No. 121 
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To stop receiving the 'Summerstown Contact', ring the church telephone on 020 8944 7229 any day after 10pm and leave a brief message on our answer-phone (we don't answer the phone at this time) telling us your address and that you don't want the 'Summerstown Contact' to be delivered any more. More over ... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Summerstown Mission Evangelical Church Blackshaw Road, London, SW17 0BY Tel: 020 8944 7229 Pastor: Peter Bines Tel: 020 8684 5241 email: peter@smec.org.uk London City Missionary: Graham Jones Tel: 020 8682 2978 www.smec.org.uk email: enquiries@smec.org.uk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In our modern society, many people think that believing in Jesus is a waste of time and irrelevant to them. As pizza menus are often classified as 'Junk Mail', so Christianity has become to some 'Junk Religion'.
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It's not all one way though. The God that I know wants me to be loving and kind to others, to be honest in everything that I do (including my tax return!) and to acknowledge that He knows best, not me.
So is God 'unknown' to you? He doesn't have to stay that way. Why don't you try getting to know Him? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Perhaps the easiest way that you can get to know Him is to meet some of His friends, so how about coming to our church on a Sunday morning at 11am? We have a lively service and many people have told us how friendly we are. Come along and see what you think! Lee Sanders (Youth Leader)
1) What percentage of household waste in Wandsworth was recycled in 2006/7? Answers on back page ... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The small print: All photos copyright Lee Sanders, except: Altar, copyright A.H.M on Flickr (www.flickr.com/afree87) using licence 'Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 Generic'; door knocker copyright The Memory Company, Baltimore; location map copyright SMEC. Bible Scriptures marked 'NIV' are taken from the New International Version Copyright (c) International Bible Society. |
'Junk mail' means different things to different people. Even the UK's anti-junk mail website (www.stopjunkmail.org.uk) recognises that different people object to different things. 'Junk mail' invariably applies to 'commercial leaflets', but does not always include free newspapers, political party leaflets or local newsletters such as this.
So we conducted a small survey by asking a number of people at the door if they thought that the 'Summerstown Contact' was junk mail. Once they realised that it was not a pizza menu, they all agreed that it was not junk mail.
But this idea is certainly not new. When the apostle Paul was in Athens (about 70AD) talking about Jesus, a local group of philosophers said, "What is this babbler trying to say?" (The Bible, Acts 17 v 18 - NIV). They obviously weren't immediately impressed by what they heard.
People today are still very religious, but sadly they often put their faith in vague hopes like the new age or various fashionable Eastern philosophies. Some people believe in God but don't go to church because they see it as boring or unfriendly. Others don't want to know a God who they believe is angry and distant. Many people have heard about Jesus but know very little about Him. Very often people prefer to believe in a mystical force rather than a superhuman being. For many, 'God' and 'Jesus' are just swear-words.
The bad news is that God is perfect and has a serious problem with the fact that we fall short of what He rightly requires of us. The good news is that He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to deal with our imperfections and make us look good to Him. The best news of all is that we just need to ask and believe: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will
find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
(The Bible, Matthew 7 v 7 - NIV)
