Church News (Page 79)

By Not Known It’s rare to find an organisation that doesn’t have a mission statement. Mission statements tell what we will do in order to fulfil the vision of what we want to be. Our Ministry Plan 2006-2015 includes this mission statement. Under God, our mission is to : honour God’s name through faithful and reverential worship and in faithful preaching…

By Not Known When using a map we start from where we are, look where we want to be and then plan how to get there. That picture of where we want to be is our vision. It is important for Christian people to have a clear vision of eternity, to motivate and guide our present conduct on the horizon of eternity. Likewise for God’s church. Our understanding of where and…

By Not Known Most of us plan. We plan our shopping, work tasks, holidays, finance, fitness regimes, eating and such like. We plan because it makes us more effective at being what we want to be and doing what we want to do. God plans and everything moves according to his plan (Eph 1:11). We Presbyterian Christians like to emphasise the sovereignty of God. That’s…

By Not Known Jesus assumed that his first followers would be hated and persecuted by the unbelieving world, just as he was first hated and persecuted (Jn 15:18). The reason for this is simple: neither Jesus nor his followers belonged to the world. We are different. If our first loyalty is to God and his kingdom we will be ‘strangers in the world’ (1 Pet 1:1).…

By Not Known Domestic violence is a too-common problem behind the door of many homes. The violence may be verbal, psychological, sexual or physical. Spouses may abuse their spouses; parents may abuse their children; children may abuse vulnerable parents; or householders may abuse their helpers.…

By Not Known Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was the climax of his earthly life. As the preaching in Acts shows, the resurrection was the defining event that set Christianity apart. It was also the event that demonstrated beyond doubt that Jesus was God’s son (Rom 1:4) However, the…

By Not Known Our time of glory is generally some moment of triumph. We glory when finally marrying, becoming parents, gaining a higher degree, beating an illness, becoming a CEO, winning that gold medal, mastering a hobby or being wealthy enough to retire. It was different for Jesus. His death was his hour of glory. John’s Gospel has a great sense of timing. Several…

By Not Known A prayer for God’s kingdom, power and glory seems a worthy way to end the model prayer that Jesus taught his followers. Yet, these words were not part of Jesus’ original prayer (Mat 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4). The ‘extra’ words are found only in Matthew and only in…

By Not Known Why pray that the Lord will not lead us into temptation? God is neither tempted nor the source of temptation (Jas 1:13). Rather, we are responsible for our own temptation as we allow evil desires to take root, entice us and then lead us to sinful actions (Jas 1:13-15). In short,…

By Not Known Forgiveness of our sin-debt is the greatest need of humanity. It is no surprise that it is singled out for extended attention in the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew writes of our ‘debts’ being forgiven to us whereas Luke uses the words for both ‘debts’ and…