Luke 1:26 – 2:20; Matthew 1:18 – 2:18 With hosts of angles, the principle characters, sheep, Magi and a little “helpful” direction from a Minister, the stage is set for a cute retelling of the whole story. Yet in the midst of the cuteness, God’s message of Salvation is still powerful. How are we living […]
Luke 1:47-56; 67-79 The songs of Mary (Luke 1:47-56) and Zechariah (Luke 1:67-79) express how they were living the experience of the Lord’s activity in their lives. Luke first introduced us to Mary & Zechariah through their questions and doubts. Yet, it was as the Lord worked in and through them that the song of […]
Luke 1: 26 – 45. Like Zechariah, Mary had a question: “How can this be?”, again the word of the Lord gave an explanation. Mary was moved into a place of acceptance as she listened to the angel’s message. Her God-ordained circumstances, her living experience of the Lord’s activity in her life, would take her […]
Luke 1:1-25, 57-66. December is a month of preparation, anticipation and excitement! Those are certainly the messages we hear through the different aspects of our “commercialised December”. Let’s be honest, though… December is also filled with messages of busyness and stress, perhaps through expectations that express where we should be, who we need to spend […]
Romans 8:29-30; Psalm 139:7-12. This is more than a gap-filler to make a teaching series fit into the right number of weeks! The gospel truth that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” is so important that it deserves a second look. How […]
Romans 8:18-37. Paul comes back to the reality of our suffering and struggles (see chapter 5) and here sets it squarely alongside Christian hope. Hope dwarfs suffering. It puts it in the shadows. How? Because “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us” (vs. 37). Therefore, nothing can separate […]
Romans 8: 1-17. Paul explains here how we are to live by God’s ways as best we can, empowered by the Spirit. He urges us to seek out a rhythm for life that sets our lives by the Spirit – what some people describe as “learning to dance to the Spirit’s tune”. Paul gives us […]
Romans 7: 1-25 Commentaries warn us to be careful not to try squeezing more meaning out of the illustrations we read in Roman’s than Paul would have intended. That’s certainly true for this chapter! Paul is not commenting in full about every aspect of marriage, but using just one headline example from the Mosaic law […]
Romans 6: 1-23. In this chapter Paul tackles the challenge we face when we make “life’s first cry” as a new Christian: shall we keep sinning on purpose so that we can know God’s grace all the more?” (vs. 1) No – Our lives have been transformed in Christ! We’ll be looking at that alongside the […]
Romans 5:1-21. The phrase “Alive in Christ” is echoed in the second half of this passage, and is coupled to the reasons Paul gives us to celebrate the results, or blessings of justification: we have peace with God (vs. 1); we are standing in grace (vs. 2a); we have the hope of the glory of […]