Everyone’s welcome at Bellshill Central Church on a Sunday morning, particularly in person but also online if you can’t come. We start at 11am.
Our next three services are:
Sunday 5th February
Our theme is Praise and saying thank you! We’ll have some favourite Happy hymns, have a video for the kids and big kids, and our worship team will lead us in prayers and some readings and reflection. After this service tea and coffee are served in the hall.
Some hymns include
Jubilate
To God be the Glory
Our God is a great big God
And more…………..
Sunday 12th February
The theme is Love is all around. This is the Sunday nearest to St Valentines day so we need to talk about LOVE! A worship team will lead us in our prayers and readings.
How can we share love with others?
How can we share God’s love?
Come along and find out!
Some hymns include:
The King of love
I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart
Love divine
You shall go out with joy
Sunday 19th February
Alan Mathew will take a service for Thinking Day 2023 and we look forward to seeing all our Rainbows, Brownies and Guides.
The theme is Creation and looking after our planet and saying thank you to God for all he’s provided.
Our youth organisations have some rewards to present and will renew their promises.
Shortly before He went to the cross, Jesus prayed for unity among His followers: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:11).
Later in the same prayer, Jesus asked “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us. . . . I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity” (John 17:21–23). Obviously, Christian unity is important to our Lord.
Jesus not only prayed for unity, but He gave the reasons that Christian unity is important: He asked that all believers may be in the Father and the Son, “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). And then Jesus prayed for “complete unity” so that “the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (verse 23). When Christians are united in Christ, the world sees two things clearly: Jesus was sent by the Father, and Jesus loves His church.
In Romans 15:5–6, we see another, more general reason that Christian unity is important: “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (ESV). The bottom line is God’s glory. God’s people should be speaking with one voice in glorifying God.
Christian unity comes with Christian maturity, and it is always something that we strive to attain. Paul instructs us to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). Helping us toward that unity are the gifts of the Spirit. God has given each Christian different gifts, and their exercise in the edification of the church leads to more and more unity. One purpose of the gifts is that “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
To promote Christian unity, God presents the church in 1 Corinthians 12:12–27 as a living body. The body has many members, each with specialized work to do, but all the parts are united in the Head of the Body, which is Christ (see Ephesians 4:15).
Christians naturally form local communities in which no one needs to rejoice or suffer alone (Romans 12:15; 1 Corinthians 12:26). Christians from many different backgrounds working in unity display the power of the gospel and the universality of its saving message (Galatians 3:26–28). Christians bring honor to God’s name by pursuing unity in the power of the Holy Spirit who brings us together as one through faith in Christ.
Christian unity is a virtue, but there are some things that can and should limit unity. We don’t pursue unity simply for the sake of unity; it is Christ and His truth that unite us. Scripturally, we are to separate from professed brothers and sisters in Christ who live in persistent, unrepentant sin (Matthew 18:15–17; 1 Corinthians 5:1–2) and from those who teach false doctrine (Revelation 2:14–15). “Watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them” (Romans 16:17).
As Ephesians 4:13 intimates, we won’t reach full Christian unity until we attain “to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” So we probably won’t fully realize Christian unity in this world. But we strive for it. The unity that faith in Christ brings extends God’s love on earth and demonstrates the truth of who Jesus is. Unity in the church also foreshadows the worship in heaven, where a great multitude “from every nation, tribe, people and language” stands before God and cries out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9–10).
Christian Unity….. is anyone actually interested? As Christians it is important that we put aside petty differences and share in our common belief of God, our common belief in the power of prayer and the good that it can do.
Bellshill Central Church is hosting a service for ALL on Sunday 22nd January at 3pm. This is an ecumenical service for all faiths.
All Churches have been invited. Please come along and make sure your church is represented.
In Ukraine, the fighting has intensified, but the church remains a symbol of hope for many. Join us as we reflect on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s words after visiting local partners and persist in our prayers for peace.
Since the conflict began, Tear Fund’s local church partners have been able to reach tens of thousands of people in need – inside Ukraine and in neighbouring countries. Alongside providing shelter, food and trauma support, they are also running art therapy classes and children’s groups.
Just before Christmas, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, visited one of the local partners to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine and to see what more could be done to support people.
During his trip, the Archbishop met with church leaders, as well as people who had fled the violence, so he could hear firsthand what people were going through. He also went to Irpin and Bucha to see the devastation caused by the fighting there last spring.
‘We stand with you’
The Archbishop referred to his visit as ‘a tiny gesture of solidarity with a suffering yet courageous people. It was about saying to them, you’re not forgotten; we pray for you, we support you, we stand with you, and we’ll advocate for you.
‘Five to six hundred years before Jesus Christ, Isaiah prophesied that justice and peace will come at some point, that weapons will be turned into ploughshares (Isaiah 2:4). And yet we stand amidst godless leaders ruling by violence and fear, with armies struggling by night. At the time of Isaiah, people were living in a similar world, in the shadow of death, in darkness, exile, suffering, famine, and torture.
‘Just think of that: Jesus was recognised after his resurrection most often by the scars on his hands and feet and side; the church is not a place of retreating from the world… Ukraine spoke deeply to me, passionately, of a church enduring with the people who endured — not separate, not privileged, not special, but full of love and the grace of God…
‘The revolution that came at Christmas — of light in the world — is alive now in churches shining into the darkness.’
BELLSHILL: CENTRAL PARISH CHURCH OF SCOTLAND 