Dawn of our Autumn Classes.... Wednesday 17 September

Watch this space...... Wednesday 17 September is CBSI Swiss Cottage D Day

CBSI SWISS COTTAGE WILL RESUME IN SEPTEMBER -

WITH THE FIRST CLASS SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY 17 OF SEPTEMBER 2014.

CLASS WILL BE AT HOLY TRINITY SWISS COTTAGE (OPPOSITE FINCHLEY ROAD STATION) 

 AS USUAL, 10 - NOON.

PLEASE JOIN US AND PLEASE BRING A FRIEND!!

For more information please contact us:

E: cbsiswisscottage@gmail.com

Blog: http://communitybiblestudylondon.blogspot.co.uk/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CBSISC

Wednesday June 11th, 2014 LAST CLASS FOR THIS YEAR

DEAR FRIENDS THANK YOU FOR THE FELLOWSHIP THIS PAST YEAR.

AS WE BREAK FOR THE SUMMER, WE WILL CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER, AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO OPEN OUR BIBLES TO SEEK GOD'S GUIDANCE.

CBSI SWISS COTTAGE WILL RESUME IN SEPTEMBER - WITH THE FIRST CLASS SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY THE 17TH OF SEPTEMBER 2014.

CLASS WILL BE AT HOLY TRINITY SWISS COTTAGE AS USUAL, 10 - NOON.

PLEASE JOIN US AND PLEASE BRING A FRIEND!!

For more information please email: 
cbsiswisscottage@gmail.com

Wednesday June 4th, 2014 REVIEW 1 JOHN

Wednesday June 4th, 2014.

Review of 1 John

We learned that some of our class members will not be able to attend our last day of class! We wish you a wonderful summer break and look forward to seeing you again September 17th, 2014.
Keep praying and spending time reading your Bible over the summer...& God Bless.....

Exactly one week ago, last Wednesday, 28th May 2014, the world lost a great soul: Maya Angelou. Writer, activist, peace maker, teacher...warrior for tolerance and equality, she had some beautiful quotes:

"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope."

"I know for sure love saves me and that it is here to save us all."

And her last tweet was:  
"Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God."

I know, you are thinking, ok, what does Maya Angelou have to do with 1 John?  
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

1 John is about love, more than anything else...it is virtually impossible to read this little book and miss the emphasis it places on love. The word LOVE occurs more than 50 times in the book of 1 John.  John looks at love in three forms:  God’s love for us, our love for Him and our love for one another!

Families are built upon love and thrive upon love. One of the parallel topics on love is that we are part of God’s family.  We are his children.

I’ve been saying that John is the author of this book, but the author of 1 John does not identify himself. Most people believe it is John who divinely wrote this book, his words inspired by God. John was one of Jesus’ inner circle, and may have even been a first cousin of Jesus (his mother Salome would have been Mary’s sister).

The letter is clearly written to believers, but the letter does not indicate who they are or where they lived.  No specific destination is mentioned.  The letter reads more like a sermon, and is clearly written to believers.  It could have been a letter sent to circulate to a number of Christians in a number of places.  

John would have been elderly at the time of writing 80s or 90s.  Like a loving grandfather at the end of his years, perhaps John wants to reminisce a bit, and encourage, and pass on wisdom.  Can you not hear a great grandfather saying...now remember this my child….now do not forget this...now I must tell you this….I hear this sweet endearing voice in this letter.  God is using John to combat the gnostics who claimed Jesus came in spirit only, not in body.  John makes it very clear from verse 1..that which we have looked upon, and our hands have touched, going back to that eye witness testimony.

Besides the theme of love and being a child of God, another interesting aspect of this book is the use of contrasts or opposites...did you notice that?

Here are some key verses from 1 John:

1:1 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.

v 5-10 darkness & light - sin is darkness...light is being purified by Jesus, and seeking holiness

1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Chapter 2 - loving your fellow believers, not loving the world, remain in Christ!

Chapter 3 -

3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

1John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

People who need love will ask for it in the most unloving of ways.

Chapter 4:   Warning against denying Christ in the flesh

1 John 4:4, "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

1 John 4:7  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  

1 John 5:13, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

The Book of 1 John is a book of love and joy. It explains the fellowship we have with others and with Jesus Christ. It differentiates between happiness, which is temporary and fleeting, and true joy, which 1 John tells us how to achieve. If we take the words written by John and we apply them to our daily lives, the true love, commitment, fellowship, and joy we long for will be ours.

Wednesday May 21st, 2014 1 John 5

Wednesday May 21st, 2014

1 John 5

There is no class on Wednesday May 28th due to half-term holidays for most UK schools.
Enjoy the week!!

We have two remaining classes for this year:  June 4th and June 11th.

DO NOT MISS OUT!!

These will be amazing gatherings as we reflect upon God's goodness this past year in CBSi and see the fruits of studying this, God's Amazing Book, the Bible!

1 John Chapter 5

Faith and its Certainties

OVERVIEW:

Jesus helps us to overcome the world (v 1-5)

Jesus gives us life (6-12)

Jesus gives us confidence (13-21)

Jesus helps us to overcome the world 1 John 5:1-5

Our faith helps us to live in a broken world, with hope and power to overcome the world! What a mighty power that is!!

v. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God:  by loving God and carrying out his commands.

Keeping God’s commands is “not burdensome”, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. v 3-4

You know what is burdensome?  The world - the deception that we suffer when we buy into materialism, busy-ness, lust, greed, jealousy, indulgences.  What is burdensome - ME, when I try to plan my day, my activities, and I am SO BUSY.  Are any of you others SO BUSY….this is another lie of the world that we buy in to.  If we are busy then we must be really important right?  we must be needed, we must be doing all the things we need to do….busy busy busy...doing what?  I really don’t know sometimes.

Keeping God’s commands is not burdensome.  It is simple - loving God and loving each other.

Faith gives us life 1 John 5:6-12

Believing in Jesus gives us life

v. 11 God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son.  Whoever has the son has life.

This section is about believing Jesus...this is our faith.  John is telling us about his dear friend, Jesus.  He was with him, and now wants to tell us about him. We have faith in his word.  

v 10 those who do not believe God have made him out to be a liar.

Flying a kite requires some faith, and some wind!

Have you ever flown a kite?  Parliament hill is a great place to fly a kite...

There is a story of a boy who was flying a kite….maybe it was on Hampstead Heath.  

The kite was flying so high that it had disappeared into the clouds. A man came by and asked the boy, 'What are you doing, son, holding on to that string?'  The boy smiled and replied, 'Sir, I am flying a kite!' The man looked up once, then looked again, and said, 'I don't see it up there.' The boy quickly replied, 'Well, Sir, I know it's up there because I can feel the tug.

This is like the witness of the Holy Spirit within us. We may not be able to see it, or always see the evidence of it, but we can feel the tug in our hearts constantly, letting us know that we are in touch with God.

CAN YOU FEEL THE TUG?

Our faith is like that.  We feel the tug.  We know God is there.  We cannot SEE God, we cannot touch Jesus.  But we know that HE IS there.  We read about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we share stories of how they are powerfully working in our lives and the lives of people everywhere.  We feel the tug.  And when we follow that tug, and keep flying that kite, and believe in Jesus, we have LIFE (v. 12)

Faith gives us confidence (v 13-21)

v 13 John explains again why he is writing

v 14 John encourages us with the confidence we have in Christ

v 18, 19, 20 We KNOW…so many assurances!!

Finally, last verse….

verse 21: Dear Children, keep yourselves from idols.

Whoa.... where does this come from?  Isn’t it an odd way to end the letter?!

Well most agree it is unusual, but it makes sense here for a lot of reasons:

--John is very elderly, he is looking at all of us believers as “dear children”

--he knows we are like children in the sense that we learn slowly, making the same mistakes over and over.  He is patient and kind with us.  Idols are a real picture of disobedience, the world, falling away, not loving God….much of what he is talking about in this book.

SO, to summarize,

this is a powerful chapter - big stuff!!

Reassurance of all the things "we know"!

---loving God means keeping his commands (v 2&3)

---we can overcome the world (4-5)

---we have eternal life through the son (9-13)

--we can have confidence to approach God (v14)

--Christ gives us understanding (v20)

We all have a great deal of uncertainties in life. In fact, one of the biggest certainties of life is that life is uncertain! Yet here, in the words of the Bible, in the loving arms of our Father, we have so many certainties. We each have so many questions and worries in our minds, and they creep into my thoughts throughout the day.  What is important is that:

verse 18 WE KNOW that God will keep us safe; the evil one cannot harm us

verse 19 WE know that we are children of God.

verse 20 WE know that the son of God has come and has given us understanding.

This little book of 1 John is full of God’s promises!!  It is packed with re-assurances for believers.  I need to rest and dwell in those beautiful promises and assurance!

John knew life is busy, chaotic, and that we are heavy with worry…..he writes the conclusion of Chapter 5 to help us to rest in the peace and understanding of Jesus.

FEEL THE TUG!!!

Wednesday May 14th, 2014

Lesson 5

1John Chapter 4

Testing the Spirits (verses 1-6)

Love, Love, Love (verses 7-21)

We hope you are enjoying this study on 1 John.  Only one more chapter to go - next week we will complete the study with Chapter 5 of 1 John.  We will not have class on May 28th due to the academic holidays for most UK schools.  June 4th will be the lesson covering the review of 1 John, and June 11th will be our final class, which will consist of worship time and sharing how God has worked in your life this past year or whatever you feel God is nudging you to share with our group.  We will follow with a final potluck luncheon.

In Chapter 4 we see the epistle shifts its focus somewhat. The previous section (2:28--3:24) dealt with what it means to be God's children. Now a long section on belief and love begins.  

1 John 4:1-6

This chapter begins by talking about Spirits - we are designed as spiritual beings.  Spirituality is a huge area of interest for all people - just turn on the tv and watch a movie or go online or go to a bookstore….from a very young age (think Harry Potter) we are fascinated by spirituality!

Here, John cautions Christians to be aware of false prophets. We are cautioned to be alert and aware of the dangers of deception in false teachings.  Verse two gives us the how-to!!

"This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God"

Be careful - On the one hand, we ought not to rush to judge others. But, on the other hand, the church cannot avoid its task to teach and nurture people in the Christian faith. And to do so responsibly it must in every age and generation test the spirits, that is, approve and cherish that which is true because it comes from God's own Spirit of truth.

Take time to listen to God in your daily life - and ask him for discernment.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

verses 7-12

One of the best-known works of Western art is surely that section of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel which depicts God reaching down to touch Adam's fingertip and give him life. How many of you have stood there, at that spot?

So well known is this portion of Michelangelo's monumental work that it appears not merely in art histories and coffee-table display books.

In this section of the epistle, John writes, This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world (v. 9). Michelangelo's painting has power not just because of its artistic merits, but because we can virtually feel the life that flows from God's hand to Adam. Even so, John writes not just that God showed his love among us but that he did so by sending the Son into the world that we might live through him.

God's life-giving love, then, is the theme of this passage. As John develops this theme, he makes three important points: God is the source of all love (4:7-8); God models what genuine love is (4:9-10); and God commands us to love each other (4:11-12). We move from the assertion that God is love to the command that we are to love each other. Indeed, the whole point of the passage is to trace the relationship between God's love and human love, and to show how human love flows from God's own love.

In exploring the relationship between God's love for us and our love for each other, the Elder makes two statements: love comes from God (v. 7), and God is love (v. 8). Think of this attribute!!

Because God is love, love comes from God. God is the source of love. Like the electricity running through electrical wires, love comes from God to us, then flows through us to others in the community. When John exhorts his readers, let us love one another, he is encouraging them to allow God's love to flow through them.

In short, God not only gives us the command to love but has also modeled for us what true love is, through sending his son.  But even more, God also empowers us to love. By confession of the Son whom God has sent, we are born of God and come to know God, who is love (v. 7); we are given life (v. 9); our sins are forgiven (v. 10). We come into the realm of life and love, in which we are given life and are empowered to extend the same kind of life-giving love to others. We come to know the source of love.

Love isn't just something it is everything.

If we've been a Christian for a long time, we might have lost the wonder...recall in last week's verses John was calling to his readers in a way that suggests he wants us to recapture that wonder and awe in God and being his children!  Just like a marriage....okay let's be honest...we all know that the love struck romance you feel does fade over many years.  Just like a marriage requires a bit of rekindling and effort to keep the flames going, we need to do the same with our love of God.  Even as a parent....we love our children, but when your baby is crying all night long and you haven't slept for a week, or when your teenager is yelling "I hate you" at the top of his lungs, those are moments when we realize love takes patience and some work!!

So just what is love? is a question asked by theologians, philosophers; by romantic poets and adolescents; by betrayed spouses and abandoned children; by the hopeful and the hopeless; by the dreamy-eyed and the cynical. Answers to the question are many.

The author of 1 John has a very direct answer. Simply and boldly he writes, God is love. God is not hate, anger, bitterness or deceit, but love. Love does not describe the fullness of God, but God defines the fullness of love. In this section of the epistle (4:13--5:5), we are shown that God is the standard of love (4:13-16); the one who encourages us in love (4:17-18); the source of love (4:19-20); and the one who commands us to love (4:21--5:5).God Is the Standard of Love (4:13-16)

Do you remember when you learned about God's love for you?  Can you think back to that time?  if you were like me, it was a real defining moment.

Take a moment right now to dwell in God's love for you.

Close our eyes and in silence, I want you to tell yourself repeatedly "God loves me" or "I am loved" or whatever you might need to hear to REALLY remember that God loves you.

God is love - We can say that God's nature is love, that God's actions are loving, that God repeatedly demonstrates love for us and others, that God loved even a hostile world and that God sent Jesus to make all of this known to us. Human love derives its character and shape from the standard of divine love.

The relationship of divine and human love is further developed here. God makes our love complete and so gives us confidence. To put it another way, the shape of perfect love is triangular: love comes as a gift from God that enables us to love each other and so return to God the gift that is given to us. In the words of C. H. Dodd, "The energy of love discharges itself along lines which form a triangle, whose points are God, self, and neighbour." Where any one leg of the triangle is missing, love remains incomplete and immature.

But where the triangle is whole, love is complete. As a result, we have confidence on the day of judgment because our love signals to us that we already enjoy fellowship with God.

Boldness and fear are opposites of each other, the author writes that in love--the hallmark of our relationship to God and of Jesus' relationship to God--there is only confidence: not fear.  And so John writes, There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear. As the context shows, fear means fear of punishment by God when one comes to the judgment. Those who live in God do not need to fear God's judgment.

How often do we beat ourselves up?  How often do we feel inadequate? We women are really good at this - at worrying, questioning ourselves, listening to the negative!

Yes, unfortunately, many Christians are tortured by feelings of worthless ness, self-doubt and inadequacy, that they are not good enough for God, that somehow by trying harder they really can make God love them more.

In confessing our sin before God, we accept our unworthiness--not worthlessness! In that moment of vulnerability we discover that God is "faithful and just" and, through Jesus Christ, graciously covers the sinner with love and forgiveness. We know that although we have been found out, we have also been found. We come to accept that God sent the Son into the world because he deemed us worthy to be loved and forgiven, we who are created in the divine image and destined to become fully re stored to it when "we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2 remember from last week - our GLORIFICATION).

To know that we are forgiven for our sin, loved in our weakness, saved by his mercy, destined for fellowship with God, all because we are supremely valued by God--that is to know the perfect love that drives fear away. It is not because of what we have done that we can have such confidence before God, but because of what God has done for us.God Is the Source of Love (4:19-20)

The statement We love because he first loved us. Love--being loved and knowing that one is loved--empowers us to love.

And so if God's love empowers us to love, no one can claim to love God while hating a fellow Christian (4:20).

John tells us that God commands us to love. Whether we are speaking of love of God or love of others, love epitomizes the divine will for human beings, since God is love. Faith and love are each expressions of the work of God in a person's life. Each is centered in the person of Jesus Christ: our faith is in Jesus as the Messiah of God, who provides the fundamental manifestation of God's love for us.

The call to love is derived from the very nature of God, who is love, and who loves us and encourages, commands and empowers us to love.

MUCH OF THE ABOVE COMMENTARY IS TAKEN FROM:
http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/1John/Let-Us-Love-One-Another

Wednesday May 7th, 2014 We are God's Children

PLEASE PRAY FOR NIGERIA AND THE GIRLS WHO HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED THERE.  MAY GOD PROTECT THEM AND RETURN THEM HOME SAFELY.

WEDNESDAY MAY 7th, 2014

1 JOHN CHAPTER 3

We are God's children

What is your relationship with your parents?  Even as adults, our relationship with our parents has a strong impact on our lives - whether we are close to our parents, estranged from our parents, have lost our parents, whatever the situation may be - it does affect our emotional sense of self.  Exodus 20:12 says Honor your mother and father.  

As a parent now myself, I appreciate my parents even more, and I acknowledge that I probably was not the easiest kid to raise. I was strong-willed, and had many a teenage moment.  

But I think about all the things that my parents did for us when we were growing up, and I'm grateful, and I delight in showing them gratitude or doing special things for them. Whether it be mother's/father's day or a birthday or just a phone call.  

Isn't that how it is with our father in heaven.  We delight in showing him that we love him, we delight in honoring him. One of the ways we can do that is by honoring him with our actions, and that is what John is talking about in Chapter 3. We have seen God's work in our lives - think of all the devotionals shared in our group - and we KNOW he is our protector! We delight in obeying his commands and honoring him with our lives.

Today I'd like to focus on the first paragraph of Chapter 3 because I believe the essence of the chapter lies there within.

Three main points!!

1. Marvel at our salvation (verse 1)

2. Be confident in our glorification (verse 2)

3. Activate our purification (verse 3)

This chapter begins with SEE or BEHOLD! In other words, check this out - take a moment to MARVEL.

That we are called his children.

Our relationships with our earthly parents may not be perfect, but our relationship with our heavenly father is perfect - there is no 'baggage'.  He doesn't care about our past....our wrongs, our mistakes.

Now look at part 2 of verse 1 "The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

Non-believers don't get this - they think we are a little weird - yes you go ahead and go to your bible study - sure you can go ahead and pray - but they don't believe this stuff....

Now moving on to verse 2 - "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."
How can I be like Christ???   We cannot be identical to Christ, but we can be similar to him, be like him, seeing him as he is! In this life, we should not seek perfection but take God's direction.

Remember!

Verse 1 - marvel at our salvation

Verse 2 - be confident of your glorification

Verse 3 - be active in your purification

Verse 3:   "All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." 

Everyone who has the hope in Christ - HOPE is not like hoping that my sports team will win or my child will get a good grade on their exams or hope that my presentation will go well at work etc...

this HOPE - is a confident expectation.  You KNOW - through Christ - that we can seek purification...

When I marvel at my salvation and I am confident of my glorification, I will participate and be intentional in my purification.  I will turn away from sin.  My sin will become more and more evident the more I draw near to God.  I don't sit around and wait for God to change my life.  I seek out ways to serve him - to sacrifice things in my life - to be generous to others - all through God's grace.  We are motivated by the fact that we MARVEL at our salvation.  The more gratitude and awe we have of the cross the more we want to be more like Christ.  If it's no big deal, we probably won't be very motivated to be active in our purification..

A few other key verses from this chapter:

verse 7 "Do not let anyone lead you astray" - keep the faith - stay on the path! a long obedience in the same direction!

verse 11 "This is the message we have heard from the beginning: we should love one another" - love is not just something, it is everything!

verse 16 "this is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us...and we ought to lay down our lives for one another."

verse 18 "let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth"

This last verse makes me think of St Francis of Assisi.  He is the one many people accredit the phrase "Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words"

He lived between 1180s and 1220s, born into a wealthy family, he rejected that wealth, and his earthly family, to go on to live a life exemplary of Christ - he lived among the poor and did all he could to help those in need.  He founded the Franciscan order after hearing a sermon on Matthew 10:9.  And he is accredited with being the first person to set up a nativity scene. You can go see several famous paintings of him in the National Gallery rooms 54 and 58.

So as we close today and think of what it means to be Children of God, and we see this beautiful example in St Francis of Assisi, let us each leave here with a sense of awe of our salvation, a confidence in our glorification, and a renewed motivation to seek our purification.

Let us preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words!