Monday Message

Jeremiah 31:29-30 “The people will no longer quote this proverb: ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,     but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste.’ All people will die for their own sins—those who eat the sour grapes will be the ones whose mouths will pucker. Each person will be held to account for their actions and made to pay for their choices. Sounds pretty bleak to me. If I make a misstep, then I will die. God despises sin and tells us quite plainly in Romans that the wages of sin is death. Put simply, if we sin, someone has to die. And yet this isn't the end of the plan God laid out to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31:31-34  “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. “...

Luke 12:6-7 “What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. I like to think I'm making God's job a little easier everyday. As I loose my hair, He can count a little faster and have more time for others. I know that's not how God works, but it makes me more comfortable with inevitable baldness. Bad jokes aside, sparrows were about the cheapest thing you could buy to be sacrificed at the temple. Pretty much even the poorest people could offer a sparrow or two when needed. The most basic of gifts to be given to God. A sparrow sacrificed before God was pleasing to Him. Some days it's easy to think we shouldn't present ourselves before God. We've done or said something that we're ashamed of. At the very time we most need God, we seem to be most likely to turn from Him. To th...

Psalm 128:1-6 How joyful are those who fear the Lord -  All who follow His ways! You will enjoy the fruit of your labour. How joyful and prosperous you will be! Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. That is the Lord's blessing for those that fear Him. May the Lord continually bless you from Zion. May you see Jerusalem prosper as long as you live. May you live to enjoy your grandchildren. May Israel have peace! This psalm gives me both great peace and great worry. On the one hand, I'm promised joy and prosperity. On the other, a fruitful wife. A couple of years ago I thought along these lines: My wife would have lots of kids, who'd grow up to be full of energy, whilst becoming wealthy and living a comfortable life. If that was what I was expecting, I'd say I was disappointed. We have not had any children biologically, yet o...

This week, one of my very dear friends went through something I can only describe as shattering. His precious, 13 day old son, Zethan, died in his mother's arms. Zethan only had a few short days with his parents, but in that time he touched the hearts of an untold number of people. Although most of us only knew Zethan for 13 days, his parents knew him for the 9 months previous; Praying for him and loving him even as he was forming in his mother's womb. More than that though, God knew him from time immemorial. Psalm 139:13-16 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body     and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!     Your workmanship is marvellous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,     as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.     Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was lai...

Fear of the unknown; Of discomfort; Of having to give up the things I enjoy. I know I'll be better off if I truly surrender to Him, but I'm a stubborn young man. I want what I have that keeps me comfortable. And I want what God has for me too! Mark 4:3-9 With last week's post , I looked at the parable of the sower, but only the last line. The focus being on hearing and listening. This week I'm going to focus on the parable itself and the explanation that followed. “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they...

I'm working through a reading plan that will see me read the entire Bible in a year. It's the first time I've done this and it's been an eye opening experience. Sometimes it's a passage I've heard others mention or a saying I didn't realise was in the Bible in the first place. Today's Monday Message is based off a different connection that I occasionally see in my reading. In this case a well known phrase from the New Testament that looks to be linked to the Old Testament. Not an unusual occurrence I'm sure, but one that gone me thinking. Mark 4:9 Then He said "Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand." Matthew 13:9 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand." Both of these verses directly follow the Parable of the Sower, just in the different Gospels. Jesus uses this phrase to indicate that the meaning is hidden in the parable. Even His disciples have to ask him it's meaning. But why the...

Again this week, I'm using one of my old sermons for the message as it has been something I've been brought back to over the last week as I dwell on the idea of grace and adoption. The audio file is available here: Download The new testament comes after 400 years of silence from God. So the start of the new testament must be full of action and drama. Surely it must! But no! Matthew starts with a list. A list! What kind of start is that after 400 years of silence. As if the old testament wasn’t full enough of lists as it is, now we start to new testament with a list. Seriously, It better be a good list. Fortunately, this isn’t just any list. This is a list of Jesus ancestors. All the way from Abraham down to Joseph and Mary. Funnily enough, most of the names on the list are men. In fact, there are only 5 women listed and today’s woman of faith is one of them. Rahab lived in the fortress city of Jericho, near the River Jordan. Despite living in a walled city, Rahab was...