NCF Sunday Talks

God is in charge. How do we react righteously to that? People like Gideon (Judges 6) started off by doubting, but then God moved in their lives. Let us be reassured in our lives: God is in control.

After gaining an Overview of the Bible  for the past four months, we are encouraged to really engage with the Scriptures and to not let them be like water going through a pipe. As we become more serious at spending time considering, pondering and applying the Bible to our lives, then that great investment of time and energy will change us. Action and development of character will be generated. Sev...

Whilst the Book of Revelation does have a lot of strange imagery and symbolism, it also contains many concrete ideas that are foundational for our Christian lives today. The same truths we read about now would have encouraged the original readers/listeners (who were going through terrible persecution). We are on God's side in the battle between Good and Evil. God has won! No wonder there are...

In this Talk we get an Overview of the eight non-Pauline letters in the New Testament. Often when reading the Bible, it is the parts we do understand that are the trickiest to read and to put into practice. As we pray whilst reading, so God helps us to be alert, revolutionary and to grow in maturity. After the Talk we hear five people praying for HyungJin (Daniel) as he is shortly to become a theo...

Paul gives encouragement and help to Timothy, Titus and Philemon. We hear the background to these books, as well as modern stories to remind us of God's Church on other continents. God was active in the 1st century. He is still active today.  Some of the Talk was edited in order that specific details wouldn't be published online. The first 90 seconds are quiet, but then a normal volume i...

What do we know about Paul? Why did he wrote his Letters to the Churches? Did he write more Letters than we have in our Bibles? God wants to stir us as we walk in our Christian faith with Him. He wants to use us to stir others too. We are called to be radical with God. Let's allow God to move into our nooks and crannies, as well as the main parts of our lives. Let God stir your thoughts, emot...

God is alive and working. He used people when the Church was newly birthed. He still uses people today, but what things should we persue in order that God might use any of us? Unfortunately there was a short time during this Talk where there was an issue with the microphone.

The current celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 remind us that Jesus undertook a greater Mission - to come to earth and save us from our sins. We briefly look at all the Gospels and consider what emphasis the author had when he wrote it. Are we fanning into flame the gifts that God have given us? Are we learning to pray more/differently? The Jesus of the Gospels is still alive and wa...

Reading the Old Testament and the New Testament is excellent, but what happened between them? What was God doing? How was He preparing the world for Jesus to come?

What is The Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament and how should we read it? 

God proves that He is overall charge in history. He was in the period of the Exile and after it too. He is still in overall charge. Due to this, let's expect to hear the Lord's heartbeat as we regularly pray and let's expect that He will start new chapters in our lives, just as He did when His Chosen People returned to Jerusalem even though it would have been difficult for them.

Hear about the Prophets who spoke and wrote for several centuries in the Southern Kingdom.

God spoke and speaks through His prophets. Elijah and Elisha had a big impact in the Northern Kingdom but didn't write things down. Amos and Hosea both wrote God's thoughts down. God is still gracious. Let us hear the prophetic voice today.

The Israelites were meant to show God's Sovereignty in their lives and their unity to other nations. They didn't really do either.  Will we?

Israel was meant to be distinctive from the nations around them. We shouldn't compare ourselves to others. Saul, David and Solomon reigned for 120 years between them. Reading about them shouldn't just give us knowledge about what was happening, but should change our lives as we allow God to challenge and move us onwards.

In these two books we are considering God Promises: taking, sharing and keeping them. Treasure and protect what God has given you.

What is the Pentateuch? Why is it called by that name? Several of the PowerPoint slides that were shown have short summaries for each chapter of the five books. This is very briefly discussed, before we ponder on the two macro themes of this section of the Old Testament. These remind of us of what we are like, as well as what God is like. We think about the three Covenants to Noah, Abraham and Mos...

Listen to how the Bible was put together. It was a complicated and very long process!

We focus on how we can love others by praying for them. Using the Bible as you pray is important, as is meeting with others. Persistently exchanging our ideas for God's ideas is the best way to pray. Near the end, five people briefly explain what they do on an average Monday morning and then others pray for them.

When we have a job we want to be paid the amount we feel we deserve. The sin in our lives means that we should face death (eternal separation from God). Jesus changed this by His death and resurrection. He took our punishment and paid the price so that we can have eternal life. This means that we need to allow God to change us regularly and not be content with our current status quo. We have to re...

Most people regularly cross physical borders. What spiritual or emotional borders do you need to cross as a Disciple of Christ? We briefly look at five people from the Bible who God caused to cross borders so that they could go deeper with Him. We are challenged again to regularly be close to God, to obey Him and to trust Him. God is calling us to go deeper with Him and not to be content with the...

What was it like to follow Jesus around Galilee if you were a lady? Jesus broke social norms by allowing it to happen. Close proximity, trust and obedience were all necessary. Listening to Jesus needed time, dedication and resources.

We consider the wider family of James and John and that they were both in the inner circle of disciples. Being a disciple is an invitation to something much bigger than we are.

Thomas was a disciple who was happy to ask questions. It's still good to ask questions about our faith.

Andrew and Simon Peter who brothers and fishermen. One did upfront things for Jesus, whilst the other was used by God quietly and often in the background. Both were committed to following God and were world-changers in their lives. If we are to change the world for God, we need to let Him change us. We don't want to just use this Series of Talks to find out about Jesus' 12 Disciples - we...