<![CDATA[Starting with God]]> https://burwellbaptistchurch.org.uk/ Starting with God is a gentle, honest companion for anyone who feels caught between longing and belief. Through seven deeply reflective chapters, it invites you to encounter God in unexpected places and rebuild a life of meaning on the solid ground of Jesus Himself.

If you’re weary, wondering, or yearning to begin again, these pages offer a quiet place to wrestle, to breathe, and to finally come home to the presence that’s been pursuing you all along

]]> RSS.com 2026.428.112250 Thu, 07 May 2026 10:02:47 GMT en 1cfa10c2-fef0-5cbc-99c0-e391c69f6201 https://media.rss.com/burwell-baptist-church/20260211_040234_afb47543b7723a133692aac83d80fc4e.png Starting with God https://burwellbaptistchurch.org.uk/ yes Help build this ministry Chris Johnson 2025 Rev Chris Johnson Rev Chris Johnson false serial podcast Burwell Baptist Church, Toyse Lane, Burwell, East Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire, England, CB25 0AU, United Kingdom false <![CDATA[Starting with God 1 - Encounter]]> We begin a new series focusing on re‑setting our relationship with God. In the introduction, Chris uses the image of a jigsaw puzzle—yet not one where Jesus is the final piece we simply drop into place. Instead, Jesus is the central piece around which the whole picture is re-formed. The ‘hole’ we sense in our lives isn’t a Jesus‑sized gap we can fit Him into; it’s a reminder that our entire lives need to be re‑shaped around Him.

]]> https://rss.com/podcasts/burwell-baptist-church/2542352 f6c900a8-e852-4292-a7bb-005dfd95367e 1924 full 1 1 1 1 false Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:40:40 GMT Burwell, East Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom <![CDATA[Starting with God 2 - Wrestling]]> “Starting with God” Episode two, looking at the story from Genesis where Jacob wrestles with God. Until this point Jacob has tried to fit God into his own worldview, mold God into what he thinks God should be. It’s only when God reaches deep and humbles Jacob that he sees the error of his ways and learns to surrender. How often do we act the same?

]]> https://rss.com/podcasts/burwell-baptist-church/2558192 48b158dc-60aa-4376-8589-eebe42540d30 1335 full 1 1 2 2 false Wed, 18 Feb 2026 15:49:00 GMT Burwell, East Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom <![CDATA[Starting with God 3 - Intimacy]]> This week we are looking at intimacy with God. At the foot of Mount Sinai God spoke to His people who he had guided out of slavery in Egypt. They were so afraid that none of them wanted to go up the mountain and seek true intimacy with Him, they rejected God’s true purpose for them because of fear. We now, through Jesus, receive that same invitation to experience the fullness of God. Will we accept or will we – like the Israelites – be content with holding God at arm’s length?

]]> https://rss.com/podcasts/burwell-baptist-church/2597607 d22ec532-a4b1-4ae4-bf29-089b341429f0 1564 full 1 1 3 3 false Tue, 03 Mar 2026 19:54:26 GMT Burwell, East Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom <![CDATA[Starting with God 4 - Worthless Idols]]> Starting With God by looking at all of those things that we construct for ourselves to replace God or to divert our attention away from Him. The Bible has a word for those things: idols. Idols can even be things that make us think that God approves of what we’re doing when we know deep down that He doesn’t. We are invited to cast away all of those things and to focus and trust in God alone for all of our needs and strength. It’s very easy to say it. But can we actually do it?

]]> https://rss.com/podcasts/burwell-baptist-church/2633423 4978daf5-00cf-4871-9b7d-fe7fc2f1bd56 1200 full 1 1 4 4 false Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:39:42 GMT <![CDATA[Starting with God 5 - Wrong choices]]> This week Chris continues looking at his series in Starting with God, this week looking at the choices we make. There is a difference between fate and destiny. Fate (which is not real, by the way) gives you no choices in life, you're restricted to the train tracks laid out in front of you. Destiny is different, where God gives us the choice to follow His way which leads to life or the other ways which.... don't. But whichever path we choose God always gives us the opportunity to turn towards His way.

]]> https://rss.com/podcasts/burwell-baptist-church/2661129 ffeceaea-f76d-4a62-9930-ffc97f203ab9 1611 full 1 1 5 5 false Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:47:18 GMT <![CDATA[Starting with God 6 - Dead Ends]]> The writer of Ecclesiastes examines the whole of existence in his book and comes to the conclusion that “everything is meaningless”. But with one proviso: “everything is meaningless” without God. Chris looks at the dead ends that can occur in our lives if we try to exist without God directing us and how He gently but firmly brings us back to the path to life if we allow Him to.

]]> https://rss.com/podcasts/burwell-baptist-church/2752595 d3b3822e-309c-45d7-8997-c773a1b396b2 1830 full 1 1 6 6 false Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:50:03 GMT false <![CDATA[Starting with God 7 - Exile]]> When we make a decision, conscious or unconscious, to not follow God wholeheartedly we can be sent into exile from Him. Not a physical exile like those experienced in the Old Testament but a spiritual exile where it feels like our connection with God is frayed or even totally broken. In the next in our series of Starting With God Chris looks at the symptoms of that spiritual exile and reminds us that the door to God is never closed: we are always given the opportunity to return.

]]> https://rss.com/podcasts/burwell-baptist-church/2777742 1a9c5077-c72c-44e5-83ff-27c75f935291 1422 full 1 1 7 7 false Thu, 07 May 2026 10:02:34 GMT false <![CDATA[Starting with God 8 - The Cross]]> In first century Judea a cross was not generally something talked about in polite conversation, let alone boasted about. Yet through Jesus' victory Paul says that he (and by extension we) can boast in the achievement of the cross. As we continue our starting with God series Chris examines Jesus' victory, the turning of a symbol of terror and oppression into a symbol of hope and how we can still see God's glory through the cross.

]]> https://rss.com/podcasts/burwell-baptist-church/2802039 50395292-7c4c-4a9a-9330-d959601fedcc 1667 full 2 2 1 1 false Thu, 07 May 2026 10:02:45 GMT false