Choose Life.

Romans 7:24,25 “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord.” A caricature of modern Western evangelistic preaching is this: come to Jesus and he will bless you. He will satisfy your needs. He’s got a wonderful plan for…

Psalm 19v7: “The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” Many of us don’t really understand the role of God’s Law – particularly the 10 Commandments – so we immediately jump to his grace. This shift broadly happened from the beginning of the 20th century. So John 3:16 became our favorite text: “For…

Matthew 9:36 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless.” I was on a short-term mission trip in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We were trying to ‘minister’ to street children. But these weren’t cute little kids. They were tough, hardened, aggressive and dangerous. We were approached by a…

Watch the video here! Ecclesiastes 3:4 “There is a time for everything… a time to weep and a time to laugh.” It was probably malaria. Before dawn, after umpteen hot and cold sweats, and regular dashes to the lavatory, I got ready to go to the doctor. Not only was there no electricity, but the…

Philippians 3:10 “I want to know Christ.” Why would the apostle Paul pray such a basic prayer? Surely he knew him already? He certainly knew him far better than us. But he recognized how far he still had to go. And he knew there was a clear difference between knowing about someone, and truly knowing…

James 1:19 “My dear brothers, take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak…” My name, Simon, means ‘Listener’. My wife finds that ironic. She says I never listen to her… at least that’s what I think she said! And yet most of us are better (or quicker) at speaking than…

Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as for the Lord, not for men.” Why is it that often Christians are known for doing things shoddily? In Burundi, we’ve attempted to build the best conference centre in the country to generate funds for God’s work, and people come up to…

2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” Today’s choice comes from A.W.Tozer’s quote: “We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.” Really? It doesn’t sound much fun! However, if…

Ephesians 2:6 “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” ‘Under the circumstances’ is a common enough phrase, but if Jesus is over and above all circumstances – and as our verse says we too are seated with him ‘in the heavenly realms’ – then…

John 19:30  Jesus said: “It is finished!” When Jesus died on the cross, his last words included the emphatic: “Tetelestai!”, or “It is finished!” What did that phrase convey? Several things: ‘Tetelestai’ was used on a receipt to indicate the bill had been fully paid. Jesus actually bought us when he died on the cross.…