Who are we listening to?

 * Who are we listening to? Where do we get our understanding of life from? There are two very different stories. There's the world's story. It's the story of life without God. There's the Lord's Story. It's the Story of His salvation.  *Who are we listening to? We listen to what we want to hear. …

Easter Sunday – early morning worship

"Low in the grave He lay... up from the grave He arose... " https://youtu.be/oN77HjfAc8k Lord, we thank You for Your great love. It is not a love that we can take for granted. We dare not say, ‘God loves us. We can do what we like.’ Your love calls for our response. It’s a love that calls …

Good Friday Worship

https://youtu.be/zFKbFINElqM "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13). We were “far off.” Now, we have been “brought near.” “This is the Lord’s doing; and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:23). Each and every one of us were like the prodigal son …

Good Friday March of Witness

We begin with "Wondrous Love" (also known as "Here is love, vast as the ocean"). https://youtu.be/7uRTQkdvNrY Let's pray. We thank You, Lord, for Jesus Christ – Your Son, our Saviour. What a great Saviour He is! When we think of Jesus, may our hearts be filled with true and lasting joy. We search for happiness – …

Inerrancy – within the context of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of faith

I don’t readily use the word “inerrancy”, because other people generally mean something different from what I mean. My problem is with the context within which inerrancy is normally set. If we set the idea of inerrancy within the context of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our life of faith, I have no …

Link to “The Narrow Path” (Steve Gregg’s Bible teaching ministry)

http://thenarrowpath.com/audio/verse-by-verse/

In our own homes: leaving the old year behind us and beginning the New Year with God (Let us worship the Lord on New Year’s Eve).

As we draw near to the end of the old year - may God help us to draw near to Him. As we begin the New Year - may God help us to make a new beginning with Him. Lord - lead us in Your way - the way of love - the way of …

Warfield and Berkouwer: The Evangelical Attitude toward the Bible

On the differences between Warfield and Berkouwer, P. Rees speaks wisely, “is it not right to say that there is a difference between the evangelical attitude toward the Bible and an evangelical’s views about the Bible? Go back to Warfield and Berkouwer. Their views of how to construe the Bible’s matchless revelatory quality and authority …

In our own homes – let us worship the Lord on Christmas Eve.

https://youtu.be/OBi6x4gRKEU “Immanuel … God is with us” (Isaiah 8:8,10). Lord, we read these words – and we thank You that Jesus has come to be with us so that we may go to be with Him. He has come from heaven to earth so that we might go from earth to heaven. He died for us …

In our own homes – let us celebrate the birth of our Saviour.

Lord, Your salvation is always Your gift. Our salvation is never a reward that we earn. It never begins with “I” – “This is what I have done.” It always begins with You, Lord. It begins with Your love: “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). We can never save ourselves. We can only be saved …

The Lord is reaching out to us, and he’s reaching out through us.

The Lord is reaching out to us, and he's reaching out through us. In his reaching out to us and his reaching out through us, we see the importance of the Saviour, the Scriptures and the Spirit. We need to hear from God, and we're called to speak for God. We listen to the Saviour. …

The Holy Spirit In The Life Of Faith (with links to audio version)

Here are two links to an audio version of a lecture, given in January 1987: The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith, Part One The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith, Part Two _________________________________ The Holy Spirit is the Breath of God. All Scripture is God-breathed. We experience the Breath of God upon …

Easter Sunday worship

Christ the Lord is risen today. https://youtu.be/XveIGmAUdkQ We thank You, Lord, that Your Son, Jesus, drank from the cup of our condemnation so that we might drink from the cup of His salvation. What a great thing Jesus has done for us. He has done all that needed to be done – for us to …

Thursday in Holy Week

Let's begin our worship with "The Old Rugged Cross." https://youtu.be/zyfR7URb8TY Lord, You’re calling us to worship You with joy. You’re calling us to glorify You. You want us to enjoy You. In our worship, may we never forget Your holiness: ‘He is holy!… The Lord our God is holy!’ (Psalm 99:5,9). In our worship, may …

Wednesday in Holy Week

Let's begin our worship with the hymn, "I will sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me." https://youtu.be/hDPCFbAysBc ‘With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O Lord!’ (Psalm 119:145). Lord, You’re calling us to pray. There is nothing more important than this. If other things have become more important in our lives, …

Tuesday in Holy Week

“Come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind!” (Psalm 66:5). Where will we see what the Lord has done for us? Let us come to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There, we will see what a great love our Saviour has for us! Here’s a great hymn of praise, I stand …

Monday in Holy Week

“Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day, day I will never forget, after I wandered in darkness away, Jesus, my Saviour, I met. Oh, what a tender, compassionate friend, He met the need of my heart, shadows dispelling, with joy I am telling, He made all the darkness depart.” https://youtu.be/ncwt0XFWuwU Lord, You show us the way …

Palm Sunday Worship

Let us worship God. Let's begin with rejoicing in the Lord and giving thanks to Him. This is the day that the Lord has made. https://youtu.be/IRLxugEtqx8 ‘The Lord is my Strength and my Song. He is my Saviour’(Psalm 118:14). We thank You, Lord, that Jesus Christ is our Saviour. We thank You that He gives …

God ‘Blesses’ Us Through ‘His Word.’ He ‘Blesses’ Us In ‘The Spirit.’

Psalm 147:1-20 ‘The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the exiles of Israel. he heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds’(2-3). This is much more than the building of the city of Jerusalem with bricks and mortar. This is God building up His people in their ‘most holy faith’(Jude 20). This is God blessing …

Trust Christ. He’ll never fail you.

Luke 13:1-35 Jesus stresses the need for both repentance (Luke 13:1-5) and the fruits of repentance (Luke 13:6-9). God’s Word, planted in our hearts at conversion, is to bear fruit. This requires continual repentance and faith (Colossians 2:6; Galatians 3:1-5). Don’t put it off till tomorrow! Today is ‘the day of salvation’. Don’t ‘neglect’ God’s …

Speaking the Word of God in today’s world

We have to speak to today's world - but we must make sure that it's God's Word that we speak. What are we to say to the world?  We must begin with another question: What is God saying to us? If we are to hear what God is saying to us, we must make time for …

The Holy Spirit opens up the Scriptures to us.

The Holy Spirit opens up the Scriptures to us, and he leads us to Christ. As we learn from the Scriptures, and are led to Christ, our way of thinking changes. This changes our way of living. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

“Your Word is truth” (John 17:17).

When Jesus was praying to His Father for His first disciples, He spoke these words, "Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth" (John 17:17). If, in our generation, we are to be the people of God - filled with His power, His love and holiness, we, no less than Jesus' first disciples, need …

In our own homes – let us keep on praising the Lord.

'O Lord, You are exalted for ever… The Lord reigns, He is robed in majesty… ' (Psalm 92:8; Psalm 93:1-2).  You, Lord, are ‘exalted’. Help us to exalt You in our worship. You are not exalted because we exalt You. We exalt You because You are exalted. You are ‘exalted far above all gods’. That is why we sing, ‘I exalt …

In our own homes – let us praise our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

We thank You, Lord, that You have opened up for us a great future. What glory awaits us in Your eternal Kingdom! What encouragement this gives to us when we’re going through a hard time! Help us, Lord, to lift up our eyes, to catch a glimpse of Your glory, to be changed by Your …

In our own homes – let us praise Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

https://youtu.be/RbBOOmkMLmI _____ We thank You, Lord, that Your Son, Jesus, is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). In His death for us, we see Your love for us. Help us to come to the Cross of Christ. Help us to worship You in the beauty of holiness. …

In our own homes – let us open our hearts to the love of Jesus, our Saviour.

In the morning, when I rise, give me Jesus - sung by Fernando Ortega Often, Lord, we have too much self-confidence and not enough confidence in You. May there be less ‘I can’ – that’s the pride we can do without – and more ‘God can’ – this is the faith we need so much. …

Looking at life in the light of God’s Word, God’s Son and God’s Kingdom

How do we decide which things are really important and which things are not really so important? We turn, again and again, to God's Word. We let Jesus Christ be our Teacher. We learn to see things in the light of God's eternal Kingdom.

Let us praise the Lord.

We thank You, Lord, that Jesus has risen from the dead (Luke 24:6). Death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24). He has triumphed over death – “Where, O death, is your victory? … Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). _____ When we read the …

In our own homes – may we experience God’s love and enjoy His blessing.

https://youtu.be/lCt1s44cfMM The Father, The Son, The Holy SpiritAdvent is the time of preparation for Christmas. Make sure that you prepare your heart for a real celebration of our Saviour. Remember that Christmas is not about us. It’s about God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: “an angel of the Lord” comes with …

In our own homes – let us remember that the Lord is with us, every step of the way.

https://youtu.be/JmGwHdNtpEw _____ Less of our sin, more of Your love – Lord, this is our prayer. Our sin does us nothing but harm. Your love always does us good – nothing but good. We’re sinners, Lord. Why do You keep on loving us? We don’t know why – but we’re glad that You do! We …

In our own homes – let us pray to the Lord and let us praise the Lord.

‘How I love Your Temple, Almighty Lord! How I want to be there! I long to be in the Lord’s Temple. With my whole being I sing for joy to the living God’ (Psalm 84:1-2).  Lord, we read this words, and we know that this is much more than paying lip-service to You. This is real. ‘I long …

In our own homes – let us be faithful in worshipping the Lord, reading His Word and praying to Him.

https://youtu.be/s3hNZT6ddJg ‘Fulfil your vows’ (Nahum 1:15). Lord, You’re calling us to be faithful to You. We are to be faithful in worship. We are to be faithful in reading Your Word. We are to be faithful in prayer. We are to be faithful in giving. We are to be faithful in witness. Our faith is …

In our own homes – May the Lord fill our hearts with His love, joy and peace.

https://youtu.be/-Msh0PAJfPU Lord, we read about Your judgment upon sinful nations – Ammon (Ezekiel 25:1-7), Moab (Ezekiel 25:8-11), Edom (Ezekiel 25:12-14) and Philistia (Ezekiel 25:15-17). You speak to us. You say to us, ‘You will know that I am the Lord’ (Ezekiel 25:5,7,11,17). You speak to us as our Judge. You speak to us about ‘sin, …

In our own homes: Let us look to Jesus – and be changed by Him.

https://youtu.be/mgzRB4gEPf4 We compare ourselves to other people. We like to think that we’re doing pretty well. What, Lord, do You think about all of this? Are You impressed? You’re saying to us, “What about Jesus? How do you compare to Him? Help us, Lord, to look at Jesus – and see where we need to …

In our own homes – Let us return to the Lord and hear His Word of salvation.

https://youtu.be/BUT-G4xHYpo ‘The Lord roars.’ ‘The Lord thunders’ (Amos 1:2). We thank You, Lord, that Your Word comes to us from above – ‘The Lord will roar from on high.’ You speak to us from heaven – ‘He will thunder from His holy dwelling.’ We dare not ignore Your Word. Your Word comes to us as …

In our own homes – let us praise our Saviour.

“In the beginning, God … ” (Genesis 1:1). “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start… ” (from the film, The Sound of Music). When we go back to “a long time ago”, do we go back far enough? The first four words of the Bible takes us back beyond “a long …

Science: What are we to say about it?

Not far off sixty years ago, when I was a young teenager, I learned a bit about science: not a lot, I must admit. When I was in my mid twenties, I dipped into some books which touched on the subject of science. What I'm saying is this: I'm not, exactly, an expert on science. …

The Authority of God’s Word

" ... the authority of God's Word is not an arbitrary, external authority ... (But) a wooing and conquering authority ... Scripture's authority does not demand blind obedience ... rather a subjection that spells redemption ... a subjection to Christ whereby he is never out of view ... in which acceptance occurs with joy and …

His Story

History: What's your reaction to the word, 'history'? Perhaps, it does nothing for you. You think of things that happened a long, long time ago, and you say, "Not for me!" What about His Story, the story of the eternal God, coming to meet us where we are? He comes to us from the ancient …

Walking in the light with God

God is calling us to walk in the light with Him. * He’s calling us to walk with Him in the light of His love. Go back to Genesis 1:3 – “Let there be light, and there was light.” Go back beyond the created light. Go back to the eternal God – “In the beginning, …

What do you believe? Who do you trust?

These two questions are closely connected, but they're not quite the same. Christian faith is more than believing what the Bible teaches us about Jesus Christ. It's trusting in Jesus Christ. While we can distinguish between the two questions; What do you believe? and Who do you trust?, we must not set these two questions …

Where is God?

In our times of suffering, we ask the question, "Where is God in all of this?" There is another question we need to ask. It's the question, "Who is God?" - In life's most difficult times, we need to "learn what God is like" (from the hymn, "Workman of God! O lose not heart"). When …

God is holy. He calls us to be holy.

* We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. * We need to feed on the Holy Scriptures. * We need to worship the holy God. * The holy God leads us in the way of holiness. * We walk in the way of holiness when we keep our eyes on our holy Saviour. …

Let us worship God – with joyful thanksgiving.

‘Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord… Let us come before Him with thanksgiving… Come, let us bow down in worship… ’ (Psalm 95:1-2,6). Lord, You’re calling us to worship You with joyful thanksgiving. We rejoice in You. We give thanks for Your love. You are ‘the great God’. You are ‘our God’. You are the God of creation – ‘In His …

The Holy Spirit And The Holy Scriptures

We begin with a simple and yet profoundly helpful illustration from James Philip. "The black plastic disc (for those who are more familiar with compact disc, he's speaking about the vinyl record - you can replace 'black plastic disc' with 'compact disc'!) that is put on the gramophone turntable has a voice within it, and when we put it …

In our own homes – let us lift up our hearts and voices to the Lord.

The first four worship videos are choruses I remember from my youth. I hope they will encourage you all in the Lord. The first one is sung by a young man, who is, also, playing his guitar. For God so loved the world https://youtu.be/Gl1uoaLVwkM ‘Let us go to the Lord’s House; let us worship before …

Sometimes, God speaks to us from places which seem rather unlikely.

Sometimes, God speaks to us from places which seem rather unlikely. As we explore His Word, we learn that He is the true and living God, ever ready to bring to us something new and fresh, something that will increase our joy and strengthen our faith.

God’s Word … talking to me …

"When you read God's Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, 'It is talking to me, and about me.'" (Soren Kierkegaard).

God is with us here and now, today and every day.

God's Word encourages us to look back, and it, also, encourages us to look forward. It takes us on a journry, from Genesis to Revelation. We're taken back to the beginning. We're being led on to the eternal future. As we look back to the past, let us lift up our hearts and voices to …

The Bible, God, the Church and the World

We may study Scripture personally but we must not study it individualistically. Our study of Scripture must be related to God, the Church and the world. We need a revival of the apostolic devotion - “we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:4). We are not to study …

God’s Love, God’s Word, God’s Son

Let’s think about God’s love, God’s Word and God’s Son. * God’s love is unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable. We read in the Bible about God’s love. Is this just something from the ancient past? Is it for us? The Bible speaks to us from the ancient past, but it’s not to be left in the …

Centred on the Saviour, Empowered by the Spirit, Grounded in the Scriptures

Centred on the Saviour, Empowered by the Spirit, Grounded in the Scriptures – These are the lessons that we must keep on learning if we are to bring glory to God and receive blessing from Him. * Centred on the Saviour Being a Christian isn’t something that we do for ourselves. It’s not something that …

Faith in Scripture as God’s Word

Berkouwer criticizes "an incorrect conception of theology, a conception of theology, a conception which considers it possible to discuss Holy Scripture apart from a personal relationship of belief in it, as though that alone would constitute true 'objectivity'." (Holy Scripture, pp. 9-10). He holds that those who view Scripture in this way "wrongly ... see …

Grounded In The Scriptures

How do we come to faith in Christ? How do we grow in Christ? How do we receive the Holy Spirit? How does the Holy Spirit work through us to bring other people to Christ? Do these blessings come to us from out of the blue? No. They come to us from the Word of …

Speaking to today’s world …

How are we to speak to today’s world? Before we can speak to today’s world, we must listen to God’s Word. Speaking for God begins with listening to him. A word that is spoken by us for the Lord must, first, be a word that is spoken to us by the Lord.

The Authority of God’s Word

" ... the authority of God's Word is not an arbitrary, external authority ... (But) a wooing and conquering authority ... Scripture's authority does not demand blind obedience ... rather a subjection that spells redemption ... a subjection to Christ whereby he is never out of view ... in which acceptance occurs with joy and …

Let us worship God.

Let us worship God. "No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11). We begin with a great hymn - The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. Be blessed, as you listen to it - and sing along with it. As you sing …

The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith (links to an audio version)

Links to a lecture given, in two parts, in 1987. The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith, Part One The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith, Part Two

In our own homes – let us thank the Lord for saving us and calling us to be His servants.

Serving You, Lord, doesn’t begin with our choice. It begins with Your call. The initiative is Yours – not ours. Thank You, Lord, that You love us so much. Thank You for saving us – and calling us to be Your serv.ants. At the beginning of the lockdown, Jack McHugh, the Moderator of the Presbytery …