This is the third talk in a series about the Kingdom Of God and how Jesus describes how it is open to all who would come. The Great Banquet Luke 14:15-24 Jesus tells the story of a great banquet and how all the invitees turn down their invitations, but how, nevertheless, the banquet will go […]
Reading from Matthew 20:1-16 the parable of the vineyard workers. Jesus want to tell people that the kingdom of God is a gift. In this parable all the men, no matter when they started work, were given a full day’s pay. The kingdom is something God freely gives, not something we can earn- Luke 12:32.
Mark 1: 4-13 On this first Sunday of Epiphany, the gospel writer propels us into the story of Jesus not unlike the way in which we read of the Holy Spirit propels Jesus into the wilderness temptations. Here we find details which should cause us to see Jesus in the big story of God. It […]
Peter Cunliffe introduces the New Year with a call to stop and listen to what God is saying to us through the preaching from the lectionary readings. Peter reminds us that our lives are lived only through the gracious hand of God. We need the light of Jesus to protect us from the oppression of […]
Confidence in the Gospel 1 Peter 1:1 – 2:3 This first talk sets the context of Peter’s writing, introduces Peter and sets out the consequences of a new birth in Christ. Far from a life that is plain-sailing, the Christian life will lead to suffering. Corrie Ten Boom was quoted as saying, “If God sends […]
The fourth in the series of Frontline Sundays takes our significance from our identity as God’s children. In Matthew 6:5-14 Jesus teaches his disciples to pray. Whoever we are – however insignificant we feel – we make all the difference in te world because we are on our frontlines as sons and daughters of God […]
In this second of the series Peter & Rosie talk about meeting God wherever we are in the ordinary places of our day today lives. The biblical text is Genesis 28:10-22. In Jacob’s encounter with God in the ordinary stop-over place, which he renames Bethel, God meets Jacob and leaves him with three promises. Read […]
In the first of ‘Cultivating Faithfulness’ the analogy of breathing was used as a way to contemplate our life in Christ. Breathing in God’s word and living out the life it gives. If faithfulness is to hear and obey God’s word, what does this look like? This second in the series develops this with the […]
This first of a series of three follows the previous series on the prayers of Old Testament characters. What we may be lacking, and what these OT characters clearly had, as they prevailed with God and overcame, is faithfulness. In our instant society we seem to have lost the art of waiting, persisting, dwelling. Prayer […]
This is a broad brush over the prayers of individuals in the Old Testament – patriarchs, prophets, kings, and ordinary men and women from whom we can learn about how to approach God in prayer and about God’s character. The text, Matthew 6:9-13, draws us towards the New Covenant with Jesus standing on the threshold […]