I’ve been on a conference this week, and on one of the days we did a Bible study on part of the first chapter of John’s gospel. It describes the time just before Jesus started his public ministry, a time when his cousin John was out in the desert outside Jerusalem, preaching and baptising. He’s […]
And so we come to the season finale, the episode that draws together a lot of the threads of the story line, but leaves a few hanging out there for the next season, even a bit of a cliff hanger – keeping us intrigued and ready to come back for more when the new season […]
God is there. God is here. God is everywhere. God is present. This is one of the basic Christian assertions. It is a belief that God exists, but it is more than that. It is an understanding that God exists and is present in and to creation. We do not believe in a God who […]
This evening our text is from Paul’s second letter to Timothy, chapter 1, verse 7: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” Now, let’s get a couple of bits out of the way to start with. Firstly, is this spirit the Holy Spirit or […]
I wonder how many of you have seen this advertisement for the sports drink Lucozade. I first saw it a couple of weeks ago on the bill board on the station car park. I wonder how it makes you feel, what you think about this Biblical account being subverted and used to sell fizzy sugar […]
There are a lot of ups and downs to being a Dad, and also quite a few ups and downs to having a Dad. This morning we’re beginning a series of sermons exploring the character and personality of the first person of the Trinity. Today we’ll be thinking about what God is like as Father […]
I wonder if anybody knows how many days there are to Christmas? It’s 168 days. We are now closer to next Christmas than we are to last Christmas. Has anybody already started their Christmas shopping? None of those really organised types who get stuff in the Boxing Day and New Year Sales for the following […]
Last week, Susie started us thinking about our gift-giving God, and that great gift that has been given to us, Jesus. I particularly liked the image of trying to hug someone who isn’t a hugger, and it all gets a bit awkward, and how sometimes that describes how we react to God’s gifts to us. […]
What is it about kids and water? That day when they come home from nursery and tell you that they’d done something really special that day. They’d had the water guns out. But there was one rule. No squirting people. They’d cleaned the garden furniture, sprayed the walls of the shed and watered the plants, […]
So far in this sermon series, focussed on the sending out of the seventy-two we’ve been thinking about the preparations for the journey, about how they were to go, where they were to go, what they might expect when they got there, and now today, finally, we get to think about the content of the […]