Devotional
Preparation Through Prayer – for Leatherhead
The Acts of the Apostles should perhaps be known as The Acts of Jesus and the Holy Spirit through the early church. Jesus enabled and sent them. The Holy Spirit empowered and guided them. They clearly knew their calling and yet they first “devoted themselves to prayer”. Let us pray for the people that God has in Leatherhead (Acts 18:10). Let us ask God to show us where He is already at work and how we can get involved. Let us pray.
Bible reading plans for this year
Have you read through the entire Bible? If so, is Bible reading a habit of yours? I have read the whole Bible every year for about 22 years. It has enriched my soul and has rooted me in truth in times of blessing as well as times of trial. January is a great time to consider this great discipline of the Christian life. But how should we read through the Bible? Do you just start in Genesis and work your way to Revelation?
Trials and Joy
Recently, a cocktail of circumstances caused me to lose my joy. You know how it is, any one of them on their own is tough but manageable, but when they all descend on you, it feels like the perfect storm. In the storm I could look at the horizon, and all I could see was wave after wave. On one particular evening at rush hour (which should really be called ‘park hour’) as I was commuting around the M25, right…
Do We Take God’s Word for Granted?
I was moved to tears watching this 1 minute video. Why? These Chinese Christians have received something that they had hungered after with deep longing. Their expressions and emotions are like those you’d expect from people who had lost their children and had finally found them again, or maybe like those who received life saving medication. What was it that moved them to this profound gratitude and joy? They received their first Bible in a country where Bibles are illegal!…
The Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is one of the great confessional declarations made by Christians for several hundred years. Creeds like this remind us that our faith is a shared faith. In our day and age, we want to view everything as personal… it’s my personal faith… I personally believe… personally Jesus is… Although what we believe as Christians is personally impacting it is corporately proclaimed. We are part of a heritage. This heritage reaches back to a group of men given…
Prayer in the Church
This past Sunday we were studying 1 Timothy 2:1-7 looking at a praying church as critical for the mission of God. In our study we did a brief overview of the book of Acts on the issue of prayer. Acts chronicles the birth and early history of the church of Jesus Christ. If we were to ask whether prayer was an important aspect of the early church, we should be able to look at the church’s practice in Acts to see this.Here…
Unwavering
It’s the middle of the night here in London. I’ve been back in the UK about 33 hours which means jetlag is in full swing. As I lay wide awake in bed my mind was meditating on unwavering faith, specifically the faith that Abraham had in Romans 4. God had made a promise to Abraham, a promise that seemed impossible to keep. In fact in Romans 4:18, we read that Abraham hoped against hope. In other words, he had hope in a…
Hope
This is a word that gets a lot of play. When we use the word hope, we usually mean that we should cross our fingers and wish for the best. Hope then becomes nothing more than positive thinking. But the Bible gives us a different perspective on the word hope. Hope carries the idea of an expectation of good. Hope is coupled with certainty, that is to say, certainty regarding the future. The question then is not one of IF, but of…
Waiting
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I do hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning. (Psalm 130:5-6) When something happens that is bigger than us, there is a real sense of helplessness. All we can do whether 6000, 400, or 1 mile(s) away is wait on God and hope in his promises. We should choose to wait actively on God who makes all things beautiful in his time (Ecclesiastes…
Profitable Exercise
Paul tells Timothy that physical exercise profits little. However, he doesn’t tell Timothy that physical exercise has no profit. This short video points out three areas where physical exercise is profitable. Share this…FacebookTwitteremail