Category: Uncategorized
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Civilised Tedium or Energised Passion?
Watch the video here! John 2:15,16 “Jesus made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area… ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!’” Sometimes God wants us to get angry. Often the status quo needs challenging. How attractive is Jesus in his violent…
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Journey or Destination?
Jeremiah 6:16 “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” A Chinese proverb tells us that ‘the journey is the reward’. The verse above tells us that we will find rest for our souls…
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Contemplative or Restive?
Psalm 23:2 “He leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.” In the business of life, I try to have a weekly day of prayer, skipping food to make time for being in God’s presence. The crazy thing is, because my identity is so tied up in ‘doing’, I often get to the end…
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Alone or Accompanied?
Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” During the Holocaust, prisoners in concentration camps would usually be worked to exhaustion, and eventually executed once they couldn’t contribute to the cause…
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Yesterday or Tomorrow?
Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Robert Burdette wrote this piece called ‘God’s Days’: “There are two days in the week upon which and about which I never worry – two carefree days kept sacredly free from fear and…
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Inner or Outer?
1 Samuel 16:7 “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearances but the Lord looks at the heart.” www.beautifulpeople.com was hacked recently. It’s a website for beautiful people. There is a strict rating process enforced by members to keep ugly people out. The screening process failed…
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Willing or Unwilling?
Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices.” Some of you will have watched my thirteen short films on radical discipleship called ‘More Than Conquerors’. One of the films involved me taking a lamb and a goat up a mountain to slaughter them as…
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Prayer or Action?
Watch the video here! Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer.” When you are devoted to something, it means you give (devote) a lot of time to it, because it is very valuable and important to you. You can’t be devoted to too many things, because our time is finite, but the apostle Paul makes clear…
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Success or Failure?
Daniel 4:29,30 “As the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, ‘Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” Those brazenly self-exalting words led to an immediate humbling as God struck Nebuchadnezzar…
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Shallow or Deep?
Psalm 42:7 “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” Richard Foster writes: “Perhaps you have had the experience of hearing someone talk about faith and confidence and victory. In one sense all the words are right and the stories certainly sound good, but…