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The Supernatural Life

02/11/2016

Last month we completed our teaching series on Faith. We looked at the part that “faith in God” plays in our lives. We noted that this faith is different from the natural kind of faith that everyone has. Faith in God starts with a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, alone, and enables us to accomplish “the impossible” for God’s kingdom. It also enables us to live the Christian life successfully.

This month we shall move on to the next six part teaching series which I have called “Living the Supernatural Life”. This will highlight the fact that the Christian life can only be lived fully, through supernatural means, which God has freely given to every born-again Christian. We’ll be looking at how we can access the supernatural power of God through the Holy Spirit.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit

04/10/2016

This month promises to be an interesting one. We are currently going through the teaching series on Faith and have looked at the part that “faith in God” plays in our lives. We noted that this faith enables us to accomplish the impossible for God and to live a fulfilling Christian life. We shall move on to the next four part series which I have called “Living the Supernatural Life”. This is be focusing on the fact that the Christian life can only be lived fully through supernatural means, which God has freely given to every Christian. We’ll be looking at how we can access the supernatural power of God through the Holy Spirit. Have a great month.

Faith That Accomplishes

06/09/2016

I was on my way to our church meeting on the first Sunday of the month armed with a teaching series I had prepared days before. As I approached the car park of the church meeting venue, I heard a gentle nudge in my spirit that I should speak about something totally different. I was to speak about “The faith that accomplishes”. In my personal devotion time, a day before, God had spoken to me personally and extensively, encouraging me from the book of Nehemiah. He showed me a man whose main qualifications for the job were a deep, heart-felt concern for God’s people, complete trust in God and the willingness to endure persecution and hardship to see God’s will fulfilled.

Nehemiah had faith that accomplishes.

Seeing through the eyes of Jesus

21/08/2016

At one of our Sunday meetings, we looked at the story of Jesus and the woman at the well from the book of John 4. The bible doesn’t tell us her name, but in this story we see that God looks at everyone through the eyes of compassion, no matter where they are in their life. He is always trying to get us on track with God’s plan for us. In this current time, that plan starts with being born-again (John 3:3) and then trusting in Jesus to lead us in this life, till we meet him face to face in the life after.

God has good plans for you

15/07/2016

One of my favourite bible passages is Jeremiah 29:11, which says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (NIV Bible). That means that as a Christian, regardless of my current situation or circumstance, God’s plans for my life are always intact.

I am always excited when I remember that “God has a good plan for us”. Some of the thoughts that flashed through my mind a while ago are: “How can God possibly have a plan for me, or be the least concerned about my life? – there are billions of humans on the earth that require his attention”. Another thought is, “surely God has more important things to do than to focus on me and the mundane things in my life”. However, the truth of the matter is that the bible says, he does have a specific plan for every single one of us.

This is an extract from our recent study about God’s plan for every human being:
[1] God has a good plan for you (Jeremiah 1:5, Jeremiah 29:11)
[2] He has provided everything that you need to fulfil your earthly and spiritual plans (2 Peter 1:3)
[3] Although God has a good plan for everyone that is born, not everyone finds that plan. The first step or requirement for fulfilling or starting God’s plan (irrespective of age) is to become a believer/born-again (John 3:3)

Living The Life

17/06/2016

We have just completed the teaching series “The Church”. I must say that it was a very interesting series. It brought us “face to face” with a lot of misconceptions we have regarding the church when we examined them with what the bible really says.

We are starting off on a new teaching series called, “Living The Life”. We’ll be looking at practical applications of the teachings of Christ to our every day life. We’ll be focusing specifically at the following:

[1] Growing as a Christian

[2] Financial stewardship and money matters

[3] The life of faith

[4] Worldliness

[5] Your mind and body

[6] Hearing God

[7] Living by the Spirit

[8] Sharing your faith

[9] Prayer and fasting

[10] Freedom from sin

What Is the Church?

30/05/2016

It’s really interesting that when I ask people the question: “What is the Church?”, I often get differing answers. Some people think that the church is a building where people meet, mostly on a sunday. If you are in England, some people imagine that it is a 16th century building with picturesque stain glass images. Others have said it is a social institution that tries to do good in the community.

We have been going through a teaching series during our sunday meetings, looking at what or “who” the bible refers to as the “Church”. I believe very strongly that a Christian really needs to understand clearly: what the church is, from a biblical perspective. Some of the things we’ve looked at are:

[1] What is the church (Scriptures: 1 Timothy 3:15, Ephesians 2:19)

[2] How did the church come about (Scriptures: Ephesians 2:8-10] [3] How does one become part of the church (Scriptures: John 1:12)

[4] How does the church live (Scriptures: Acts 2:42-47)

[5] What does the church do (Scriptures: Mathew 28:18-20)

It’s been a really interesting topic to look at.

Bible Notes – Romans

10/04/2016

Romans 1:16-17 (NKJV)

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

NOTES:

This passage identifies a number of things about the gospel of Christ

1. The dictionary or Wikipedia definition of the gospel is:

In Christianity, the gospel (Greek: εὐαγγέλιον euangélion; Old English: gospel), or the Good News, is the news of the coming of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15), and of Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection to restore people’s relationship with God

2. The simplicity of the gospel (lack of complication) almost makes it “too simple to believe”. One would expect that God should require us to do more to obtain such a great gift. However it requires simple faith to accept and believe that salvation and redemption for the whole of mankind is found and expressed in this simple message of the gospel.

3. It is the power of God with regards to salvation.

4. This salvation through the gospel is for everyone who believes

5. We attain the righteousness (or right standing) with God by believing the gospel

6. The righteous living that the born-again believer lives is a life sustained and lived by faith (and trust) in God’s righteousness given to us by belief in the gospel.

Parent Child Relationship

28/02/2016

We concluded the last part of our Relationship Series: Parent – Child relationship. I focused on two perspectives: Parents’ perspective and Children, and God’s view regarding these perspectives.

Marriage Relationship

21/02/2016

We carried on today at church with the second part of our Relationship Series: Marriage. We looked at three aspects of marriage: “Before Marriage”, “What is Marriage” and “Intimacy”.