We take a short break from 1 Peter for the next two weeks and Grant will be preaching on ‘Knowing God’. For the first of these he will speaking from John 17:1-14. He writes, “It is a remarkable thing to say that we know God. Jesus’ prayer in John 17 shows that he knew God as Father and was praying that we would know him in the same way. If you read the first half of this prayer in John 17, note the way he talks about the glory, the name and the word of God. These words open up […]

Having reminded his readers of the great mercy of God, their salvation and the living hope they were born into through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Peter goes on to instruct them how they are to live now, in the midst of their struggles. The various trials and suffering we endure in this life are no excuse for disobedience or unholy living for the children of God. We are to conduct ourselves with reverent fear towards God our Father, and with earnest love towards one another. And this, we are to do with our hope set fully […]

This week we begin a new series through Peter’s first letter, written to groups of believers dispersed throughout Asia Minor, and struggling in their trials and sufferings. For their encouragement, Peter reminds them of the great blessings and privileges they have, having being born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He doesn’t ignore their suffering, nor does he play it down, but he does remind them that it is only ‘for a little while’, whereas the promises and privileges which are theirs in Christ are eternal- imperishable, undefiled and unfading. This letter […]

Darian Jones will be speaking to us this weekend on the theme of glory. He writes, “What is it the world is repelled by and cannot face? What has been given to the church but cannot be defined? The answer is true glory. This true glory is the glory of God’s being, his revealed holiness, which is not merely notional, but relational. It cannot be gained through our efforts but is given and revealed to us through Christ and his cross. Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed […]

This week Wayne resumes our Deuteronomy series. looking at the whole of Chapter 30 under the title ‘Choose Life (Choose Christ)’. He writes, “The Chapter begins with the promise that God will restore the fortunes of his people when, after having rejected him and suffered the curse of being driven out from the Promised Land, they return to him with all their heart and soul. It finishes with Moses urging the people of God to choose life by loving the Lord, obeying his voice and holding fast to him. While this promise of restoration was fulfilled in part with the […]

This Sunday, Simon Dent will be preaching from Mark 6:45-56 under the heading, ‘God In My Boat’. He writes, “There are two accounts in the gospel of Mark where Jesus stills the waves. After the first event, the disciples wondered about him asking, “Who is this, that even the wind and waves obey him?” In this second account the implied response from Jesus is, ‘I am God, your Savior!’ The disciples failed to understand this at the time. How often do we too fail to understand? In fact, we cannot believe that Jesus is God for us unless he himself […]

In Deuteronomy 10:12-22 this week, we find that as God’s beloved and chosen covenant people, Israel are to circumcise their hearts and no longer be stubborn. This is what the Lord requires of his people if they are to enjoy the fulness of his covenant blessings. Sadly though, even before they enter the land, the Lord foretells their inevitable failure to do this. However, as Paul tells us in the New Testament, “where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more.” And in Deuteronomy 30:1-10, the Lord declares that he will do for his people the very thing he requires of […]

As we make our way through the next few chapters of Deuteronomy this week our readings will come from Deuteronomy 8:1-20 and 9:1-7. Here we find the Lord exhorting his people to remember him as they move forward and ‘go in and take possession of the land’ he has promised them. For the people to ‘go in’ they must look back and remember the Lord’s faithful provision to them in the wilderness, and they must also be careful as they move forward, lest they become proud and forget the Lord and his gracious electing love for them. With these things […]

God’s uncompromising directive for Israel to completely destroy the inhabitants of Canaan seems cruel and unjust to many who see it as just another example of the terrible genocides that have plagued human history in the name of religious or racial purity. Is this another tragic account of so called ‘ethnic cleansing’ or was it a clear reminder that God does not leave evil to go unchecked forever? This word would be a warning to every future generation of the danger of growing careless of God’s awe and complacent regarding their calling as God’s holy, treasured possession. Just as Israel […]

A father knows how to give good gifts to his children. This week, in Deuteronomy 5, we hear of the Lord giving the law to his people – and this is a good gift! The law given at Horeb, and repeated here on the banks of the Jordan, is not the condition for entry into the Promised Land, nor of their being accepted into God’s covenant. It is the way of life given by God, to his people: that they might live; that it might go well them, and that they might live long in the land. The Lord longs […]