Help us, Lord, to put the past behind us.

Help us, Lord, to put the past behind us. Help us to press on into Your future. We learn from the past. Help us not live in the past. Help us, Lord, to let the past be the past. Help us to make a new beginning with You. Help us to move forward with You …

Raised, with Christ, to eternal life

2 Samuel 7:1-8:18; Acts 2:22-47; Proverbs 14:5-14 “The Lord gave David victory wherever he went” (2 Samuel 8:14). The victory, given to Jesus, was a greater victory than any victory given by God to David. Concerning David, Scripture says, “David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day” (Acts 2:29). Concerning …

Matthew 7-9

MATTHEW 7:1-14  -  Jesus’ teaching regarding Christian living can be related to His teaching in ‘the Lord’s Prayer’ (6:9-13). We are not to pray one thing and do another. We are to live the Lord’s Prayer. We receive forgiveness from God. We are to show His forgiveness to others. We receive good things from God. …

Notes: Matthew to Acts

MATTHEW 1:1-17  -  This may be the beginning of the New Testament, but it is not the beginning of God’s revelation. It is not the beginning of His redemption. The birth of Christ is the continuation of the history of salvation, recorded in the Old Testament. Matthew takes us back to Abraham  (1-2; Genesis 12:1-3). …

Sing to the Lord a new song.

"Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him." (Psalm 98:1) A new song: this is a song that wasn't in our hearts before we met the Lord, before we were saved by Him. It's the Lord who has …

Getting back on track with personal worship

I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving (Psalm 69:30). Let us worship God: we hear these words, being spoken to God's people, when they are gathered together for worship. What about personal worship: I will praise God? True worship will, always, be more than what happens when we are gathered together …

Thanking God for his blessings, and praying that we will know, more and more, of his blessing

It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.  For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How …

Meeting with God and being blessed by him

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope (Psalm 130:5). As we read these words of the Psalmist, we start thinking about ourselves. How do we come to the house of the Lord, when we come to worship him? Do we come with eagerness? Do we come with expectation? …

Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Help us, Lord, to worship You. Help us to say, “To You, Lord, be the glory and the power for ever and ever” (1 Peter 4:11; 1 Peter 5:11). Deliver us from a “form of religion which denies Your power” – “These people honour Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me” …

God loves us, and Jesus is our Saviour.

But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence, I bow down toward your holy temple (Psalm 5:7). Coming to the house of the Lord is a great privilege. In his great love, God calls us to worship him. How are we to come to worship the Lord? We are to come …

Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is absolutely trustworthy and completely dependable.

Psalms 20:1-21:13 We boast of the Name of the Lord our God...Through the steadfast love of the Most High' we 'shall not be moved' (20:7;21:7). We do not trust in things that 'collapse and fall'. We build on 'the Rock' (20:8; Matthew 7:24-27; Psalms 18:1-3; 62:5-7). We 'rejoice' in our God. He has made us …

Worshipping the Lord: Learning From The Psalms

In Psalm 4, there is a great message of the Gospel. By ourselves, we are sinners, turning God’s glory to shame, loving delusions and seeking false gods (Psalm 4:2). By grace, God has done something about this - ‘the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself’ (Psalm 4:3). When we pray, ‘Answer me’ (Psalm …

Guide us, Lord, by Your light and Your truth.

Guide us, Lord, by Your light and Your truth (Psalm 48:14; Psalm 43:3). Let Your light shine into our darkness. Let Your truth lift us out of the way that leads away from You and into the way that leads to You. Lead us to Jesus - He is "the Way, the Truth and the …

Lord, You call us to “worship You in spirit and in truth.”

Leviticus 22:17-23:44 Lord, You call us to "worship You in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). Where does true worship come from? - It comes from You. It comes from Your Spirit. It comes from Your Truth. We read the Holy Scriptures - and we begin to worship You. We open our hearts to the …

God loves us with a great love. He loves us with a faithful love.

I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself (Psalm 89:1-2). As we read through God's Word, we read about many things, and we read about many …

Faith that leads to obedience, and obedience that arises from faith

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection …

Seeing the bigger picture

"So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.” So he said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down …