There was a man whose birthday fell in the middle of December. For most of his life his brother had given him just one present to cover both birthday and Christmas, and he always saved that combined present to open it on Christmas Day. But…
In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 Paul five motives for his ministry of evangelism and church planting. The first is fearing the Lord. Recognising that we will all be accountable before God because one day we are going to be judged – v 10. Paul’s second…
It was the great theologian and sometimes tennis player Martina Navratilova who once said that the difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. In ham and eggs the chicken is involved but the pig is committed. In the life of every Christian…
We saw last week how preaching the gospel is hard work. Evangelism is spiritual warfare. And it can be costly and painful. 2 Corinthians 4 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and…
Think about who Jacob had been We saw in Genesis 25 how Jacob had cheated his older brother Esau out of his birthright of the family name, and the special blessing for the oldest, and the double portion of the inheritance which goes with that.…
Outreach is hard work. Evangelism is difficult and sometimes costly and painful. 2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do…
The Book of Genesis takes twelve chapters to tell the story of how God changed Jacob the cheating scumbag into the third of the Patriarchs and the Father of the twelve Tribes of Israel. We have seen how Jacob cheated Esau out of his birthright…
My object all sublime I shall achieve in time — To let the punishment fit the crime — The punishment fit the crime; And make each prisoner pent Unwillingly represent A source of innocent merriment! Of innocent merriment! I was going to sing those words…
Back in Tunbridge Wells 30 years ago and more whenever we had a time of prayer we had great saint called Claud Martin who would always pray the same prayer. He would pray for revival. He would pray for an outpouring of “the transforming power…
There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold And she’s buying a stairway to heaven And when she gets there she knows if the stores are closed With a word she can get what she came for “Stairway to heaven” by Jimmy Page…
The Old Covenant – the Law of Moses Exodus 19:3 Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, ‘This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell…
14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being…
The preacher Alexander Whyte wrote this about Jacob. “There was no Old Testament saint of them all who, first and last, saw more of the favour and forgiveness of God than Jacob. And yet, with all that, the great sins of Jacob’s youth and the…
There are at least three stages a person who has fallen into sin needs to go through before their life is back on the right track. Remorse – Repentance – Reconciliation. 2 Corinthians talks about all three of these and the first thing Paul says…
The God of the Old Testament, the God of the nation of Israel, is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham who was called God’s friend, Isaac his son, and his son Jacob whose name God changed to Israel, were the Patriarchs. God’s covenant…
“The camels are coming! The camels are coming!” There is a passage I have been waiting to preach on for more than 40 years since I first heard a sermon on it. I can’t remember who the preacher was. The passage is Genesis chapter 24…
2 Peter 1 3(God’s) divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that…
Has God ever put your faith to the test by asking you to give something up? Something so precious or so important to you that you don’t know how you would go on living without it? Sometimes God takes such things away from us –…
The Church in Corinth was established around 51 AD through the preaching of the apostle Paul. We read in Acts 18 how Paul stayed with Aquila and Priscilla and worked with them in their tent- making business. Every week for 18 months Paul preached in…
10.1 The Theology of the Psalms “The Lord is the Creator (8, 104). It is the ground of his present sovereign rule over all things as King (29, 96–99). The righteousness of his rule is predominant (11, 75) in his divine Kingship (145) righteousness is…
9.1 What are the Psalms? 9.2 Authorship and Date of Composition 9.3 History of Interpretation 9.3.1 H. Gunkel (1862-1932) 9.3.2 S. Mowinckel (1884-1965) 9.3.3 FOR US TODAY: In Jewish and Christian worship, Psalms have been loosed from any original cultic context they may have had.…