We may not be able to gather, but we can rejoice together.

Join us as we celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ; the King who invites the most ruined into his Kingdom.

In today’s message, we meet one of the saddest characters in all the Bible and watch as he’s gloriously healed and called to follow Jesus.

All who follow after Jesus are called to walk the Calvary Road; despite our every desire, suffering is unavoidable. But as Bartimeaus shows us, though the way of Christ is the way of suffering, the way of suffering is a way with Christ.

This week our service is lead by Andrew and Sue Rees, Dave and Cath Williams, Lewis Roderick and Dan and Anna Ralph

As he wrapped up Sunday's message, Lewis quoted nineteenth century, Scottish missionary, John G Paton describing an encounter he had with Jesus whilst in the midst of extreme danger. Some folk have asked about the excerpt:

"Being entirely at the mercy of such doubtful and vacillating friends, I, though perplexed, felt it best to obey. I climbed into the tree and was left there alone in the bush. The hours I spent there live all before me as if it were but of yesterday. I heard the frequent discharging of muskets, and the yells of the Savages. Yet I sat there among the branches, as safe as in the arms of Jesus. Never, in all my sorrows, did my Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among those chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone! If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, to feel again my Saviour’s spiritual presence, to enjoy His consoling fellowship. If thus thrown back upon your own soul, alone, all alone, in the midnight, in the bush, in the very embrace of death itself, have you a Friend that will not fail you then? "

Want to know more about John G Paton? Why not start with this message by John Piper? Or go straight to the source and read his autobiography.