SINGING GOD’S SONGS
By Not Known God’s gift of music is first mentioned in Genesis 4:21 and has long been used in worship. One of the earliest sacred songs is a hymn of praise to God for his work of saving Israel from Egypt (Ex 15:1-18). These themes continue through both Old and New Testaments. There are hundreds of references to God’s people singing and numerous examples of…
WORSHIPPING TOGETHER
By Not Known For a long time, Presbyterian services typically began with the words, Let us worship God. A key word in that statement is us. Much in the Bible encourages God’s people to come together to admire God, thank him, confess sins, learn from him, thank him and ask things of him. The Old Testament church came together in the tent sanctuary and then the temple as a…
Our worship of the true God
By Not Known Worship is a central Christian activity and will be our focus right through October. What is worship? Someone has defined worship as: … anything that recognises that God is God and that we are not. In this sense, worship is taking our place in the world under God, rather than separate from God. Others draw attention to the vocabulary of worship. Key Biblical…
Adapting the faith
By Not Known The history of Christianity has been one of adapting the faith in different places. Christianity started as an Asian religion, specifically, a religion of Palestine. It has spread into Asia Minor, the wider Middle East, Europe, Africa, the Americas, East and South-East Asia, Russia and the Pacific. This is a great story of adapting the faith to fit each new…
Elders and Deacons
One Way
By Not Known Some say that there are many valid ways to God and that each can choose which to follow. Others teach that all ways to God are equally invalid, but that someone may as well believe what they want to believe anyway. (The first view is classic pluralism and the second is a post-modern view.) Followers of both these views are apt to reject the following words of…
Rejoice!
By Not Known Something significant happened amongst us last Sunday (31 August 03). We heard a clear message from the Bible challenging us about keeping on in our fallowing of Jesus. As Mr Thomas John explained it, Christianity is neither an instant process nor primarily a feel-good experience. Rather, Christianity is a life-long slog in which we follow Jesus, step by…
Keeping On
By Not Known Life has many disappointing moments. We buy a product with a lfietime guarantee only to discover that its life ends shortly after we leave the store. Someone makes a promise to us and seals it with grand words – only to break it when it suits them. It is like that for some who say they follow Jesus. The Gospels tell of the many who accompanied Jesus at…
Servants of the word
By Not Known How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tiding, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’ (Is 52:7). As placed in Isaiah, these words are about those people who would announce the God’s new covenant in Jesus. They would tell of a new work of God’s grace. This work of grace…
Holiness in balance
By Not Known Among Christian people, we have a fairly clear sense of moral values. These values reflect God’s character and are derived from the Bible. Christians sometimes differ on how the Biblical teaching applies to different moral issues of our day, but the underlying principles are clear. We are to: be holy for I am holy (Lev 11:44) and to be imitators of God (Eph…