RENEW

If you’re with a group of people who are connected and doing life together in a positive way, praying together, asking the difficult questions, opening God’s Word together, if you have a heart building habit like that going on in your life, it’s not so easy to stumble out of it.

Our spiritual heart has a certain set of requirements necessary to keep it healthy and growing. One of those requirements is a corporate intake component. People who are serious about their corporate intake will do everything in their power to obey the discipline of assembling that Hebrews 10:25 talks about.

We can find ourselves in the middle of God's perfect will and in the middle of a storm at the same time. Trusting God does not keep storms away.

If you had to choose the name of a single person who has had the biggest impact on the world's history since the beginning of recorded time, one life that has touched every continent, every culture, every tribe, and every language - who would it be?

If you were to choose a single word, just one word to describe the feeling that people have when they truly experience the Kingdom of God in Jesus , what would that word be? Well, a word that Luke uses is the word “Welcome.” Luke tells us Jesus’ ministry was a welcoming ministry.

It was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and die because only such a bloody death on the cross melts our pride and destroys our efforts at self-help and self-salvation. It’s only when you and I are brought to our knees, when we take the attitude of that tax collector in Jesus’ story who couldn’t even look up, but just began to pound his chest and say, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” that we r...

A look at Jesus through the eyes of the gospel writer Matthew. Matthew how Jesus fulfils all of God’s promises in the Old Testament. 

A message of the loving discipline of God.

A message on the loving forgiveness of God.

A message on the person of the Holy Spirit.

Here is the picture of salvation: God – running towards humanity with arms outstretched, not only to embrace us but to take the nails reserved for our punishment.

Sometimes the truth is that under the surface, deep in the heart, there is not nearly as big a difference between the rebel and the rule keeper as the rule keeper would like to believe.

There is no distance you can go from God that there won’t be a joyous restoration in your return. You have a heavenly Father who loves you with a love like no other, whose grace will cover a multitude of sins.

Biblically, you can say a lot of things about God, but one thing you cannot do is to domesticate him, make him safe. In the Bible, God often acts in ways that, from a human standpoint, appear reckless. The idea of “reckless” grace then, takes us directly to the heart of the gospel.

Get used to finding the presence of Jesus in all circumstances, and then you will be able to find what is in him for all circumstances. Looking to yourself to find the strength you need is always going to be limiting.  Instead, step back and call on Jesus, in this way you will be calling on the one from whom all the resources of heaven flow.

We must learn that it is not all up to us, and our worth is not found in our productivity, or our busy-ness, or our usefulness. When life becomes driven by usefulness , we neglect and ignore the things that have the most value, and are all too easily deemed useless.

How we approach money really is a mark of the depth of our relationship with God. It is one of the best indicators, according to scripture, of the depth of our relationship with God.

It takes trust to stop working for a while. It takes trust to stop studying for a while, to close the office, to switch off the phone, to disconnect from the internet to take time for worship, prayer, scripture and just be with God.

How much sin do you think would be wise for God to let into heaven? What would be the acceptable level of sin for God to allow into the realm of eternal life? The answer to that question has to be zero. God’s standard for heaven must be sinless perfection. God bans sin from heaven. He quarantines the infection and the infected to a different realm.

Satan promises Adam and Eve the very thing they had been created for, but which is only achievable through a relationship with God, friendship with God. Walking with God.

Our world is beginning to feel increasingly chaotic. It’s like we’ve turned a corner and we’re going in a certain direction. It may reverse itself and we could go on for thousands of more years but it’s also the case that Jesus could return in our lifetime. It’s increasingly easy to imagine.

Why should we have a heart for people who are far from God. What do we believe about Jesus to be so important that it would motivate us to tell others about him. Was Jesus just another man? Is this the stuff of myth or legend or is there something more?

The season metaphor is a good way to look at life. What’s happening in the world around us, what’s God doing in this church, what’s God doing in my life. It gives us perspective and it speaks to the reality that we are on this journey that never ends, it’s a rich journey, it’s a journey that doesn’t deny the joys, or the losses or the darkness the light the struggles – it’s all there.

Servanthood is an attitude exemplified by Jesus. The five words in the New Testament translated “ministry” generally refer to servanthood or service given in love. Serving others is the very essence of ministry. All believers are called to ministry and, therefore, we are all called to be servants for the glory of God. 

We are made partners of the Gospel when we come together and say: “Whatever gifts I have—even though it doesn’t look like much—I will bring this into the church community, I’ll have a heart for this world, I’ll have a heart for the poor, I’ll pray for people who are far from God, and I’ll share my life and my faith with people.”