Psalm 40 is attributed to David. It is a song of praise for all the ways God has rescued him in the past and at the same time a prayer for help in the troubles of the present. David’s testimony 2 He lifted me out…
Author: peter
This morning I want to talk about one word. Grace. The word occurs 124 times in the Bible and the idea of grace is at the heart of the gospel message. Grace is God’s mercy and his undeserved favour. God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. John…
Somebody has come up with some interesting statistics of how the average person will spend a lifetime of seventy years. Sleep ……… 23 years ………….. 32.9% Work ………. 16 years ………….. 22.8% TV ………… 8 years …………… 11.4% Eating …….. 6 years …………… 8.6% Travel…
Paul is giving thanks to God for the Christians at Ephesus, and especially for their examples of faith and of love. This leads him to praying for them. In particular his repeated prayer is that the Ephesians should know three things, and these are three…
Last week we were giving thanks to God for all the blessings of salvation and for just how special we are in God’s eyes. He sees Christians as holy people, and faithful people and he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. God…
Five weeks in lockdown. The novelty has worn off. The initial excitements of adjusting to new ways of living have definitely faded. And the end is not yet in sight. Life is not going to go back to normal next week or next month. We…
If only we could see ourselves as God sees us! There is a mental health condition called body dysmorphia, where the root of problem is that the person looks in the mirror and sees a distorted picture of themselves. They see themselves as too fat,…
There are preachers today saying that the deaths and all the suffering associated with Covid19 are expressions of God’s judgment on human beings who have rejected his laws and wounded our planet. But is that correct? It often happens when we see news from around…
We are living in strange times. Indeed one church I know has renamed its weekly newsletter “Strange Times”. We are now more than a month into this strange new world. So much has changed. We can only go out of the house for specific reasons.…
Christ’s resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith! 1 Corinthians 15 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on…
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Easter celebrates a wonderful unexpected surprise. They had watched Jesus being crucified on the Friday. Late that afternoon they had watched Jesus’s body laid in the tomb. All Saturday they had observed the Sabbath and waited. Early on…
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! It was dawn when the two Marys went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’s body. Nobody could have imagined what they would find. The stone sealing the entrance had been rolled away. The tomb was empty. And then…
As we go into our third week of lockdown we are beginning to understand a little better the experiences of the heroes of faith who found themselves in isolation and even in prison. Joseph, Jeremiah and Daniel. The apostles Peter and John and Paul and…
PALM SUNDAY Luke 22:63-71 They all asked, ‘Are you then the Son of God?’ He replied, ‘You say that I am.’ (Luke 22:70) Why was Jesus crucified. Why did the Elders and Chief Priests conspire and pressure the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate to put Jesus…
I want to share a secret with you. You may have noticed that throughout the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, although you can see it most clearly in Mark’s Gospel, until the last week of Jesus’s life there was a secret which was revealed…
The whole world stands on the edge of the unknown. We are all facing unprecedented challenges and adjusting to a way of life few have ever experienced. For Christians we are needing to leave our buildings and our programmes and rediscover what it means to…
A little boy was asked by his father to say grace at the table. While the rest of the family waited, the little guy eyed every dish of food his mother had prepared. After the examination, he bowed his head and honestly prayed, “Lord, I…
A friend who is an author posted a message on Facebook this week. ”The London Book Fair is cancelled. The end of the world is nigh!” It is true that a number of major events around the world have been cancelled. But most have continued…
Final Greetings 2 Corinthians 12-13 Paul ends his second letter to the Corinthians in chapters 12 and 13 with a few reminders of things he has talked about before. A promise that he will not be a burden on them 2 Cor 12 14 Now…
We saw how Paul defended his ministry to the Corinthians last week. Pointing not to what he had accomplished but only to the things God had done. 2 Corinthians10 17 But, ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’ 18 For it is not…
Luke 10 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.…