Tag Archives: hope

Lust and Love

I thought more than twice about changing the subject for this morning’s sermon. It’s difficult enough to speak about these things when I can see who I’m talking to, when I can get some clues about how it’s landing with people. When I know that we’ve got prayer ministry folk around who can come alongside […]

Everlasting Rest

“An inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” I wonder how often you think about heaven, and about the glorious inheritance that is kept there for you, waiting for you to arrive and claim it. Over the last few months I’ve been slowly reading my way through a book called […]

Once Saved, Always Saved?

This morning we have the last of our “Tough questions” sermon series. In the past month or so we’ve considered such things as “What do we do with violence in the Bible?”, “Why do good things happen to bad people?”, and “Are demons real?” If you missed any of those, and for some reason find […]

Love

It is said that familiarity breeds contempt. It’s often struck me as a slightly depressing world view, one which I hope isn’t necessarily true. It seems to me much more hopeful to believe that familiarity might breed insight, affection, and comfort. Maybe, though, this does take a bit of work, and maybe a choice to […]

That you might believe

“These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” This is why John wrote what we now call John’s gospel. The word, “gospel” means, “good news”, and the good news that John saw in […]

Because he lives

As I was looking at the hymns for this morning, I was struck that many of the ones that echoed the themes of our reading from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth were in the “Easter” section of the hymn books. I had a bit of a question mark in my head. How do […]

Well, well, well

Is it just me, or does tonight feels a bit like the season finale of a television series. If I’ve counted back correctly, we’re just coming to the end of the fourth season of “The People Of God”. Season 1 was broadcast in the Autumn of 2016 and shared the stories of Adam and Eve, […]

Ups and Downs

One of the most well known songs from the musical “Joseph and the amazing technicolour dream coat” is “Any dream will do.” Don’t worry, I’m not about to burst into song. It is usually sung at the beginning and end of the performance, as a frame for the story. Poignantly it sketches Joseph’s fall from […]

Welling Up

There is a place in Ethiopia called the Benishangul-Gumuz Region. I wonder if anyone here knows what is significant about the Benishangul-Gumuz region? I’ll give you a clue, the Blue Nile flows through this region. Since 2011 there has been a dam under construction in this area that will, when it is complete be part […]

Vision 2018

This morning we are thinking about vision, how we see the future for All Saints, what God is calling us to be and to do. We’ve got a lot to cover, so I’m going to dive straight in, and we’re going to start with Scripture, and particularly Paul’s letter to the Christians in Ephesus. What […]