The source of all comfort All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 2 Corinthians 1:3,4 (NLT) Some conversations are hard. You know those conversations that you know you need …
No gift is too small There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. 1 Corinthians 12:4–6 (NLT) What do you think of when you hear the phrase “spiritual gifts”? Are there certain gifts that come …
Paul’s love letter in suffering No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37–39 (NIV) Powerful, all-encompassing …
Paul’s love letter for mutual encouragement First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported over all the world … constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift …
Psalm 121 – A pilgrim song My help comes from the LORD We are pilgrims on a journey to our heavenly home. Psalm 121 is a hymn of trust and faith in God from the book of Psalms. It expresses the belief that God is always watching over and protecting those who put their trust in him. The psalmist acknowledges God’s care and assurance, emphasising that the Lord is their help and protector. Psalm 121 …
Psalm 139 (God our biographer) I am an open book to God The man in this psalm has experienced the scrutiny of God. God knows everything about him, down to the most trivial of details. He knows when the man sits down to dinner and when he gets up to go to work. Even when the man isn’t thinking about God, God is thinking about him and knows what he is thinking about. Before the …
Psalm 103 David’s psalm celebrates what the Lord does for us and speaks again of God’s mercies to his people, Israel. These mercies are showered on us, in and through Jesus. We meditate on the goodness of God and how we ought to worship the Lord because of his goodness. David expressed this in the opening words, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! David wanted …
Psalm 90: A Prayer of Moses, man of God The death column is never without names. It is said that the one thing certain about life is that we must leave it. Being confronted with death personally, our mortality confronts us. We are out of our comfort zone when we stand by a casket being lowered in the ground, never to be part of our family/friend circle ever again this side of eternity. Our lives …
Psalm 85 In Psalm 85, I am reminded that the words SILENT and LISTEN have the same letters. My Lord teach me to listen. The times are noisy and my ears are weary with the thousand raucous sounds which continuously assault me … Let me hear Thee speaking in my heart. Let me get to[sic] used to the sounds of your voice, that its tones may be familiar when the sounds of earth die away …
Psalm 73 Have any of us struggled with our faith, being perplexed by wicked prospering, often at the expense of us ordinary “Joe Bloggs” of this world, accepting also the ultimate justice and goodness of God, and soldiering on relentless? Psalm 73, written by musician Asaph, resonates with many believers, because it reflects the timeless human experience of grappling with doubt and finding solace in God’s presence. The psalm begins with a declaration of God’s …
Words of repentance The words of Psalm 51:10 are included in the Offertory liturgy of the Service with Communion, page 13 of LHS. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Those who are serious about repentance in today’s moral climate will be swimming upstream. In the world we live in, it’s not particularly fashionable to repent of anything. We’re encouraged to assert ourselves, be good …
Thirsty for God We know of the perils of being physically dehydrated; and not heeding the warning signs can have adverse health problems, even death. However, our alienation from God has an even more tragic consequence when we unknowingly are spiritually dehydrated. We only know of our need to drink of the Living Water, Jesus, when the Holy Spirit brings us to that realisation in his Word. As we reflect on Psalm 42: As the …