Every Psalm is special and needed and beautiful, but some of them have won a special place in our hearts. Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest Bible teachers of the 19th century, called the 84th Psalm, “one of the choicest of the collection.” He wrote, “If the twenty-third be the most popular, the one-hundred-and-third the most joyful, the one-hundred-and-nineteenth the most deeply experimental, the fifty-first the most plaintive, this is one of the most sweet of the Psalms of Peace.”
In our time together this Sunday we will be spending time in two psalms which describe two different forms that unbelief takes. Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” And Psalm 50:19-22 says, “You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay…
The Psalms are a masterclass on the topic of how to worship. They are a collection of Holy-Spirit-inspired song lyrics, but, of course, worship is more than just singing songs. God makes it plain in His Word that all of life- every day, every season, every pursuit, every relationship, every gift and every facet of our lives- should be offered up to God in worship. We would be making a mistake if we thought of worship as something that we separated off from the everyday of our lives. A postu…
Darren Bonville brings us a message on Luke 2:25-33. This portion of scripture contains the fourth and final Christmas song that Luke records in his Gospel account.
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit in…
Stories of spooky encounters with beings from another realm seem more in line with the traditions of Halloween than Christmas, but as the Christmas story unfolds in the opening paragraphs of Luke’s Gospel we find three instances of an otherworldly being suddenly and unexpectedly materializing out of the unseen realm much to the terror of his human audience. First, an angel appears to Zechariah as he is serving in the temple, then to Mary and lastly to a group of shepherds outside Bethlehe…
Christmas card images of that long ago time when Jesus came into the world are indelibly etched into my mind. I know they are probably not very accurate pictures of how it all went down on that first Christmas, but, in truth, I don’t really care. Accurate or not, I love and cherish those hallmark card images. In my mind’s eye I see wise men atop camels pointing at a distant star, Joseph leading a donkey, pregnant Mary on its back, awestruck shepherds, a choir of angels, and, of course, …
I always think it’s funny the way that musicals ask their viewers to suspend reality. In a musical people will break out suddenly into unrehearsed singing. Large crowds will dance in seemingly unchoreographed spontaneity. I have yet to see this happen at a board meeting or in Walmart. That just doesn’t happen in real life!
Or does it?
The first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke read like a musical. People are breaking out into spontaneous song all over the place. First Mary, then…
Last week, in our study of what is to be a peacemaker, one of the many verses that we spent time with was Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” A few things jump out at us as we think about this verse. First, and this really is the main point, Christians should spend their time, energies and influence in pursuit of peace, but, secondly, we also see that Paul adds some qualifying language (“if possible” and “so far as it depends on you”) that clea…
In this message we spend time with the seventh beatitude found in Matthew 5:9, which says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
It is fitting that our study of this beatitude follows our exploration last Sunday of the one that comes immediately before, “blessed are the pure in heart.” As we saw last Sunday, that beatitude was concerned with the inner reality of a person. It follows logically that Jesus would then go on in the next beatitude to speak of…
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
There is a lot to think about and consider in connection with this statement that Jesus made, and I’m looking forward to exploring it this Sunday, but perhaps we should begin with the simple and obvious observation that what Jesus is concerned about is our hearts.
He does not say, for example, “blessed are the pure in conduct…”
Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like…
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