Sunday, 06 July 2014
Duration: 38 mins 14 secs
What is faith? When we believe and trust in Jesus Christ and not in ourselves. Faith though, is more than just belief. Faith is active - it unites us with Jesus Christ. Faith allows us to understand, it allows us to offer ourselves to God for His service, it allows us to build for God, it allows us to obey God's calling, it allows us to long for a future with God, it allows us to be blessed by God and allows us to worship Him. Faith trusts the Christ that promises! Do you trust, love and follow Jesus?
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Duration: 35 mins 25 secs
Solomon reminds us at the beginning of Proverbs that this book is for "gaining wisdom and instruction". At the end of this book Solomon decribes the attributes of the wife of noble character. But is this passage about what a wife should do to please her husband and family? No, it is more about what we as people need to do to please God! In God's eyes, marriage is husbands and wives complementing each other and not competing against each other. Marriage should be about love, about submission, about leading, about unity, about working together, and to fear and have faith in God. To fear God is to see Him as He really is - righteous and holy, and to recognise who we are - sinful and not worthy of Him. The fear we have of God should not drive us away from Him, but draw us closer to Him.
Sunday, 22 June 2014
The Shunammite woman is a lady of faith. She recognises that Elisha is a man of God and makes the effort through her hospitality to serve God in preparing a room in her home for Elisha to stay when he comes to visit her town. After the death of her son, the Shunammite woman did not just accept the earthly fate of her son but put her faith in God through Elisha that her son may be restored to life. When we invite Jesus into a life do we allow Him to take over all aspects of our life or do we set apart just a section of our life for Him whilst relying on things of this earth? Putting our hope in earthly things will ultimately lead to failure. We need to put all our hope in Jesus because it is only through Him that we will be able to spend an eternity with God.
Sunday, 01 June 2014
Duration: 34 mins 54 secs
Many of the stories of the Old Testament retell the history of the people of Israel. But they are more than straight historical records. Together they show that God was not idle in the lead up to the coming of Jesus, but constantly working in the lives of His people to save and restore them into right relationship with Him. In theological terms, this is called salvation history, and the story of Samuel is an important part of it as he is used by God to anoint the first kings of Israel. Samuel's story however begins with Hannah, a woman who, in desperate times for Israel, was desperate to have a child and went to the only one who could meet this need.
Sunday, 25 May 2014
Duration: 39 mins 19 secs
Ruth is a short book tucked away between Judges and 1 Samuel that tells one of the most deeply touching stories in the whole Bible. It is not first and foremost a love story however. It is the story of God on mission to bring back people to Himself. The story of Ruth is a beautiful picture of this redemption. Ruth was a widow and foreigner, living in a strange land. Circumstances had reduced her to a life of poverty. She was an outcast, destitute and needy, and she could not save herself. She needed her life redeemed. Really Ruth's story is that of every person in this world. It foreshadows the life of Jesus, who entered this world to become our kinsman-redeemer and to buy us back to God.
Sunday, 18 May 2014
Duration: 31 mins 17 secs
What is God doing in this world today? God is on mission - bringing the sinful world of His fallen creation to the redeemed world of His new creation. Rahab was part of the Amorite kingdom who were going to be condemned because of their sinfulness. But in amongst all of this wickedness, and whilst her profession would say otherwise, there was a glimmer of faith in the form of Rahab. Rahab understood God's power and was saved because of her faith, along with her family, from the wrath of God. The criminal on the cross next to Jesus also understood God's power and even in the last minutes of his life was saved to spend an eternity with Jesus because of his faith. God is always about bringing people back to Himself. That is the task that we have been left to do - spreading God's word and making disciples!
Sunday, 11 May 2014
Duration: 29 mins 31 secs
Sarah's life was one of ups and downs with the main issue for her being childless. She was faithful to her husband Abraham and had no hesitation in following him when he is called by God to leave their country. With the arrival in Canaan, and ten years after the promise from God that Abraham and Sarah would give birth to a child, Sarah, still childless, decided to take matters into her own hands by offering her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to Abraham in order to fulfil God's promise - but this was not meant to be. How often do we take matters into our own hands without having God involved? 25 years after His promise, God delivers, and Abraham and Sarah have a son. We are to trust in God's promises to us, look to the cross and to say it is not in my strength that I am able. It is our trust, faith and hope in Him by which we can be made right.
Sunday, 27 April 2014
Duration: 34 mins 52 secs
Martin Luther King once said, along these lines, "If you haven't got anything worth dying for, then there is nothing worth living for". This has been a recent reflection for our nation as we remembered Anzac Day and the sacrifice made of our fallen soldiers. As Paul comes to the end of his life he starts to contemplate what's worth dying for - and it is all about Jesus. Becoming a Christian does not mean an easy life. We will face spiritual battles as we go against Satan and our own evil desires. We will fight, but it won't be us, it will be Jesus fighting for us, who dwells within us. In our Christian life, we are in a race, not to win, but to finish. But like any race, we need to take the time to prepare and focus - to seek God's guidance and direction for our lives. As Christians we run the race together, to be an encouragement for each other. When you come to the end of your life, will you be able to say what Paul said, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith"?
Sunday, 20 April 2014
Duration: 23 mins 51 secs
The 3 women go to the tomb with spices to anoint Jesus' body. They discover the tomb is empty and are told by a young man that Jesus is risen and to go and tell Peter and the other disciples the news. The women fled from the tomb trembling and bewildered and told no one what they saw because they were afraid. The angel had told the women what to do but not when to do it. God does the same with us. We know what we need to do to meet the resurrected Jesus but He will not impose Himself on us - we have a choice of whether to accept Him or not into our lives. This passage shows that Jesus has finished His work on earth. As Christians, we are the continuation of the story. We are to tell others about the risen Saviour through our words and actions. Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrected Saviour and the way to eternal life?
Sunday, 13 April 2014
Duration: 34 mins 23 secs
What is the most important thing in your life? When something is important to us in our lives, it becomes valuable. How valuable is Jesus in your life? The women who poured perfume over Jesus' head greatly valued Him. The chief priests totally de-valued Jesus. Judas Iscariot, who had spent 3 years so close to Jesus, in the end only valued Him to the amount of 30 pieces of silver. The women showed that Jesus was more valuable to her than what she owned - she gave Him everything. There is no greater thing we can do than pour our life over to Jesus. Are we prepared to give Jesus everything we have?
