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Alms, Prayer & Fasting 6: 1-18 Showing Off v. 1 In the Jewish culture of the time there were three religious core values: alms giving, prayer, fasting. All three could be done in secret but they also could be done publicly with great show of piety. One could give to the beggar, and beseech heaven […]

Key Verse: Acts 9:27 “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles…” I remember, as a schoolboy in Saskatchewan, learning to sing, “Home on the Range”: “Home, home on the range. Where the deer and the antelope play, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the skies are not cloudy all day.” […]

  Everywhere people are gearing up for a truncated, if not solitary, Christmas Day. The Covid news keeps deteriorating. As of the past few days we’re suddenly aware of a Covid “variant” that has emerged in the UK. Yikes! Scores of countries are closing borders to any British attempts at entry. All this while Brexit […]

Key Verse: Acts 6:2b, 4 “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables…but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word!” It never seems to fail. Get a bunch of people organized into some sort of group and, before you know it, […]

Key Verse: Acts 5:20 “Go, stand in the temple courts’, he said, ‘and tell the people the full message of this life!’” (NIV) If you haven’t said it yourself, you’re probably heard it said, “I’d just love to see one miracle! One would be enough. Then I’d be convinced; then I’d be sure…” Well, suppose […]

Key Verse: Acts 4:20 “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (NIV) The trouble started the afternoon Peter and John went up to the temple to pray. Until now they had enjoyed “the favour of all the people” (2:47). But then a crippled beggar called out to them for money. […]

Matthew 5 Love & Hatred vv.43-48 The love of enemies is the ethical bottomline of the Sermon on The Mount. It seems impossible – as does being “perfect” in v. 48. Mind you, to love your enemy is possible, in that love is essentially volitional. On the other hand, to like your enemy is virtually […]

Key Verse: Acts 2:42 “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” One of the key factors in the success of the early church was the uncontested fact of the resurrection. I say “uncontested” in terms of the believers themselves and the incontrovertible evidence of […]

Key Verse: John 20:28 “And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” Arthur John Gossip writes, “That night that Christ came, Thomas had not been present. We do not know why. But is there not here a warning for us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together?  How much many […]

Key Verse: John 19:38b (NIV) “Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews.” After recording the events of the crucifixion and the touching scene around the foot of the cross, when Jesus entrusts His mother to John’s keeping and care, John tells us about the burial. We might have […]

Key Verse: John 17:26 “I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known…” Chapter 17 is known as Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” for His disciples. It gives special insight into Jesus’ assessment of His own ministry. It also helps us see what He expected of His Father in terms of […]

Key Verse: John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” I’m afraid a lot of us see God as a celestial errand-boy. He’s there to do our will, meet our needs. And some of us have adopted […]