1 Corinthians 12. The Apostle Paul is keen to make sure that the people of God don’t remain uninformed about the gifts of the Holy Spirit through which we are equipped. He sets that out in three distinct, yet intertwined, ways as he shows us: The purpose of the gifts (vs. 1-3): to bring glory […]
John 4:1-42. The example John uses in this chapter shows us a Samaritan woman who was on the edges of society, pushed out, and vulnerable. That doesn’t matter to Jesus. He sees beyond all of that, to a lost soul who needed to know that she was loved. Without that happening, living the redeemed life […]
Luke 1: 5 – 25, 57 – 80. After more than 500 years of waiting – the first special angel-announced birth – is this the Messiah? In fact the angel announces that this baby will “make ready a people prepared for the Lord”.
1 Thessalonians. Paul had previously visited Thessalonica, but his stay was cut short (see Acts 17:1-9). His letter sought to addresses those things that he had not previously spoken about, but were very much needed. One of Paul’s concerns was that those who had recently come to faith, and discovered their place of belonging within […]
1 and 2 Corinthians. When Paul wrote his 2 letters to the Corinthians, was he correcting (rebooting!) the ways that things were done, or the ways that people thought? We can’t really separate out the two and still read a fully coherent letter. In 1 Corinthians Paul is mostly interested in problem solving to make […]
Matthew 5:13-16, John 15, Philippians 2:13-15, 1 Peter 2:11-12, Colossians 4:2,5-6. One of the last things that Jesus said was “Go and make disciples in my name” (Matthew 28:19). So where do we start? How do we go about bringing God-flavours and God-colours to the world? An earlier teaching series helped us to consider where […]
Daniel 2: 17-23; 6:10; Esther 4:16 What a motivation to pray. As we turn our hearts once more towards Pentecost we are reminded that prayer connects us to a God who wants to change the world. If we are to see revival in our town and nation then we need to be investing time in prayer: […]
Hebrews 12: 1 – 29. There is no better way to persevere in faith as followers of Jesus than to respond to and live by this encouragement: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (12:2). From encouragement to persevere in faith, the writer of Hebrews adds an exhortation […]
Hebrews 2: 1-18. With hearts and minds turned to be focused on the supremacy of Jesus, chapter 2 gives us a clear and straightforward warning to “pay more careful attention to what we have heard” (2:1). This is the first of 5 warnings in the letter to the Hebrews, and this one takes us back […]
1 Peter 3:8-22. The first word of 1 Peter 3:8 suggests at first sight that he is drawing to a close, but he still has plenty more to say yet! Here, the “finally” is more of a conclusion to Peter’s encouragement to us individually to live the Christian life well, before he brings us back […]