Bethesda Shalom

Luke 7:36-50 When we think of religion, we tend to have this idea in our minds that those who are the most zealous in their efforts to apply religious principles; these are they who love God the most.  I want to say, nothing could be further from the truth!  Some of the meanest and cruelest people down through millennia's ages are those who were the most fanatical in their cause for religion!  Wha...

Colossians 3:1-15 As Christians, we must never tire of saying "No!"  A decisive "No!" with firm conviction has delivered many a Christian pilgrim from the peril of danger and saved his soul from many a calamity.  We must first and foremost say "No!" to sin!!!  To deny the flesh its fill is never an easy thing.  It has strong desires and burning passions that demand to be satisfied.  It cries out i...

Matthew 7:1-5 It's been well said, that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones (and how true this proverb is).  There's something about the fallen state of humanity whereby man finds it so easy (almost effortless) to point out the faults in others, and yet; finds it so hard to see those same faults in himself.  No sooner than he points the finger, there are three fingers pointing b...

Proverbs 3:5-6 There are some proverbs that remain in our thinking more than others; some that seem to leave a greater lasting impression in our hearts than others.  None perhaps have left their indelible mark upon the hearts of God's people than Proverbs 3:5-6.  "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct...

Knowing the Bible for Yourself (Pt. 11) When one thinks of wisdom, what thoughts come to mind?  What images fill the head?   The response of the Christian to such questions will inevitably differ from those outside the faith.  The most up-to-date entry in the Cambridge online dictionary defines wisdom as: "The ability to use your knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgments".  The...

Matthew 13:1-9 J.C Ryle said of this parable; "The four kinds of hearts it describes are to be found in every assembly which hears the word.  These circumstances should make us always read the parable with a deep sense of its importance.  We should say to ourselves as we read it: "This concerns me. My heart is to be seen this parable. I, too, am here".  Well said, Brother Ryle!! The child of God e...

Jeremiah 8:20 What woeful words greet us; what mournful landscape is hung before our eyes, sketched by the son of Hilkiah, otherwise known as the weeping prophet!  "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.  It's one thing to pronounce judgment and it's another thing to do so with streaming eyes.  Jeremiah didn't earn his epithet without warrant; as goes the name, as goes the...

Psalm 23 "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want" — coming from the pen of shepherd!!  It is no coincidence that the latter words "...I shall not want" should follow fast on the heels of the former "The LORD is my shepherd".  The two are intrinsically linked together and the latter proceeds out of the former.  It is because the LORD is a shepherd, that the sheep under His watchful care shall la...

James 1:22-25 Which specialist army unit deploys an inconsistent marksman to take out an enemy target?  Which coach puts forward an inconsistent striker to take the deciding penalty?  Yet, if we're honest with ourselves (and I'm speaking of things pertaining to our Christian walk), we leave far too much margin for error in our lives.  Inconsistencies which ought to be consistencies, variables whic...

Knowing the Bible for Yourself (Pt. 10) The first recorded song sung in the Bible was the Song of Moses and the last recorded song that will one day be sung is also the song of Moses (Rev. 15:3).  Did you know that there are some 185 songs recorded in Holy Scripture, most of which are found in the Book of Psalms?  If you were God, would you choose to include in your collection of books, a book sol...

2 Samuel 23:8-39 As one surveys the annals of history, down through the corridors of time, one will find that history polluted and stained by war.  Bloodshed has left its indelible mark upon the human race, the horrors of battle recorded by those who never lived to tell their story in person.  If there's one thing that history bears witness to, it's this, war is not a thing to be desired!!  Howeve...

Ezekiel 24:15-27 Brother Ryan comes with a very strong and timely word to the Body of Christ.  Drawing from the life and example of Ezekiel, Ryan brings a practical application to believers in relation to the value we place on our lives and this world.  Who will pick up their cross in this critical hour and live wholeheartedly for Jesus Christ?

John 2:13-17 The question being asked in this sermon is a question that every Christian must answer honestly before God; Where lies the treasure of your heart?  In just three words, our Lord would have us remember; "Remember Lot's wife" (Lk. 17:32).  Her heart was still at home in Sodom, and though her feet were going through the motions of exiting the confines of that wicked city, she brought Sod...

Revelation 3:7-8 Here before us in the third chapter of the Book of Revelation, is a Church, to whom our Lord had nothing by way of rebuke to bring.  That was of course, not the case for the vast majority of the Churches that He addressed in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.  In my reckoning, there were only two out of the seven Churches addressed, for which our Lord had nothing bad to say and both the...

Knowing the Bible for Yourself (Pt. 9) The last two decades have seen a steady stream of teaching into the Christian Church with a major emphasis on the need for the return to the Jewish roots of the Christian faith.  The argument goes as follows:  the first Church was Jewish in culture and practice and so what went wrong?  What went wrong (they'll say) is that the Church veered from its Hebrew ro...

1 Corinthians 10:1-14 Exhortation abound in the Word of God, calling believers to stand!  "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong" (1 Cor. 16:13).  "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5:1).  "…my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord...

Matthew 4:1-11 The saying goes; "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't", and to this, the Word of God agrees. What saith the Apostle Paul when instructing the Corinthian Church to forgive a brother who had once been caught in a grievous sin but had now been brought to true repentance and remorse over the same?  "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his...

Isaiah 36 David brings a very timely word to the Body of Christ that draws from the godly life of King Hezekiah. When Sennacherib came up against the defenced cities of Judah, taking them captive; he set his face towards Jerusalem and sent a messenger to Hezekiah to strike fear into the armies of Judah. How did Hezekiah respond in such an hour of trial? Where did he turn and in whom did place his...

Isaiah 6:1-9 Brothers and Sisters, I don't know about you, but I carry in my heart a great burden as I witness first-hand the departing of a generation of Christian workers who in their day troubled the kingdom of darkness and wrought many mighty victories for the kingdom of light!  These were men and women of commitment, sold to the cause of the advancement of the kingdom of God; men and women of...

Knowing the Bible for Yourself (Pt. 8) It seems an absurd question to ask, how one should read historical narrative since we do it intuitively all the time.  In picking up a biography to read or a story in the newspaper, we are naturally handling material that would rightly be defined as historical narrative and yet we do it effortlessly without thinking.  We pay close attention to the facts and t...

Luke 2:25-35 The great predicament of man, is his pride and rebellion; stubbornness is what keeps Him from serving God—He can have it no other way than his own. Simply put, He refuses to have a God that will meddle with His affairs, and until that man is first broken, he will rise in newness of life.  You know, the Church today has lost sight of the first and only ever presents to man the last.  C...

Luke 18:1-8 Any true sportsman knows fully well that there's more to winning than merely turning up!  Turning up is the easy part; it's the parts that the cheering fans don't see that differentiates the winners from the losers.  Persistent and relentless discipline; those countless hours spent in training.  When those of their peers were free to do as they please—eating what they will and going wh...

John 1:35-42 Oh to see the Son of God in all His glory! To comprehend His majesty; to fathom His deity. John declares; "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn. 1:1). Adding to this, he then makes this staggering statement; " And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full...

1 Corinthians 6:13b - 20 We face a battle in our day to remain clean in the sight of God in respect to sexual purity.  Young people live in a generation where immorality has become the new morality.  Adultery in the professing Church of Jesus Christ has reached an all-time high and every month it seems a scandal breaks of another minister caught in the headlights of this evil.  I have need only to...

Mark 5:35-36 Here we are again this Lord's Day morning, back on the subject of faith!  Ah, but I say, Brother/Sister, can we ever tire of receiving what we need?  As food is to the stomach and petrol is to the engine, so faith is to the spiritual life of the believer, the vehicle through which he gains unlimited access to the marvellous and never-ending treasure stores of grace, without which he c...