Complete, at last

Judges 1:1-2:5 - 'You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? (Galatians 5:7). Everything seems to be going well - 'From victory to victory His army He shall lead till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed' (1-18; Church Hymnary, 481). Things went badly wrong. God commanded His people to …

May God help us to grow spiritually, even when life is not very easy!

Luke 1:39-80 There are two great ‘songs of praise’ here (46-55,67-79). God was doing ‘a new thing’. His people were rejoicing in Him. Great things were happening. Greater things were going to happen. Soon, the Saviour would be born. The birth of John the Baptist (57-66) - This was great. The birth of our Saviour …

About Angels

Here are a few thoughts which I hope you’ll find helpful. (i) We must start by acknowledging our limited understanding. (ii) We should ground our thinking in God’s Word. (iii) We should recognize that it’s difficult to know where to draw the line between solid exposition of God’s Word and “interpretations” that move beyond God’s …

Preaching the Gospel Of Jesus Christ, The Risen Lord

God’s love, God’s Son, God’s command, God’s purpose ‘When the Holy Spirit comes on you… you will be My witnesses… to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). This great advance of the Gospel – Salvation reaches ‘the Gentiles’ (Acts 10:45; 11:1,18) – is a movement of ‘the Spirit’ (Acts 11:12). The Spirit speaks through …

When everything seems to be going wrong

Mark 4 Are you listening? This is what Jesus is saying to us in his parables. He speaks about the seed, which is the Word of God. He asks us, 'Is the message really getting through to you.' When the Word of God is really getting through to us, it brings us out of darkness …

The Word of the Lord came to me.

Zechariah 5:1-8:23; Jude 1-25; Psalm 139:17-24 Again and again, in Zechariah, we find the phrase, “the Word of the Lord (Almighty) came to me” (Zechariah 6:9; Zechariah 7;1,4,8). Another recurring phrase, with similar meaning, is “This is what the Lord (Almighty) says” (Zechariah 6:12; Zechariah 8:3,4,6,7,9,14,20,23). The Word of revelation – This is the basis …

God’s love for us, and our love for him

Mark 3 In this chapter, the verse that spoke, most directly and most powerfully to me was the last verse: “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (verse 35). Doing the will of God is the most important thing. This is what Jesus said to his family. This is what …

Without the blessing of God, our worship is empty.

2 CHRONICLES 5:2-6:42 - Without the blessing of God, our worship is empty. We must look for God’s blessing in the place of worship. What we must pray for is this: ‘the glory of the Lord filled the House of God’ (5:14). We must look for God’s blessing in the pulpit, praying that the preachers …

Believing in the love of God and being changed by the love of God

In The Providence of God, G C Berkouwer relates providence to both the love of God as the object of the believer's faith and the believer's faith by which providence is subjectively experienced. "in the doctrine of providence we have a specific Christian confession exclusively possible through a true faith in Jesus Christ ... this …

What happens when the Spirit of the Lord breathes new life into the Church of God?

Ezekiel 37:1-28  -  It was ‘a valley of dry bones’ (1-2). Then, the Lord changed everything - ‘I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live’ (5). What a difference the Lord makes! ‘Breathe on me, Breath of God. Fill me with life anew’ (Church Hymnary, 103). What happens when the Spirit of …

In our obedience to God, there is to be the fear of the Lord and love for the Lord.

Deuteronomy 6:1-25 -  ‘Hear’ and ‘do’ (1-3; James 1:22-25).  In our obedience to God, there is to be the fear of the Lord and love for the Lord (2,5).  Fear and love: the two belong together.  God is holy – fear Him.  God is love – love Him.  This is for every generation: ‘you and …