Crown Terrace Baptist Church

Crown Terrace Baptist Church We are a Christian Community committed to: worship, prayer, fellowship, service and mission.

10/06/2026

10th June Thought - Worship The Lord Intimately
‘Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.’ (Psalm 145:3; NRSVA)
‘Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Ephesians 5:18-20; NRSVA)
‘Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.’ (James 4:8; NRSVA)

The Psalms were the prayer and praise book for the people of God. They are filled with reminders of reasons we have to worship God. He is ‘greatly to be praised’ as Psalm 145 says.

According to what Paul says in Ephesians 5, our worship is to be intimate. We are to come to God, filled with His Spirit, so that we can sing His praise, make melodies to Him in our hearts, give Him the thanks - all the time and about everything.

This is what we are to do in worship - we are to draw near to God - as James reminds us. God is not distant or aloof. He wants to be close to us, and our true worship of Him helps us to come intimately into His presence. This is why we should be giving Him our very best.

Benjamin Shaw tells of a worship service when the pastor had asked the congregation to close their hymnals after singing the opening hymn and recall the words they had sung. But no one in the congregation could do so! Shaw recalls that moment: “We had sung along on autopilot, forgetting where we were, what we were doing, and whom we were allegedly worshiping. We had, in fact, forgotten God”.

When have we been on autopilot in a worship service, forgetting to give God the praise He deserves with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength? If this is what we are doing in our worship, then we are not worshipping God intimately. If we are not thinking about who we are worshipping then we are not drawing near to God.

God the Spirit has been given to us to help us worship God as we should. The Spirit helps us to prepare ourselves to worship the father in spirit and truth. This is why we need to be filled with the Spirit. The Spirit will help us to see what is in our lives that is hindering us from worshipping God intimately. The Spirit will help us to deal with those things that are impinging on drawing near to God. But we have to let the Spirit have His way in us. We must allow the Spirit to convict us of sin and help us to seek God’s forgiveness. Then we can worship God freely and intimately.

09/06/2026

9th June Thought - Worship Is The Very Act Of Adoration
‘Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.’ (Matthew 2:7-11; NRSVA)

It seems a bit odd to be thinking about a Christmas passage in June when the sun is shining and the days are hot (hopefully). But much of the Christmas story includes the idea of worship. Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah, Simeon and Anna all worship God as a result of hearing about the birth of Jesus, reflecting on their place in the story of Jesus, or seeing Him when He is presented in the temple.

Worship is also what the wise men come to do. The wise men, who have travelled far and for a long time, come to worship the king whose star they have been following in the sky. The wise men come to worship Jesus. They pay Him homage. They offer Him gifts. They bow in adoration of God incarnate.

Giving God our best first and showing our gratitude for what He has provided is something that Jesus continued to model. Jesus thanked the Father for aspects of everyday life (food, friendship) and for the miraculous. Jesus expressed gratitude to show us the way of gratitude.
Michael Wittmer states, “We must see God’s gifts of creation as windows into his glory and opportunities to praise him. But we must also find pleasure in them. We should thank God for our day on the lake, but we don’t need to say, ‘Praise you, Jesus!’ with each cast. We must thank God for our daily bread, but it’s okay to focus on the flavors of our sandwich while we’re eating it”.

In a few weeks time, when we start a series of thoughts on prayer, we will spend a week thinking about ‘adoration’. Adoration is often defined as praising God for who God is. The focus is firmly on God, not on us. We are coming to Him in worship. He is the audience we are praising.

In adoration, the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the object of our worship and praise. We praise the very nature of God, reminding ourselves that the Father is the most holy, almighty creator of the universe. Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Holy Spirit is the life-giving counsellor and guiding advocate of our lives.

08/06/2026

8th June Thought - Worship Is Giving God Our Best
‘When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not wrong? Try presenting that to your governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favour? says the Lord of hosts. And now implore the favour of God, that he may be gracious to us. The fault is yours. Will he show favour to any of you? says the Lord of hosts. O that someone among you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hands.’ (Malachi 1:8-10; NRSVA)
‘I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.’ (Romans 12:1-2; NRSVA)

This week, as we think about the place of worship in our discipleship of Jesus, we need to remember that worship is giving our best to God each and every day of our lives. It is not just what we do in a church building on a Sunday.

The people of Israel had forgotten this in Malachi’s time. The prophet highlights how they have been failing in their duty of giving the best that they had to God. It appears that they thought they could get away with presenting any old thing to God in worship and that would be acceptable. Malachi suggests that they would not get away with this treatment of their earthly rulers, so how could they think it would be appropriate treatment of their Heavenly Father.

Paul tells the Christians in Rome that their worship includes offering themselves to God. Their lives are the sacrifice that they are to present to Him, in place of animals as prescribed in the Old Testament. They are to give the best of themselves to God - that is their spiritual worship.

Imagine going to a concert and everyone just watches silently — not engaged, not singing along, not participating in any way. There is a relationship between the audience and the performers at a concert; it’s either a show, where they are entertained passively, or something more, where they enter a relationship through participation.

That’s not what God designed for worship. In the church, the audience does not consist of people simply watching the stage; rather, the audience is God, and we all participate in the performance of praise. Let’s hold on to this idea as we think about our worship of God in the coming days. He is the audience for our lives. He is the one we are to focus on. He is the one we are to enter into a relationship with. He deserves our best in worship.

06/06/2026

6th June Thought - Lack Of Vision Is The Death Of Us
‘Where there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint,
but happy are those who keep the law.’ (Proverbs 29:18; NRSVA)
‘Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without revelation.�The sun shall go down upon the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;
the seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;�they shall all cover their lips,
for there is no answer from God.’ (Micah 3:6-7; NRSVA)

The two passages above contain some sobering visions from Old Testament prophets about the people of God. In Proverbs, the wise writer sees that a lack of vision is a recipe for disaster. No vision leads to people perishing. God’s law has been given to help His people stay focussed on Him and His will for their lives.

Micah paints an even starker picture of the danger of a lack of vision. This is dark, evocative language - ‘night’, ‘darkness’, ‘sun going down’, ‘black'. This is despairing and demoralising language - ‘without vision’, ‘without revelation’, ‘disgrace’, ‘shame’, ‘no answer’. This is the harsh reality of living without a vision of God and a vision from God. The future is not bright. It is gloomy.

An estimated one in two people globally need some form of assistance with their vision. This could be wearing glasses or contacts as a means of allowing people to see clearly.
In 2021, the Vision Council estimated around 64 percent of people in the United States have prescription glasses to help them see. It is common for people to get their eyes checked annually. Patients sit in the chair and look through a phoropter while someone asks them to identify a letter on a screen. As the exam progresses, the lenses change so that a more precise and accurate vision can be obtained. Without the eye doctor or assistant, it would be impossible for the individual to see clearly.

Sometimes we need an outside person to call us back to seeing the scene before us more clearly so we can feel more confident trusting God again. If we have no vision of God, or no vision from God, we will die. This is not what God desires for the disciples of Jesus. He wants us to see clearly. He wants us to have His vision for our lives and His world. He wants us to follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

Action Plan:
Is there an area of your life with blurred vision or unclear direction?
What are you going to do about it?
Has God already been saying anything relevant to you about vision?
Write down your thoughts.

05/06/2026

June Thought - Disciples Need To Be Attentive To God’s Guidance
‘When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.’ (John 16:13; NRSVA)
‘And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me.' (Acts 20:22-23; NRSVA)

God wants to lead and guide His people. This is part of prayer (check back to the thoughts from mid-April). In prayer, as disciples of Jesus listen to what God is saying, He will share His vision with them and guide them in His ways.

Jesus tells us that this is part of the role of God the Spirit in the life of the disciple. He helps the disciple hear what God is saying, understand what He is saying and follow what God is saying. All the disciple needs to do is obey the Spirit.

Following God’s vision for life does not necessarily mean it will be easy, but it will be what is best for us. Paul’s words in Acts 20 are a sober reminder that following God’s vision for our lives can come at a cost. For Paul, though he did not have it all worked out, he was fully aware that following the Spirit’s leading in His life was going to lead to imprisonment and persecution. He was not going to let this vision derail what God had planned for him.

Richard Stearns had a stellar professional career. He began in marketing with the Gillette Company in Boston. In 1977 he moved to toy manufacturer, Parker Brothers where he held various roles, culminating in his appointment as president in 1984. In 1985, he became a vice president at The Franklin Mint. He joined Lenox in 1987 as president of Lenox Collections, and was named president and CEO of Lenox, Inc. in 1995, overseeing three divisions, six manufacturing facilities, 4,000 employees, and $500 million in annual sales.
In 1998, he felt God calling him to serve others and left to become the leader of the international relief agency, World Vision. As he explained in an interview with NPR, he felt that leaving his position and joining World Vision “was an opportunity not just to talk the talk, but to walk the walk”.

Richard Stearns listened to God’s vision for him, and obeyed at great cost. Jesus calls all of His disciples to follow Him, and following Him means being a servant of all. Walking the walk will look different for each and every disciple. However, a good place to start is with your local church and finding ways to be involved in serving others. There are always opportunities to help out. There are many ways that we can use the gifts and talents that God has given us.

04/06/2026

4th June Thought - God Gives Personal And Community Vision
‘I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle,
else it will not stay near you.’ (Psalm 32:8-9; NRSVA)
‘How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity!’ (Psalm 133:1; NRSVA)
‘Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.’ (Galatians 6:2; NRSVA)

God has a vision for each and every follower of Jesus. He has a vision for each Christian community. Our challenge, as individuals and churches, is to discover what that is and focus on it.

Psalm 32 tells us that God wants to instruct and teach each of His children. He wants His people to know where they are going and how to get there. He wants to counsel them and help them know that He has noticed them. He wants to help us by sharing His vision for our lives and asking us to get in step with Him. He will not force us to follow. He will encourage us though. And if we are wise, we will choose to believe in His vision for us because He knows us better than we even know ourselves.

Psalm 133 and Galatians 2 highlight the corporate nature of God’s vision for His people. He wants us to be as one. He wants us to demonstrate unity to the world around us. He wants us to share each other’s loads. This is part of His vision for His people. We are not alone. Not only is God with us, but our brothers and sisters in Christ are with us (and we are to be there for them too).

Throughout the many seasons of the television show Gilmore Girls, the small town of Stars Hollow (so small it doesn’t have a mayor) constantly puts on huge festivals. When the finished product is seen, these festivals rival what a much larger city would organise. But when the viewer watches the show and sees how involved every member of the town is in planning, setting up, and running the festival, it becomes apparent how that just might be possible.

When all of God’s people come together and work in unity toward a common goal, the people of God can do great things. This is part of God’s vision for His people.

We have gifts and talents that God can use in His Kingdom, if you choose to see how it is God wants to use you. We have people around us who can help us, as we can help them, if we choose to believe God’s vision for us. We are not alone. What is God saying to you this year about His vision for your life? What is God saying to us as a multi-ethnic Christian community in the city centre seeking to make Jesus known and encourage discipleship?

03/06/2026

rd June Thought - Our Vision Is Part Of This Larger Vision
‘‘Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.’ (Matthew 6:9-13; NRSVA)

Disciples of Jesus are to live and be different to the world that they live in (check back to yesterday’s thought). This is clear in the model prayer that Jesus gave His disciples. This is a prayer that we frequently use in church on Sundays. However, it is also a prayer that we should never blindly say because it contains some bold statements about how disciples of Jesus are to live and what sorts of attitudes they are to have.

One of these is that we are praying for God’s Kingdom to come. We know that Jesus proclaimed that it was near. We know that Jesus declared through His parables what it is like. But we also know that it has not been fully realised yet. This is why we are to pray for its coming. This is also why we are to use the gifts and talents God has given us to bring a little bit more of God’s Kingdom in the world around us each and every day. Disciples of Jesus will want God’s Kingdom to come and they will be active in seeking to help it come.

New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright makes the following comment:
“He stood there in baggy jeans, trainers, and an old sweater.
‘You can’t come in like that,’ I said. ‘This is a smart lunch, and we’re the guests. We’ve got to get it right.’
‘No problem,’ he replied, and within three minutes had changed, as though miraculously, into a dark suit, a smart tie, and polished black shoes. The transformation seemed almost instantaneous.

Of course, social convention doesn’t have much to do with the Kingdom of God that we are praying will come. Indeed, Paul had hard words to say in 1 Corinthians 11 about the social divisions in the Corinthian Christian community. He was critical of how they had messed up their relationships with one another and the damage this had done to the Kingdom of God. But that’s not the point.

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is all about the instant transformation which will change, not just the outward appearance, but the inner reality of who and what we are. This is seeing God’s Kingdom come!

02/06/2026

2nd June Thought - Jesus Had The Biggest Vision: The Kingdom Of God
‘Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’’ (Mark 1:14-15; NRSVA)
‘He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’’ (Mark 4:26-29; NRSVA)

By now, these will be familiar words from the opening of Mark’s gospel. They tell us of Jesus’ vision - ‘the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news’. Jesus ushers in God’s Kingdom. It’s a Kingdom like no other. It’s a Kingdom that requires repentance from us if we are to enter it (check back to the thoughts from the beginning of May). The Kingdom is for those who chose to believe the good news that Jesus proclaimed. This is Jesus’ vision about His life and mission.

The gospels have a number of parables on the Kingdom of God that Jesus shared. The Kingdom of God is like a growing seed. The Kingdom of God is like a small mustard seed. The Kingdom of God is like yeast. The Kingdom of God is like a great banquet. Each of these parables point to the vision Jesus had of God’s Kingdom and its importance.

In his book ‘Desiring the Kingdom’, Canadian-American philosopher James K. A. Smith describes the formative power of the places and institutions we inhabit, using a shopping mall as a powerful example.
He describes how everything about a shopping mall is orchestrated to make visitors conform to its vision of the ‘good life’. The mall presents a problem (not looking like the model in the window, not living the life of the actor in the commercial) and offers a solution (buying something). Every advertisement, the position and expression of every mannequin, the placement of good-smelling food, the existence of misleading mirrors are perfectly designed to form in us certain desires and a particular idea of what makes a good, fulfilling life. And our lives are full of these places, inculcating in us different competing visions of a good life.

The Kingdom of God is a very different place. We are not to be sucked in by the ways of the world. We are to live, and be, different. The church serves as a counter-formative place that forms in us a right desire for God. The physical space we inhabit, the songs we sing, the words we repeat, the food we eat together — all of these things teach us to want the right things. This is to be the desire of the disciple of Jesus. More on this tomorrow.

01/06/2026

1st June Thought - God Gives His Called People Vision
‘By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old — and Sarah herself was barren — because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, ‘as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.’’ (Hebrews 11:8-12; NRSVA)

We have touched on Hebrews 11 already this year, but it is worth returning to again. Abraham is an example of faith, according to the writer of Hebrews. This is because he is given a vision from God. This is a vision that he cannot physically see. This is a vision that requires a huge amount of faith on Abraham’s part.

Abraham’s obedience is based on what God pictures his future will be like. He will travel to a place he does not know. He will receive an inheritance there that seems far fetched. As the years passed by, for Abraham and his son and grandson, they continued to look forward, trusting in God’s vision for them. They can see a city in the future, a city designed and built by God, even though physically they have nothing to go on.

The process of God empowering us as He calls us is like a father helping his young son learn a trade skill, like carpentry. The son’s hands are moving the tools and working the wood and learning the steps necessary to craft, shape, and build. Yet the father’s knowledge is driving the work and, ultimately, it is his greater vision that can see the pitfalls to be avoided and the corrections to be made. The father is orchestrating the event, always guiding, always empowering, always leading the son. And the son is working, not so much to create like his father but to be like his father.
It is not about the destination where the son arrives, which is the creation of a beautiful product. Rather, it’s about the journey the son undertakes, through his father’s direction, that shapes him. He aims to replicate his father, not his father’s creations.

It is much the same in our relationship with the Father. We desire to do as He does, speak as He does, love as He does. But in the end, these are simply actions that express His being. They will not truly manifest until we become like Him, instead of merely imitating Him. This is part of God’s vision for each and every disciple of Jesus - to become like Him. We are called to trust Him as He accomplishes His work in us

31/05/2026

30th May Thought - Caring For The Underprivileged Is Part And Parcel Of Discipleship (And Central To The Church’s Mission)
‘The disciples of John reported all these things to him. So John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’ When the men had come to him, they said, ‘John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”’ Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the l***rs are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.’ (Luke 7:18-22; NRSVA)

When John the Baptist sends his followers to question Jesus about whether He is the one sent by God or not, Jesus’ answer is not what we may expect. He does not try to justify anything.

Instead, He calls on them to have a look at what He has been doing. Jesus has been healing people of illness and evil spirits. Jesus has been restoring sight to the blind. Jesus has helped the lame to walk and cleansed l***rs of their ailments. Jesus has made the deaf hear again and raised the dead to life again. Jesus has brought good news to the poor. This is how people will know Jesus is from God!

Mother Teresa selflessly devoted her life to helping the poor and destitute of India. She set up soup kitchens, a l***r colony, orphanages, and a home for the dying destitute. She treated the l***rs, educated the poorest of the poor, and fed the homeless. She treated them like her family.
Mother Teresa was not wealthy or powerful or great by worldly standards. But those who perceive the values of the kingdom know that she achieved greatness in the kingdom through the lowliness of servanthood and the pains of self-sacrifice.

Mother Teresa demonstrated her discipleship of God through her devotion to the poor she encountered in India. It was part and parcel of her mission, given to her by God. She unselfishly gave of herself to help others, and encouraged many to follow her example as she followed Jesus’ example. Caring for the underprivileged is part and parcel of discipleship, and central to the church’s mission.

Action Plan:
What have you done this year to care for the underprivileged?
Make a list. If it is a short list, resolve to do something soon to show God’s love.
Find out what CTBC or other churches are already doing and make a decision to do something to help.
Write down your thoughts.

Address

1 Crown Terrace
Aberdeen
AB116HE

Opening Hours

Tuesday 11am - 2pm
Sunday 11am - 12pm

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