Acts 2 – New Testament in a Year

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Acts 2 is power packed stuff! The church is birthed in power as the Holy Spirit comes on the 120 in a really visible way with some obvious signs following. The people outside are amazed and perpelexed, with some making fun (isn’t that what people do when they don’t understand?!). Peter gets up to preach, […]

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Ascending and Descending

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If you’ve been following the New Testament in a Year Reading Plan, you will have got to Acts 1 today, which marks Jesus ascending and waiting for the Holy Spirit to descend! After Jesus was crucified and rose again, he appeared to his followers for 40 days (Acts 1:3) before ascending (Acts 1:9) to the […]

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John 1 – New Testament in a Year

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I love John’s Gospel. Here’s some some notes from the sermon series on John in 2012-2013. The first section of John, the Prologue, is like a cinema foyer with posters advertising what is coming… Need for Speed – Pretty people drive cars fast while engaging in criminal activity. Die Hard 43 – Bruce Willis is […]

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Encourage One Another

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Janet is still smiling and quoting an encouraging email she got 24 hours ago from the chair of governors at her school. Encouragement is powerful – we use the word to talk about pointing out the positive in someone else. Its root meaning implies putting “courage in”. Just before Joshua became leader of Israel to […]

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Two Swords?

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Jesus words “And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one” brought me up short this morning as we continue on through the New Testament in a year. Is Jesus advocating that his followers take up arms to personally defend themselves? Er, no! The key to why he said that […]

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Widows Mite – Luke 21 New Testament in a Year

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Preachers often use the widow’s offering in sermons on giving to make the point that the rich often give in percentage terms very little, whereas the poor widow gave everything. It’s a true point. But not the point Jesus was getting at. In the paragraph before He had pointed out the religious leaders who were […]

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Ready for good works, not saved by them!

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I’m doing the epilogue at our international cafe this evening, where we gather people whose first language is Polish, Tamil, Mandarin, Lithuanian, Brazilian Portugese and American English! The cafe builds friendships, teaches English informally and has a speaker on a topic about UK life. This week, it’s the UK political system. For my epilogue I […]

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