Life gets complicated when you have different blogs for different kinds of articles. At the moment I have www.pbthomas.com/blog for all my sermons and studies every week, and also www.pbthomas.com/thoughts for reflections on theology, ministry and mission every few weeks or so. I also sometimes…
This is how Mark’s Gospel records the beginning of Jesus’s ministry on Earth. Mark 1:14 …. Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”…
One verse in this passage is very familiar to us. 2 Corinthians 8:9. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich.” In…
Even before Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph knew who their son was and what he would accomplish. The angel Gabriel had appeared to Mary and said to her, Luke 1 30 …. ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. 31…
7 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. Paul has been defending his ministry to the Corinthians. But in chapter six he wanders off in a…
Happy New Year everybody. Tis the season for New Year’s Resolutions. Get fit. Spend less money. Eat more healthy foods. Watch less television. Learn a new skill. Become more organised. A post on Facebook suggested it would actually be much less depressing if we made…
3 We put no stumbling-block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Paul’s defence of his ministry To defend his apostleship Paul shares his own experiences of ministry. From those I could use this passage then to talk about the nature…
Deitrich Bonhoeffer once said, “If Jesus is not true God how could he help us? If he is not true man, how could he help us?” There are two equal and opposite errors people can make when they are thinking about Jesus Christ. The first…
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…
