blog

  • Just a thought...19th November

    On Sunday morning we saw the apostle Paul answer several objections to God’s judgment from Romans 3. He has stressed in chapter 2 that both Jews and Gentiles face God’s fair judgment. This leads those from a Jewish background to wonder if there was any advantage in their upbringing. Paul will give several advantages in chapter 9 but he provides the main blessing in 3:2: “First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.” The primary advantage those of a Jewish background had over everyone else was that God had spoken...

  • Just a thought...12 November

    I have just written an assignment on Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement. Leviticus is often a book that we can find challenging to read. We wonder what relevance the food, hygiene and sacrifice laws have today. Yet, Leviticus 16 sits at the heart of the first five books of the Bible (Pentateuch) and provides an answer to the big problem: how can sinful humanity be in the presence of a holy God. The Day of Atonement was a yearly event in the Israelite calendar. God had made the tabernacle His dwelling place and, on this day, the high priest...

  • Just a thought...8 October

    In the first six chapters of Jeremiah, the Lord has revealed that disaster is coming on Jerusalem because of his people’s wickedness. There are those in the city who spread the message “’Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” In Jeremiah 7:1-29, he delivers his temple sermon and warns against falsely trusting in the temple to save them. Jeremiah calls on the people to repent. They went through the outward rituals of religion. They assumed that they were safe because they had the temple. They were using the temple as a...

  • Just a Thought... 1 October

    We have all been in situations where we could have told people about Jesus but didn’t because we feared the consequences. Perhaps it might lead to awkward questions we don’t know how to answer about Christianity. Perhaps we would be seen as strange. Perhaps sometimes we are not convinced of the relevance of Jesus in today’s society. On Sunday morning we looked at Romans 1:16-17:  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew,...

  • Just a thought... 15 September

    Is it possible to really know God? On the one hand the answer to this has to be no. God is so utterly different to us, how can we possibly comprehend Him? He is the creator, we are finite creatures. Everything in our lives is bounded by time, things have a beginning and end – how can we understand what it means to be eternal? We cannot be in more than one place at once, we are not all-knowing – we cannot understand God. This is true because we are human and yet we are also sinful – by...

  • Just a Thought... 8 September

    On Sunday morning we considered Romans 1:1-7. This letter of Paul’s is about the gospel - the good news about Jesus Christ. Paul will go onto to explain the good news in much more detail in the rest of the book, but he gives a summary of some of the key points in v2-4. It is what the whole Old Testament pointed to, it is good news about a person – Jesus Christ, and that it is good news about resurrection. At the heart of the gospel is the message that Jesus died on the cross for...

  • Just a Thought... 3 September

    On Sunday morning we considered the account of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. We saw sinful human pride on display – sadly something which affects all of us. The people directly rebelled against God’s command and instead looked to make themselves secure apart from God by building a city. They built a tower and wanted to worship in their way and not how God had defined. They wanted a name for themselves rather than seek God’s glory and honour. Yet, the central statement in this account is found in Genesis 11v5: 'But the LORD came down...

  • Just a Thought... 23 July

    On Sunday morning we continued our series in the book of Titus. The theme of the book is “truth that leads to godliness.” In chapter 1 we saw who should and should not be teaching in the church. Now in chapter 2, as we saw on Sunday, Paul tells Titus what he should be teaching for godliness. Whilst many of the characteristics described are useful for everyone, Paul emphasises different aspects of godliness to different groups in the church. He recognises that we are different, have different roles, different strengths, different temptations and struggles. Where does the power...

  • Just a Thought... 2 July

    As Christians we know that Jesus is returning. However, the exact ordering of the events and all of the details surrounding his second coming are less clear. Perhaps you have met Christians who insist they know exactly how it will happen and demand that you think the same. Whilst the Bible does give some teaching on this, and it is important to seek to understand what all of the Bible is teaching, it is more crucial to understand why the Bible teaches on the second coming and to be loving and gracious to any who take a different view on...

  • Just a Thought... 25 June

    We can probably all think of people who just seem to know lots of stuff. Whatever subject you speak to them about, they have some knowledge of it. They are good at quizzes! Some retain information very well and others of us struggle. This kind of knowledge perhaps has some use, but it probably doesn’t fundamentally change how someone lives. In fact, it can sometimes lead to pride. However, on Sunday morning, as we started a new series on Paul’s letter to Titus, we saw a different kind of knowledge. “knowledge of the truth that leads to...