prepared to sacrifice his son, but then God provided a lamb instead. In the same way, God provided His own son Jesus, known as 'the Lamb of God', to be a sacrifice on the cross for us to take the punishment for our sin.
One of the promises of God to His people is 'I am the Lord who heals you' (Exodus 15v26). There are lots of Bible verses which talk about God making us completely whole and healed inside and out because of Jesus dying on the cross, because 'by His wounds we are healed' (Isaiah 53v5).
In Exodus 17, we see that 'the Lord is my banner', as God helps us to fight against what is wrong and helps us to do what is right, just like He helped Moses to fight his enemies. Another name of God means 'the Lord is peace'.
When we trust in Jesus, he makes peace with God for us and we have our relationship with God our Father restored to us. Then we can give our worries and anxieties to God and He gives us peace 'that passes all understanding"' (Philippians 4v7).
In Psalm 23, we learn that 'the Lord is my Shepherd'. Jesus said 'I am the good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep' (John 10v11). He wants to lead and guide us into places and situations which are safe and good for us.
'The Lord is our Righteousness' - we are not good enough ourselves to come up to God's holy standards, 'all our righteousness is like filthy rags' (Isaiah 64v6), but Jesus took on the burden of sin for us so that we could become right with God. Jesus fulfils God's standards so when we accept Jesus in our lives God accepts us too because of Jesus' righteousness and holiness.
'The Lord is present' - when we belong to God, His presence is with us and He stays with us always. Jesus says to His followers 'I will never leave you or forsake you' (Hebrews 13v5).
Pastor Jonathan Fiddy is available on (01834) 871975, and the website is emmanuelgospelministries.org. All are welcome to services on Sundays at 10.15 am.