Lent, a time of preparation, preparing those who will go forth as an Elijah company of people in the power of the Holy Spirit , to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous … making ready a people prepared for the Lord. “Then I heard the voice …
Looking over the last few weeks it is incredible to see already the ground that has been covered. A challenge I believe is not only for Lent but to reprogramme the way I live my daily life. Determining what is really important, re-setting thinking patterns and reprogramming habits; sweeping up and confronting the past for …
Psalm 53 “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. …
“Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Two men encounter Jesus on the road to Emmaus, their hearts burned within them as he spoke …
Thorns came as a by-product of man’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden “…Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you…” life would never be the same again. God had said: “You must not …
We know the parable of the sower, he came to sow some seed, some fell on the path, some on the rocky ground some among the thorns and some on good earth…“and these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of …
King David prayed “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean” he had committed adultery and in trying to ‘cover up’ his sin had engineered the death of Uriah; it had all gone according to plan – he thought it had – forgetting that God sees all things, whether done in the light or …
Winter is gone and new hopes appear on the horizon, out with the old, in with the new! all thoughts related with Spring. It is after the feast of Purim that preparations get underway for Passover which begin in every Jewish family with a thorough spring clean to get rid of all leaven from the house. Every room, wardrobe, cupboard, …
We find so many parallels in the story of Ruth, we have Naomi (the pleasant land : Israel) Ruth (the gentile (church) who adopts the God of Naomi), Boaz (a picture of Jesus our redeemer, who paid the price, that we may be grafted in to the olive tree – Romans 11 – born in …
“So she (Naomi) departed from the place where she was… to return to the land of Judah…” Ruth 1:7 A picture of repentance… leaving the place we’re in, to return to the place we belong (just like the prodigal son in Luke 15 who returns from his wanderings and squandering, to a Father that full …
What is ‘chesed’ or ‘hesed’? A word hard to translate as it covers such a diversity of meanings: kindness, unsurpassed loyalty and commitment as that expressed in a covenant relationship between a husband and wife or God and us; persistence, unconditional tenderness, faithfulness to keep promises, favour, friendship and total commitment to another; faithful and …
The book of Ruth was set during the time of Judges, a chaotic time for ‘everyone did what was right in their own eyes’ Judges 17:6, they had lost their sense of national identity by compromising their beliefs with the culture of the people surrounding them; perhaps considered a more liberal, tolerant and all-encompassing society, …
Our scarlet thread now takes us through the desert for 40 years, a whole generation learning a new way of life, leaving wrong attitudes / wrong ideologies / wrong behaviour / wrong attachments / idolatries behind, a circumcision of the heart (am I seeing any parallels here to my life?) … being trained, prepared, purified, …
I find myself back following that scarlet thread, seems to flow through the Bible from beginning to end and I just can’t seem to let it rest; so here we go back to Genesis and to the Garden of Eden where it first appears, the first sacrifice: “And the LORD God made clothing from animal …
“The winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land”…. It is the first day of Spring! What words do we associate with Spring? Hope, growth, renewal, revival, new birth, bloom and …