PEACE THAT RULES 

Crucial to enjoying the freedom to dream and imagine with God is living in the peace of God. It is very difficult to focus on what is seemingly impossible, and to imagine in such a way that leads to inventing and creating when your heart is ruled by anxiety.

In Colossians 3:15 Christ offers shalom, shalom is the Old Testament, Hebrew word meaning peace. Peace goes beyond the idea of the absence of anxiety and worry and carries the promise of wholeness, soundness, tranquility, fullness, rest, completeness, well being, the absence of agitation.

Anxiety is the enemy of peace. They cannot co-exist, they drive one another out. In the United Kingdom more working days are lost a year because of sickness caused by anxiety, than any other cause. When you imagine the worst about any situation and circumstance you invite anxiety in.

As a catalyst and encouragement for inviting Christ’s peace to rule you need to have a visceral reaction against the fruit of anxiety. You need to feel the hatred of anxiety in your bones. Anxiety leads to toxic, foggy, chaotic, incorrect, confused, dysfunctional thinking. Resulting in tension, diminished clarity, restlessness, and physical tightness. Often to cope with the effects of anxiety people retreat, digress, and withdraw from community, resulting in them not being fully present. When anxiety is triggered many embrace forms of numbing to soothe the pain caused by anxiety. Numbing can look like overwork, excessive intake of alchohol, over eating etc. This numbing though only results in false peace, and temporary rest.

You can tell who is ruling your outlook on a particular situation, whether it’s peace or anxiety by looking at the fruit it produces. Fruit testifies to who is governing, ruling, and exercising authority. When Christ is invited to rule, the peace He enjoys becomes yours. You cannot enjoy the peace that Christ enjoys without Him ruling each and every situation you face. There is No experience of Heaven’s peace without His rule.

God’s government is freedom. He will not force His rule, and authority upon you. He waits for you to give Him permission. Sometimes people say “it’s not working”. But instead of accusing God, a better question is ask yourself have you let Him exercise authority in that particular area? He wants to rule, to protect, create safety and empower and enable us to live out Kingdom freedom, but first you must invite Him to do so.

To fully engage with Christ means moment by moment trusting, yielding, and surrender. Cooperating with His peace. Inviting Christ to be the umpire of your thought life, empowering Him to settle with finality all the issues, concerns, questions controversy that impacts your mind. Practically It means when you hear news that has the potential to cause and create anxiety you need to breath, and to pause, not just to react and articulate anxiety. Then ask clarifying questions of the person bringing the news. Ascertain if it is a real threat or not. Even if the bad news is true it is wise to then ask yourself how helpful in the past has freaking out been? Remember that anxiety cuts you off from thinking with strategic clarity.

 

Jamie Lee, 04/11/2018
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Hello and welcome to our church. If you are a new visitor, we have a page for you to get to know us and learn more about planning a visit.
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Planning your Visit

New to Church?


Welcome! Whether you've just moved to the area, or have lived here all your life, we hope our website helps you to find out everything you want to know about our Church.

 

Some key information about the church...

 

Where & when does the church meet?

The church meets every Sunday at 11:00 am for our Sunday Service. There is plenty of free parking around the CCK building. We are walking distance from Plumstead Train station and local buses. It’s good to get to the meeting 15 minutes early to enjoy a fresh cup of coffee before the service starts.

We meet at the church building in the middle of Plumstead

The address is:

46 Lakedale Road
Plumstead
London
SE18 1PS

You can see a map on our contact us page.

 

What should I expect when I visit the church?

You will receive a very warm welcome particularly from our Welcome Team who will be able to answer your questions and direct you to where you need to go.

Sunday is special because it’s the main opportunity in the week for the whole church family to gather, worship God, enjoy his manifest presence together, minister to one-another, receive encouragement and exhortation from God’s word and be refreshed by God’s Spirit and one-another’s friendship and support.

There will be approximately 45 mins of singing with opportunity for church members to pray, prophesy or read a passage from the bible. After the notices there will be a preach, we take time to understand the bible’s message and how this can teach us about God, about ourselves, about the world that we live in and about what authentic Christian lifestyle looks like in practice. At the end of the preach there is always a chance to respond.

Tea, coffee and biscuits are served after the service where there is plenty of time to meet new people and ask more questions.

 

What happens to the kids at church?

As a family church we are thrilled to have people of all ages involved in our Sunday morning meetings. Typically, after worshiping together for 30 minutes or so, the children and young people will leave for their own activities.

We have a fantastic programme for the kids at the Church for ages 0–14. Children stay with their parents at the start of the service as we worship (sing songs!) together for the first part of the morning. Someone will announce when the children need to go to their programme.

For more information about what happens in the children's work please visit the relevant age groups for you under church life.

Is there a dress code?

No! Please just be yourself and come dressed in your 'normal' clothes.

 

Will I have to join in?

Not at all!
You are free to simply observe or participate as much as feels comfortable for you.

 

Useful Links...

We have more information for you specifically if you…

 

I have more questions, how can I get in touch and ask them.

Please feel free to contact us.