Take of your old nature. Put on your new nature. We thought last week about how as Christians our lives should be different from what they were like before we were Christians. Our old way of life is like a filthy shabby set of old…
Author: peter
We started our expedition 6 am. Trains took us to Dover and a very rough sea crossing. By evening we were in Paris and then we spent a sleepless night standing in the corridor of a French “sleeper” train which didn’t have any seats. At…
We don’t know for certain when the Psalms were written. Just half of the Psalms, like Psalm 52 are ascribed to David, and I take the traditional view that in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, David the shepherd and musician probably wrote…
We have looked at Psalms which are prayers of praise and thanksgiving and adoration. We have seen others which are prayers of confession or intercession. Last week we looked at Psalm 49 which would not have looked out of place in the book of Proverbs,…
What is life in the church supposed to be like? Ephesians 4 15 … speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body,…
Psalm 49 is different from most of the Psalms we have looked at so far. It is not a song of praise or thanksgiving. Nor is it a prayer. Instead it is much more similar to parts of the book of Proverbs and the Wisdom…
We have now been in Covid lockdown for 100 days. From next weekend many parts of the lockdown are going to be lifted. Some parts of church life will gradually be able to go back to normal. But not normal as it was before. “New…
We looked last week at Psalms 46 and 47. Those two Psalms gave us a number of reasons why we should put our trust in God. 1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Because God is creator and sustainer of…
The last three months have been very hard for everybody! So our verses for this morning are especially relevant and encouraging. Ephesians 3 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that…
Many theologians link Psalms 46 and 47 and also Psalm 48 with the suggestion of an annual ritual drama performed in the temple. They think it was part of a celebration of the Lord’s kingship over all the earth (like Ascension Day, cf. 47:5). Whatever…
This is a Psalm written on behalf of all the people of Israel. It was attributed to a group of people “the Sons of Korah”. They were a clan who shared the responsibility of guarding the gates of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, as their family…
God loves us! God loves you. And God loves me. In these strange and uncertain and fearful times God wants us to know just how very much He loves us all. Ephesians 3:17 …. I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18…
In these days of Covid lockdown, many of us may be feeling just as the Psalm writer did. 4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty…
We are going to need to reinvent the church. The last 11 weeks of Covid19 Lockdown have brought all the regular activities and events on our premises to a standstill. Every church in the world is recognizing that coming out of lockdown things are not…
Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the LORD delivers them in times of trouble. (Psalm 41:1) In Psalm 41 David is appealing to God once again to help him in his distress. He is feeling his own weakness and reminding God that…
Right from the beginning of this time of lockdown, Christians have been declaring a simple message. The church is not the building. The church is the people. And that is the heart of this morning’s message for Pentecost Sunday. A church is a gathering of…
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…
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…