God's glory

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A New Year's resolution

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A New Year's resolution

“Behold, I am making all things new.” So says the voice from the throne to John as his vision of the new heavens and new earth unfolds.

I am not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. They are usually warmed-over versions of last year’s options. And I don’t normally attach a lot of spiritual significance to pronouncements we often hear in church around this time that God will do this or that in the coming year, as if God’s purposes were tied to the calendar. 

But maybe the beginning of a new year is an opportunity to take a fresh look at where things stand between us and the Lord. And to ask some important questions.

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Christmas according to Paul

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Christmas according to Paul

The thing that makes the Christmas story so remarkable, as Reinhard Bonnke pointed out, is not simply that Jesus was born of a virgin, but that for the first and only time in history, someone made the decision to be born. In the eternal counsel of heaven, Jesus submitted to the request of the Father: “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book’” (Heb. 10:7). Jesus agreed to leave his place of rulership and glory in heaven and enter this fallen world as a servant to rescue us from our sin. This is the Christmas story.

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The great morning of God

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The great morning of God

Last week I talked about moving and the challenge of change. You have to pack everything up, live in a state of upheaval for weeks, if not months, and then hope you can actually make it from one place to another with your stuff and your sanity intact. With the sacrificial help of a great bunch of friends, we did.

If you’re smart, you give away a lot of stuff, and take note of how we accumulate way too many possessions, especially for those of us who profess to follow a man who owned none.

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The challenge of change

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The challenge of change

Change comes to all of us, whether we like it or not. Personally, I’ve never liked change a whole lot. I get settled in a routine and it’s hard to get me out of it.

God thinks differently, of course, than we do, on this subject as on everything else. He continually uses the pressure of circumstances to force change on us.

Next weekend, we move out of the house we have lived in for nineteen years and the community we have lived in for thirty-four years, in fact for our entire married life. We move out of a relatively secure job I have held all that time and into a who -knows-what-will-happen self-employment role.

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The turning point of history

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The turning point of history

Where is the best text to preach about the resurrection? Not where you think it is.

I think the place to start is Revelation chapter 12. There John paints a picture for us of a woman in labour. She is crowned with the sun, moon and stars. The woman represents the covenant line of the Messiah, just like in the dream Joseph had that got him into all that trouble.

She brings forth the child destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Genesis 3 and Psalm 2 show this is Jesus.