This is such a rich passage with so many life-giving truths for our age:– Not thinking of ourselves too highly.– Remembering that we are one body; one humanity.– Rejoicing in our diversity. Driving around Croydon today, I will encounter drivers who believe they are the most important
Continue reading1 Not unto us, LORD, not to us,but do thou glory takeUnto thy name, ev’n for thy truth,and for thy mercy’s sake. 2 O wherefore should the heathen say,Where is their God now gone?3 But our God in the heavens is,what pleased him he hath done. 4 Their idols silver
Continue readingSacrificial living and non-conformist outlook. Both are counter-cultural, costly, demanding, and do not necessarily come easily or naturally to us. The word “sacrifice” can all too readily be used when, in fact, at best we are referring to “inconvenience” rather than any significant costly gift. Being challenged to present our
Continue readingSo that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; as it is
Continue readingSo I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will
Continue readingI ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with
Continue readingBut how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?
Continue readingMoses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that ‘the person who does these things will live by them.’ But the righteousness that comes from faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’ (that is, to bring Christ down) ‘or “Who will descend
Continue readingThis Psalm is probably my favourite of all 150. When I was younger, it was the Psalm we used to sing in the school choir to the Anglican Chant ‘Tonus Peregrinus’, and the ancient words of the Book of Common Prayer still spring to mind whenever I read it –
Continue readingBrothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they
Continue readingYou will say to me then, ‘Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is moulded say to the one who moulds it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has
Continue readingI am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my
Continue readingWhat then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against
Continue readingLikewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the
Continue readingI would need to have greater experience of suffering before stating so confidently to others, ‘the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.’ Of course, it’s Paul who says it, and he knew more about suffering than I do.
Continue reading1 Praise GOD: ye servants of the LORD,O praise, the LORD’s name praise.2 Yea, blessèd be the name of GODfrom this time forth always. 3 From rising sun to where it sets,GOD’s name is to be praised.4 Above all nations GOD is high,‘bove heav’ns his glory raised. 5 Unto the
Continue readingThese are powerful, life changing verses. What does it mean to be in the Spirit? Verse 9 tells us we are no longer in the flesh but because of righteousness (being made right with God through Christ’s death), we are ‘life’, we are alive in the Spirit. It has nothing
Continue readingAlthough these verses are full of release they may cause us inner conflict, perhaps even feeling like a bit of a damper at times; bringing us into the sense of condemnation, which we are told we are no longer subject to. They can come across as being very different to
Continue readingIt can be a little unnerving to hear Paul talking in terms of not being able to do the good that he wants to do. It’s usually others that he is taking to task for getting things wrong – whether it’s the ‘foolish Galatians’ or the Corinthians that he ‘does
Continue readingWhat then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin,
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