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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 […]

Matt. 5 Retaliation vv. 38-42 – Part 2 Essentially what Jesus is saying here is that we are not to take the law into our own hands. Wrong done to us by an “evil” person does not justify out doing a wrong in return. Indeed, when wrong is met with wrong, the cycle of injustice […]

Key Verse: John 14:2 “I go to prepare a place for you.” The death of a loved one always catches us off guard. We may have known for months that the tumour was malignant and our loved one was living with a six month sentence; but when the moment of death occurs, we’re not as […]

Key Verse: John 13:16 “…a servant is not greater than his master…” I think most of us have the instinctive ability to discern between the merely obsequious and the purely altruistic. Huh? How’s that again? What I mean is, we can usually tell when someone is being self-serving even while appearing to be serving us. […]

Key Verse: John 12:43 “…they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” The Sanhedrin was the ruling council of Jerusalem. They were Pharisees of high education, wealth and reputation who acted as judges, or rulers, over the Jewish people. Under the high priest, they acted as a sort of “Supreme Court”, […]

We just celebrated the first Sunday of Advent. Christmas is less than a month away! The long established magic of the season is trying to gain traction, but Covid is pushing back. The online shopping, house decorating (apparently there’s a huge run on Christmas trees),and Zoom connections are all in gear, but the elephant in […]

Key Verse: John 11:50 “…it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people…” The raising of Lazarus from the dead was the final straw. The religious authorities were running scared. “If we let him go on like this…the Romans will come and take away our place (temple) and our nation”, they […]