Posts by admin (Page 73)

By Not Known Do you grumble against God? It’s quite common for us to grumble when he does not give us what we want and when we want it. Or when he takes things from us that we want. Or when he sends hardship and challenge. Let’s think about our grumbling. Israel grumbled on her journey from Sinai to Canaan and we have one example as our morning text today (Num…

By Not Known Many years ago I mas taught navigation skills as part of training for military intelligence. A bunch of us soldiers were put into a sealed truck, dumped in the bush and told to plot a path back to home base. For that, we needed to know where we were. At first glance this seemed impossible, for we were in a tree-strewn wilderness and there was no GPS system.…

By Not Known The Christian message is a message about Jesus. More specifically, it is a message about who Jesus is and how we should respond to him. Jesus is the Son who was sent from God to die on a cross and to be raised. He is the Saviour of all who believe. He lays claim to be the Lord, or Ruler, over the lives of those who are his followers. The appropriate response…

By Not Known We remembered the death of Jesus and celebrated his resurrection at Easter. Last Sunday we saw that the Cross summons us to a changed life now. We are called to enter into the Easter story, deny ourselves, take up our cross of suffering and tread the path of Jesus into his kingdom. What about the resurrection? Christian hope is to be united with Jesus in his…

By Not Known On Good Friday we sang the words of Isaac Watt’s evocative hymn ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’. Ponder again the words of the last stanza: Were the whole realm of nature mine that were an offering for too small: love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life my all. There is no feeling quite so wonderful as to be loved and it is…

By Not Known Have you ever been in an earthquake? It’s a frightening experience, even if the earthquake is small. There are loud noises and the earth seems to shake and roll for eternity. Everything is thrown off-balance, people and object are tossed about like playthings and simple activities like moving to shelter become impossibilities. Matthew records two Easter…

By Not Known The four Gospels are dominated by the last week of Jesus’ life. Assuming Jesus lived to 33, Matthew gives 25% of his chapters to just O.06% of Jesus’ life (one week). Within Matthew, the Easter theme starts at 1:21, is especially prominent in 16:21-28 and 20:17-19 and dominates the structure and purpose of the gospel. John gives us several…

By Not Known Worship is anything that acknowledges God’s worth: that he is God and we are not; that he is the God who created, sustains, saves and provides. Worship is a life-long activity that begins with our conversion in which we decisively acknowledge that God is God and turn from worship of self or empty man-made idols. We then move onto a life in which all we…

By Not Known This week we continue our survey of key ministy areas by looking at missions and evangelism – otherwise called ‘outreach’. Outreach should be a ‘key performance indicator’ for every church. The reason for this lies in the missionary heart of God. He promises blessings to all peoples on earth and desires that all are saved (Gen…

By Not Known Love is a central Christian virtue (perhaps it is the virtue). Love is commanded in both Old and New Testaments (Lev 18:18; 1Jn 4:7-8). The ministry of congregational care is a particular application of the love that believers are meant to show to one another. We are to share one another’s joys and sadness (Rom 12:15). We are even to share our household…