Revised Common Lectionary

“…you have to be godly to be wise …” ( Derek Kidner , Proverbs , p. 32) . _____________________________________________ Here are two links to an audio version of a lecture given in January 1987:  The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith,Part One The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith, Part Two _________________________________   The Holy Spirit is the Breath of God.  All Scripture is God-breathed. We experience the Breath of God upon our life when we listen attentively to the God-breathed Scriptures. Paul speaks, in 2 Timothy 3:15-17, of the  relationship between the Breath of God (the Holy Spirit) and the God-breathed Word (the Holy Scriptures) – ‘the Holy Scriptures … are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’. 1) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to make us wise...

We may study Scripture personally but we must not study it individualistically. Our study of Scripture must be related to God, the Church and the world. We need a revival of the apostolic devotion - “we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:4). We are not to study Scripture for our own benefit only. We are to “hold fast the Word of life” by “holding forth the Word of life” (Philippians 2:16). The Word is God’s Word. The work is God’s work. The Word is to be read in God’s way. The work is to be done in God’s way. We are to read the Word of God prayerfully. The work of God - evangelism and edification - is to be done prayerfully. We are to approach God’s Word in a spirit of prayer - “Give me understanding, that I may keep Thy law and observe it with my whole heart” (Psalm 119:34). We should pray for those who preach the Word (Ephesians 6:18-20). Pray for them in their preparation. Receive the preaching prayerfully, even when the preacher is not...

God is calling us to walk in the light with Him. * He’s calling us to walk with Him in the light of His love . Go back to Genesis 1:3 – “Let there be light, and there was light.” Go back beyond the created light. Go back to the eternal God – “In the beginning, God” (Genesis 1:1). What do we find when we go back to the eternal God. We find love, eternal love:  “He has loved us with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). This is light of God’s love. * He’s calling us to walk with Him in the light of His Word . What is it that brings us out of darkness and into light? It’s the light of God’s Word – “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). * He’s calling us to walk with Him in the light of His Son . What a great Saviour we have! Jesus is His Name. He is “the Light of the world” (John 8:12). Let us walk with Jesus – in the light of God’s love, in the light of God’s Word. * He’s calling us to walk with God in the light of His Kin...

"When you read God's Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, 'It is talking to me, and about me.'" (Soren Kierkegaard).

If I were to go around the congregation and ask you, "Why have you come to this church service?", I'm sure I would get quite a variety of different answers. Some of you, if you were being perfectly honest, might have to say, "I came because I've got into a routine of coming to church on a Sunday." If this is what you're thinking, that's very sad. How can you expect to get anything out of the service, if you have only come to church because it's part of your weekly routine? Others may say, "I feel that I must come because it's my duty." There's a sense in which this is true, yet, if that's all that brings you to church, you're missing a great deal. Such an attitude is surely a far cry from the attitude of the Psalmist: "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord'" ( Psalm 122:1 ), Others may say, "I've come to church to hear the minister speak." Yes. You will ...

We thank You, Lord, for Your Word and Your Spirit (Acts 6:3-4). Help us, Lord, to "be filled with the Spirit" as we "let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly" (Ephesians 5:18; Colossians 3:16). Filled wiyth Your Spirit and obedient to Your Word, may we look to You for Your blessing (Acts 6:7).

“What does our minister have to say to us?”  This may be the question you’re asking. Is this the most important question? There’s another question we must ask: “What does the Lord have to say to us?” Real ministry isn’t about me – my ministry, my vision. It’s about God – His Word, His work. It’s not about doing things my way. It’s about learning to walk with God. It’s not about changing things. It’s about being changed by God. Real change begins with this: “Change my heart, O God” (Mission Praise, 69). It’s a change in our way of thinking. It’s a change in our way of living.      What is God saying to us? – He’s calling us to learn from John the Baptist: “Jesus must increase. I must decrease” (John 3:30). He’s calling us to learn from Paul the Apostle: “It’s no longer I who live. It’s Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). We’re to point away from ourselves to Jesus, our Saviour. There’s to be less “This is what I think” and more “”Teach me Your way, ...

We have to speak to today's world - but we must make sure that it's God's Word that we speak. What are we to say to the world?  We must begin with another question: What is God saying to us? If we are to hear what God is saying to us, we must make time for studying His Word. We can only speak the Word of God to others if we have heard Him speaking to ourselves. If our words are to bring something real and relevant to today's word, they must be an echo of "the living and enduring word of God" (1 Peter 1:23). In themselves, our words have no power to change the lives of those who hear them. There is, however, a greater Power at work when the Lord's servants proclaim His Word. In Ephesians 6:17, Paul describes "the Word of God" as "the sword of the Spirit." Whenever we are bringing the Word of God to men and women, we must pray for the presence and power of the Spirit . We must remember this: "The weapons we fight with ...

Some people say, “Surely, you don’t believe the Bible.” They say that the Bible belongs to the past. It’s not for us today. This kind of talk takes us right back to the Garden of Eden – “Did God really say?” (Genesis 3:1).   The Bible says that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God?” (2 Timothy 3:16).   Who are we to say that the Bible needs to be rewritten – so that it only says what we want it to say to us? God hasn’t stopped speaking to us through His Word – but have we stopped listening to Him?   * In our cynical world, we hear that “It doesn’t matter what you believe because what you believe doesn’t matter.” When we find ourselves starting to think like this, let’s remember this: God’s Word is unchanged .  * Sometimes, we look back over our life, and we think, “I used to love reading the Bible – but somewhere along the line, something’s changed.” What’s changed? Has God’s Word changed? No! It hasn’t changed. When our feelings chan...

How do we come to faith in Christ? How do we grow in Christ? How do we receive the Holy Spirit? How does the Holy Spirit work through us to bring other people to Christ? Do these blessings come to us from out of the blue? No. They come to us from the Word of God. We hear God’s Word. We read God’s Word. We learn about Jesus. The Spirit points us to Jesus. He leads us to Jesus. He creates faith in Jesus. Don’t just listen to God’s Word when you’re at church. Read God’s Word day-by-day – and pray that the Spirit will work in you, “revealing Jesus through the Word, creating faith in Him” (Mission Praise, 279).