Would you like to Upsize that? 24 Feb 13
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Would you like to Upsize that?
What will heaven be like? Part of the answer is that we will be with Christ. If that is the case what else would one want. Someone said, whoever has God and everything else has no more than the one who has God only.
That may be a way of thinking about heaven. What about life on earth. Does the same apply? God only, or God and everything else?
Actually it can appear sometimes the other way around when we talk to people who have everything already. Or if not everything, quite a lot. Enough to make them feel comfortable, and not really in need (except, of course, for those niggly things they wish they could afford).
Do they need God? How can we talk to them about God? One of the ways we are tempted to speak is to offer God as an Upsize. Would you like to Upsize your life by adding God to it? Sounds harmless, and even attractive.
Except that God doesn’t do Upsizes.
2. The cross brings Peace Isaiah 53.5-6, 1 Peter 2.24-25
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: The Cross: Gracious Power of the Cross
{podcast id=110}
The cross brings Peace Isaiah 53.5-6, 1 Peter 2.24-25
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on 17 Feb 2013
Bible readings: Isaiah 52.13 - 53.12; 1 Peter 2.24-25
How does it work and what does it mean that Christ bore our sins on the cross so that we could return to the Shepherd?
A bet both ways? 17 Feb 13
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
A bet both ways?
The recent discussion of drugs in sport has produced a few surprises. Not least that we were surprised. Well not all of us were surprised. Drugs must have bulked up muscle in some codes of football. How else could men get to look like that – and indeed protect themselves from serious damage?
But another controversy has developed along with performance drugs. That is the rise of gambling advertising. The two issues are not entirely separate. If the players can make so much money out of sport why shouldn’t the spectators. Of course it is not the punter that makes the money out of gambling, it is the bookmakers.
Watching sports events on TV we no longer see the boundary ads telling us which cigarettes to kill ourselves with. Now we are told the websites of corporate gambling dens where we can bet online – even while the match is on.
And at least one News Channel (in prime time family viewing) before the sports report shows a regular ad for one of the big bookies.
So? Is this a bad thing?
1. The cross atones for sins Leviticus 16
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: The Cross: Gracious Power of the Cross
{podcast id=109}
The cross atones for sins Leviticus 16
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Sunday 10 February 2013
Bible Readings: Leviticus 16, Hebrews 9 and 10, Matthew 3.13-17.
How the Day of Atonement pictures and helps explain the death of Christ, and how the death of Christ helps us come near to God.
At one ment 10 Feb 13
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
At one ment
A new year is under way. However our new congregations are only five months old. Last September we concluded our 9am service and started two new congregations, at 8.30am and 10.00am. One of our aims was to make it possible for more people to join in. Another was to provide some variety so that at 10am especially we could provide a different context for families and children to join.
Behind all this is our desire to see many people come to know the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. As month number six starts, let us keep praying, inviting, welcoming, befriending and generally looking forward to helping people experience the love and power of Jesus and helping them understand what he has to say to us.
That is one reason we spend the period leading up to Easter thinking about the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is his death and resurrection that is the centre and foundation of our Christian life. No death of Jesus, no life. No resurrection, no hope. No atonement, no Christianity.
Atonement? Apparently it first turns up in Tyndale, to mean being at one with God. What a wonderful thing, to be at one with God, with nothing between us, no resistance or fear on our part, no list of sins hanging over us on his part, no outstanding accounts. An unrealistic fantasy were it not for the death of Jesus.
It is his death that makes it possible for humans to clear their debts, to expunge their sins, to be rid of their wrongs, to have their judgment cancelled. Not that we humans have much to do with any of that. It was all done by Jesus for us. That’s what his death was about. Taking our debts, sins, wrongs to death so that we could share in what happened next. Actually he was taking us to death, so we could share in what happened next – a new life lived at one with God. With nothing between us except God’s Spirit himself. How wonderful.
Is that your life? Is it not a wonder? Are you not really happy?
Too right.
Dale
The gracious power of the cross: Lenten Studies February March 2013
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Studies for Groups and Individuals
The gracious power of the cross: Lenten Studies February March 2013
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"The gracious power of the cross"' is available as a downloadable pdf file, ready to be printed as a small booklet. Click here to view, right click to save to your computer. |
Our aim is to understand better what the cross means for us, and to be able to put into words how God saves people through the death of Christ. These studies are suitable for individual as well as small group use. They follow the sermon series for this period at Christ the King Willetton. Audio recordings of the sermons will be available by clicking the titles below.
Lenten Studies February March 2013
Week ending
February 10 The cross ... atones for sins Leviticus 16.1-34
February 17 The cross ... brings peace Isaiah 52.13 - 53.12
February 24 The cross ... saves believers 1 Corinthians 1.18-2.5
March 3 The cross ... reconciles sinners 2 Corinthians 5.14-21
March 10 The cross ... puts sinners to death Galatians 2.15-21
March 17 The cross ... shows God's love 1 John 4.7-14
March 24 The cross ... glorifies the Lamb Revelation 5.1-14
Why Jesus came 20 Jan 13
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Why Jesus came
Not long ago we celebrated the birth of Jesus (does it seem a long time ago?). Although to say it was about the birth of Jesus is to hide quite a lot of information. It was about God becoming a human. About the creator of everything taking on created flesh, joining himself somehow with what he had created. In a real human baby, in a real human man.
What happened can be understood in part, but the whole story is more than we can grasp. John comes closest to describing it in the beginning of his gospel. The creator becomes flesh.
And with what motive? Love for the humans he created. A desire to have them enjoy fellowship with him forever. To show his glory, power and kindness.
With what purpose did he become human?
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