In the ancient world, pagan worship meant lots of sacrifices to your favourite god. If you were going on a sea journey, you would pray and sacrifice to the god of the sea, and in return, you would hope that he would keep you safe. If you wanted a baby, you would pray to the …
In a recent sermon on Isaiah 33, the main point was that we should not put all our reliance on earthly solutions to earthly problems. Judah was facing a military problem, and they sought a military solution by calling on Egypt to help them. What they did not do is pray, seek the prophet, or …
None of us likes to think of God as being angry with us. For some, the idea of an angry God is an old primitive idea, and we really know that God is love. God loves us, doesn’t he? Well, yes. But God’s anger is a critical concept for us to understand; it is taught …
We can sometimes be paralysed by waiting for the perfect conditions to do something. I found myself in that position a week or two ago when I needed to put fertiliser on my lawn. The packet said that the fertiliser should be applied to wet grass, but it must not rain within 24 hours or …
The world is a messy, and often wicked, place. Just turn on the news. They never have to cancel investigative shows that reveal injustice because there is so much around. That’s nothing new. The Teacher of Ecclesiastes noted the same kind of things around 3000 years ago. In Ecclesiastes 8, he noted that governments can …
I have recently returned from the General Assembly of the World Reformed Fellowship. As I mentioned in my previous post, this was a wonderful opportunity to meet with like-minded people from around the world, to encourage one another, and to consider carefully the challenges we face in the modern world. The theme of the GA …
Think back to the last time you had to pack a suitcase when you last went on holidays. You usually have more things to take than whatever room you have in your case. You have a pile of things on the bed and an empty suitcase in front of you. How do you begin? Well, …
It’s flu season. It’s a bad one this year. Many of our friends and family members are sick or will be; perhaps we will suffer sickness ourselves. And that is on top of those who suffer other types of illnesses and disabilities; there are always people in our families and churches who have an obvious …
Our church accepted six people into membership yesterday. This is always an encouraging time as we think about what it means to be a church together. It means not just attending a place to get teaching and sing some songs, but being part of a family and serving one another. It involves commitment, and membership …
We are only saved by grace. That is a wonderful truth. We can only be counted as one of God’s people by what Jesus has done for us in his death and resurrection. He paid the debt we could not pay. Jesus took our sins upon himself. All we need to do is trust in …