Psalm 139:23-24 One of the reasons many people read daily newspapers is to find out what terrible things other people do, in order to feel a little bit better about themselves. I won’t ask you whether that has ever been your motivation! In this...
Psalm 139:13-14 Our bodies are simply amazing. Here are a few random facts: Every second our bodies produce 25 million new cells. The tongue is covered in about 8,000 taste buds, each containing up to 100 cells. The entire surface of our skin is r...
Psalm 139:1-2 These days, we are incredibly sensitive about protecting our personal data. Quite rightly, we don’t want everyone to know everything about us. We have no doubt all received emails or letters from organisations who know far more ...
Psalm 138:8 When you sing about it or listen to a sermon on the subject, guidance can often sound very straightforward. But life rarely runs in a straight line. King David, who wrote this psalm, was definitely aware of that. He got himself into...
Acts 2:44-45 It’s fascinating to see the impact that the Holy Spirit had in the earliest days of the early Church. He transformed every part of their life. Yes, they were committed to teaching, fellowship and prayer but they also looked at th...
Acts 2:42 The first weeks of the early Church must have been amazing. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit totally transformed the situation. From a small group of disappointed and frightened believers, there was now a large number of people fi...
Acts 2:37-38 A sermon is worth nothing if it doesn’t lead to action. Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost powerfully described the reason for Jesus’ death. In words that would have shocked many in his audience, he pointed out that they had ...
Acts 2:16-17 When Peter spoke these words, he was addressing the huge crowds of Jews who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival known as Pentecost. On that day, the first fruits of the wheat harvest were offered to God. It was known ...
Luke 6:38 The metaphor used here would have been clear to Jesus’ listeners, but may mean little or nothing to us today. Let me explain: at the time, a person’s outer tunic had a large fold in it, which could be pulled out above the belt to ma...
Luke 6:27-28;32 I could be wrong, but I suspect that most of us will struggle to identify any enemies. But I suspect that most of us can readily come up with a list of people whom we find difficult or awkward. Jesus very strong command means ...
Luke 6:24-25 These words would have come as a huge surprise for Jesus’ hearers. They had been taught that being wealthy and well fed now were signs of God’s blessing. Jesus was seeking to wake his disciples up to the fact that you can’t have ...
Luke 6:22-23 These are amazing words and, once again, they turn our normal human thinking upside down. That’s what Jesus did all the time. The idea of being hated, excluded, mocked and cursed is a horrible one. We spend much of our lives deli...
Jesus turned to his disciples and said, “God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied. God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh.” These words are a...
Luke 6:12-13 This was a big moment in Jesus’ ministry. He didn’t come into this world to set up an organisation, but to share a message. And for that, he needed people who would work closely with him; people who would get to know him and his ...
Luke 5:37-39 Wine skins, usually made from goat hides, were the normal way of preserving wine in Jesus’ day. As we all know, skin dries out with time and so it would be absurd to put new wine into old wineskins. It would soon be completely lo...
