There are printed songbooks available for those who have difficulty reading the overhead projection screen and there is also an induction loop for those with hearing aids if you sit in the middle section of the church. Ladies’ toilets are located in the back hall on the left and gentleman’s toilets are through the doorway in the church on the right as you enter. Please ask if you need any help. After the morning service, tea, coffee and other refreshments are available in the back hall, please join us.

Today we’re making a start in looking together at the forceful letter to the Hebrews. What has struck me in reading it through this time is that these courageous Jews had already endured intense persecution for their faith. You might think that the writer would therefore tell them to take great care and to back off from their public worship (service) of Jesus. Not a bit of it! He senses that they are in danger of wilting because of the unremitting onslaught against them, even to the extent of forsaking their Saviour, and as loud as he can shout in the language of the letter he says - “don’t!” This is the reason the wonderful chapter 11 is given to us as part of the epistle - continue to live in faith - you can’t please God any other way - don’t concern yourselves with what man can do to you - fix your eyes on Jesus, and never stop going for it! We’re part of God’s eternal plan of the ages, and soon we’ll join with all those who’ve gone before us and be perfected along with them. Whatever you’re going through now, it’s worth it! How different this is from much of the worldly counsel that we receive nowadays. We fear the future, insure against its possibilities, and try to find a measure of security from the world’s institutions. Have we forgotten that God rewards those who diligently seek Him? This letter will give us both comfort and challenge as we work through it in the weeks ahead. Please read it as we go.

Hilary and I went to see ‘Cargo’, the new Paul Field production. Its message is harrowing – slave trading, in the form of people trafficking, is more rive nowadays than it was 200 years ago before its legal abolition. Young girls are lured to UK with false promises made to them and to their parents. They arrive here and are beaten up and raped and forced into prostitution. The are told their parents will be murdered if they escape. You can help by writing to the Croydon Advertiser to complain about the adverts they carry for so-called ‘massage parlours’ which are brothels. 84% of the prostitutes in Croydon’s 100 brothels are from abroad and believed to be effectively slaves. Web address for the Croydon Coalition Against Trafficking is www.theccat.com