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We meet from time to time to prepare new banners as part of our worship of God. We have recently produced a banner based on the word 'Christlike' which is the second in our mission statement series.

Where morning dawns and evening fades God calls forth songs of joy
The words are from Psalm 65, which describes God?sgenerous, even lavish provision. It begins ?Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion?. In verse 8 David says: ?Where morning dawns and evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.? We hope and pray that this banner will be ablessing. We really enjoyed not only the making of it, but the fellowship of the group in the whole creative process. Wherever we see a beautiful sky, let?s think of this verse and give Him songs of joy!

The first aim in our church mission statement is that we should be a 'worshipping' church. The banner group spent a lot of time looking at Scriptures, praying and discussing what worship is. Then we began to construct a landscape using a photograph of a sunset for inspiration.

The words are from Psalm 65, which describes God's generous, even lavish provision. It begins 'Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion'. In verse 8 David says: 'Where morning dawns and evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.' We hope and pray that this banner will be ablessing. We really enjoyed not only the making of it, but the fellowship of the group in the whole creative process. Wherever we see a beautiful sky, let?s think of this verse and give Him songs of joy!

An Anchor for the Soul - Jesus Christ
Read Hebrews 6:13-20. The heading is ?The Certainty of God?s Promise? and from this passage came the wordson two identical banners we made, one for Colonsay Baptist Church and one for Broughty Baptist Church - ?An Anchor for the Soul ? Jesus Christ?.

We thought this verse appropriate for an island community, and made a stormy sea with the anchor, Jesus Christ, firmly attached to the soul which is being tossed about on the sea. Of course life has many storms apart from the watery kind! And many of us can testify to the way in which Jesus has held on to us through great difficulties. I read somewhere these encouraging words: ?God is a master at turning chaos into triumph. He did it at Creation. He did it on the Cross. He is still doing it today.?

Jehovah Raphah: I am the Lord who heals You
This banner is second in a series which looks at the names God is given in the Old Testament and their different meanings. Thisverse comes from Exodus 15. Read verses 19-27. Verse 26 says?If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your Godand do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.?

After a lot of thought and prayer about the images of brokenness and healing, the image of a broken flower came. You cannot mend a broken flower, but our God is a miraculous God and He can do the impossible. Ephesians 3:20,21 says 'Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.'

To live is Christ, to die is gain
The minister asked if I could adapt for our pulpit a beautiful cross-stitch Celtic pulpit fall. He had been given it in South Africa by Antoinette Taylor.
However, because of its shape, it would have been hidden by the central communion chair. Instead it has been made into a banner- applied to blue velvet background and Paul?s words from Philippians 1:21 added.

Paul, in prison and chained for preaching the gospel, wrote of being ?torn between? wanting to stay alive so that hecould labour for his beloved fellow believers, or ?depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.?

The words ?to live is Christ, to die is gain? weresome of the first ones to ?jump out? at me when Ifirst started as a teenager to read the Bible for myself. One of those verses that turns the values of the world completely upside down.

URGENT! GOD LUVS U! JESUS DIED 4 U! BLEEV + LIV 4 EVR!
This was made by our youth group after considering what the most important message of the Bible is, and then how you could convey it to a friend in an emergency, by mobile phone. It comes from John 3:16: ?For God loved the world so much he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.?

With the Lord, a thousand years are like a day, and a day is like a thousand years
This was made during the run up to the millennium when there wasa lot of commercial pressure to buy keepsakes and to celebrate in a special way. This verse seemed to give a completely different and refreshing perspective on the millennium. ?But do not forget this one thing, dear friends; with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.? 2Peter 3:8. Psalm 90:4 has a similar theme: ?For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.?

Worship: Dancy, Joy, Song, Time, Happiness, Love, Praise!
The youth group looked at what worship was for, what it was about. The idea was that worship is our gift to Jesus. The banner is in the shape of an open box with the word ?Worship? engraved on the front. The contents,dance, joy, song, time, happiness, love, praise, are named on the lid, and the box is full of these ?precious? things represented by beautiful, shiny colourful fabrics.

Jehovah Shalom: The Lord is Peace
Peace was the first proof I got that Christianity was real, as I took my first wobbly steps of faith when I was a teenager. Peace that the world couldn?t give - in fact it was a kind of illogical peace, considering the difficulties I was facing at the time.

On June 4th 1995 I came to hear our pastor?s first sermon. It was about Gideon and his extraordinary encounter with an angel in Judges 6. Gideon is hiding from his enemies and trying to thresh wheat in a winepress - Gideon?s conversation with the angel takes place in a cloud of dust. He is told he is going to save his people, and like so many people before and since, when God asks them to do something, Gideon says 'BUT........!' and proceeds to list all the reasons why he is unable to do it. Gideon is gently and firmly talked round, till he says ?Give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.?(v17) He builds an altar which he calls JEHOVAH SHALOM which means THE LORD ISPEACE. Then he goes on to obey the Lord. This encounter with an angel does not turn him into Superman, he is still himself -scared stiff !(v27)

God really spoke to me through that sermon. It stayed with me all summer as I pondered what the way forward was. As I thought about it, I began to make the banner. The words are pool of peace surrounded by storm. The word Shalom made a great impact on me on a visit to Israel; it is the word for greeting everywhere you go. ?Shalom!? ?Peace!? If we are in God?s will, we will not be immune from difficulties, but we will have peace. JEHOVAH SHALOM: the Lord is Peace!

Thanks be to God who through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of God.
This verse comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 2 v14. When I was a new Christian I was encouraged to buy an easy to understand translation of the Bible, and to underline things that struck me. This verse was one of the first ones I underlined, it stayed with me and over the years I have often thought about it. The idea that God uses US to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere was and is quite a thought. So when I came to banner making it was a natural one to consider, although there was a bit of a problem - how to convey fragrance visually!

After battles, the Romans apparently used to parade captives through the streets so that people could see for themselves who they were and what they were like. The verse in full reads?But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.? We are His captives -willing captives! What we do and say makes an impression. If we are full of ourselves, if we are bitter, sarcastic, cynical orcritical, we are not spreading Christ?s fragrance; if weare full of Him He will use us to attract people to Himself.

I desire all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek Him in His temple.
Psalm 27:4 says ?One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.? I first heard this verse read in church a few years ago as a meditation before the service began. The word?gaze? suggests far more than looking or seeing; rather pleasure and wonder and adoration - like falling in love! There is no sense of hurry, dashing in to fulfil obligations and dashing out again.

The abstract design of this banner hopefully conveys something of the flow and purpose of the days of our lives, each one different and bright with interest, no longer grey and meaningless and lonely, as we live it in a relationship with a loving God.

Broughty Ferry Baptist Church, 86 St. Vincent Street, Broughty Ferry, Scotland, DD5 2EX