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We are on a 3-year journey through the Bible. And this Sunday we reach the ‘high-water-mark’ of the Old Testament – the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. When you see or hear the word ‘law’, what other words come readily to your mind? Are they negative words? Eight of the Ten Commandments are stated in prohibitive form. And yet, in the Jewish mind they were a beautiful thing to behold; to be loved...

How are you with advice? With taking it, I mean. The deeds and revelations of Moses were unmatched until Jesus. We would say that Moses was a great man. But curiously, Moses was also known as the meekest (humblest) of men. (Num 12:3) In this week’s passage, the great Moses takes some advice and learns some important lessons about leadership. Leadership is important, and it’s also misunderstood. So...

The Crossing of the Red Sea is such a monumental deliverance! It’s considered (biblically) to be the birth of the nation of Israel. It was the establishing of their national identity as a people belonging to God. And it was completed and marked by a celebration of worship that must have been quite something to see. And what happens next? The victory out of the slavery of Egypt was absolutely real...

Exodus 13-15 “But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” (Ex 5:2) “The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” (Ex 7:5) But no one will need to realize this fact and remember it more than Israel hers...

In an act of faith and courage such as few of us will ever be called on for, Moses and Aaron go to the Pharaoh and they do it! They command him in the name of the LORD to let His people go. Pharaoh’s response? “Who is the LORD?... I don’t know the LORD … and moreover, I will not let Israel go” Those are fighting words! So, it kind of goes like this. Moses and Aaron demand Pharaoh to let the people...

We’ve covered a lot of ground already since September when we began our 3-year trek through the Bible. Two weeks ago, we finished our time in Genesis. But biblical scholar R. Alan Cole refers to the book of Exodus as ‘the centre of the Old Testament’. We’ve already seen a lot of drama, but things are about to ramp-up significantly! This Sunday, God hears, and His timing is perfect – the call of Mo...

This Sunday we will be jumping ahead from our normal timeline in the Gospel Project, and we will be looking at Isaiah 9 and focusing on the Prince of Peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace of whom Isaiah and the other Old Testament prophets spoke of. We will be examining one of the more well-known Old Testaments prophecies of the coming of Jesus. When the Prince of Peace made His way into the world h...

What God did in Joseph’s life was stunning. And what God did with and through Joseph’s life far exceeded that even. He skilfully warded off mass starvation quite literally saving the world from a devastating famine. But God sent the famine!? That means there was something much bigger going on here. Have you thought well about the life God wants for you and how simply surviving is not worthy of wha...

So many words to describe the same thing! Because it is such a big deal in our lives - difficulties … hardships… obstacles… calamities… tragedies … adversities… trials… Joseph’s life could be described as one tragic turn after another. But God was with him all the way, in the pasture … the pit… the prison… and the palace. And God had a plan for Joseph’s life and it wasn’t just about him. It’s impo...

This week we are in Genesis 37 as we begin to consider the life of Joseph. The dominant themes of Scripture continue. God works everything together to bring about His will, even our own sin and shortcomings. He allows our sinful behaviours and even uses them, but He is never the author of sin. And we are never absolved from moral responsibility for our actions or free from the repercussions of our...

What’s in a name? That is what we are going to be looking at this Sunday with Jacob’s name change. What were the implications of his name change? What parallels can we draw when we compare our spiritual walk and Jacob’s account of wrestling with God?

It took a lifetime for Jacob to learn that God's plans for his life were neither shored up nor nullified by his almost endless scheming, trickery and treachery. The Love of God doesn't depend on human effort, but is centred in the essence of who He is. His plans for Jacob - and for us, too - succeed because He has, in His love, declared it to be so.

Esau was totally unworthy. He despised his birthright for a bowl of soup; a single meal! But the text goes out of its way to demonstrate what a scoundrel and how unworthy Jacob was too! And Rebekah! And Isaac! And us! But the other glorious truth of the matter is despite Jacob’s unworthiness God in His great grace chose him as His own. This didn’t mean a pass for Jacob when it came to the repercus...

Our passage this week is a classic example of the biblical view of the single most perplexing, most haggled-over and wondered-about aspect of life in this world – the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. God is sovereign over all creation. He plans every detail of our lives and His plans will prevail. However, God chooses to work in a world that is very broken and messed up by sin and dysf...

When we think of God’s provision we think of our wants and needs. But ironically our lives will continue to lack meaning, purpose and fulfilment until we begin to realize that our existence and the choices we make need to fit into God’s bigger plan, a plan much bigger than our personal lives; a much bigger story. There is a direct linkage between God’s provision for our lives and God’s direction f...

Everyone has struggled with direction in their life and in their relationship with God, sometimes more than we'd like to admit. But God's perfect plan and unconditional love is always a constant. Even if it's hard to see in the moment. This Sunday we explore Abraham's calling from God to sacrifice his son and where we need to look when life is turned upside down.

This Sunday we will be spending some time in Genesis 12 considering the promise God made to Abraham. We will also be journeying through Scripture to look at a similar promise God makes to us. Hint - You may want to take a look at Hebrews 11 between now and Sunday morning.

A lot of people know about the book of Job. It has even made its way into our language with expressions like,'He's got the patience of Job'. But it's one thing to know about Job. It's another thing to know Job. This Sunday we will have an opportunity for just that.

Writing on the biblical account of the Tower of Babel, Derek Kidner says that the various aspects of this story are “timelessly characteristic of the spirit of the world.” This is interesting because the story tends to be so misunderstood. It’s not meant to condemn the building of great cities with their sky scrapers or to spread paranoia over the potential of human technology. Nor is God in oppos...

This Sunday we move from the subject of sin to the subject of judgement, as we consider the story of the great flood and Noah’s ark. (Gen 6-9) We might be tempted to skip over these accounts because they scandalize our minds and our hearts. We struggle to believe these incredible records of things that God has done in the past and we struggle to reconcile them with our concept of what it means for...

This Sunday we’re in Genesis chapter 3 – the Fall. The world looks upon this as a fable. To us who believe it, and know it to be true, it is history. And it’s foundational to our faith and to our world view. The doctrine of Sin and the atomic fall-out of the Fall is critical to our understanding of life in this world. More than that, it is critical to an understanding of our own hearts and any hop...

We are beginning a new 3-year cycle through the Bible, which puts us this Sunday in Genesis 1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And so, it begins. What does it mean for God to be God? The answer to this question is why we worship Him. We worship the One True God, because He is greater than all. Everything that exists was made, except for God Himself Who is the Maker of all...

This week we are looking at the last two chapters of the book of Revelation. We are concluding the vision John was given as to what our victory is going to look like. Our glorious King will return and usher in a new heaven and a new earth. Yet there is no time frame as to when this is going to happen. Revelation is not a secret code for us to decipher when God is coming again. But it is a vision f...

Is the kingdom that you are building, a Kingdom that is worthy? Kingdoms can be built with bricks and wood, and a strong nation can be strengthened by a powerful influence or impactful words. But no other authority in this world can match the power and grace of the timeless kingdom of our Creator and Saviour.

From our earliest days, God has been actively pursuing a personal, communicative relationship with each of us. He may meet each of us on very different roads, but his pursuit is always through the captivating, inviting unveiling of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Would we be willing to decline his invitation? Or would we be glad for his presence on this journey?