Ephesians 4:17-24: A New Creation in Christ, Part 1: The Old Man
Thomas Watson once said, ‘Dead fish swim downstream; living fish swim upstream.’ As Christians we are no longer dead, we can no longer go along with the world. We are no longer what we were so we can no longer live the way we used to. We have life and cannot live like we do not; we have God and cannot live like we do not. This is the heart of what Paul is getting at in Ephesians 4:17-24. We are in the second half of the letter to the Ephesians. Chapters 1-3 are mostly doctrine indicating what God...
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God and Covid-19
We are interrupting our series on Luke to do a Christian analysis on Covid-19. Here in NZ we are very blessed to be at alert level 1, but this is still a living reality for many in the rest of the world. My concern in doing this is a pastoral one. More than ever before we have been inundated with the voices of the media in analysing what has recently happened. We have all been tuned into the media and been saturated with their perceptions, judgements, and problem solving principles. We have all learnt new words and concepts and...
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Jonah 1:4-6: The Storm
Storms have proven to be effective means of bringing people closer to God. It was Martin Luther’s prayer in a thunderstorm that resulted in him giving up his law studies and taking up monastic vows. Louis Zamperini the WWII air gunner who was shot down and was stuck in a life raft for days lost at sea cried out for God to save him in the middle of a storm. John Newton while bailing out water in a damaged ship in the midst of a storm cried out to God for salvation. Jonah is another who God brings closer...
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