Quite a few worship songs talk about “the name of Jesus.” Classics include: “There is power in the name of Jesus” “There is a name, who reigns without contention …” “What a wonderful;/beautiful/powerful name it is.” “I speak Jesus” There is a risk with these kinds of song lyrics that they could be perceived superstitiously… Continue reading In his name
Category: Bible Study
A meal with Jesus
Throughout the Gospels, some of the great encounters with Jesus happen at mealtime. We are coming to the close of Mark’s Gospel and the last meal in his account is no ordinary supper. Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem for the Passover. The Passover meal commemorated the night when the people of Israel prepared… Continue reading A meal with Jesus
Extravagent worship
The day of Jesus’ betrayal was getting closer and the Passover festival was only a couple of days away. We saw back in Mark 12 that Jesus’ opponents were becoming more and more agitated and yet they still did not know how to handle him. They continued to plot but they needed a pretext and… Continue reading Extravagent worship
Betrayed, Denied, Accused (Mark 14)
We are now reaching the culmination of the Gospel. Jesus is about to be betrayed and handed over to death. The leaders are hesitant, not wanting to cause a disturbance during the festival, and yet the focus on Passover is exactly the time when God has planned these events to come to pass (14:1-2) It… Continue reading Betrayed, Denied, Accused (Mark 14)
Hearing the Holy Spirit
At our Life Group this week, we picked up on the theme of God sending the Holy Spirit from Sunday’s service. We focused in on these words from Acts 2:17-18 where Peter quotes the prophet Joel: ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and… Continue reading Hearing the Holy Spirit
Warning … Danger! What was going on with Ananias and Saphira?
It’s one of the most shocking and disturbing events in the New Testament. Ananias and Saphira, two early Christians turn up to make a donation to the Jerusalem church coffers, neither return home alive. They are struck dead by the Holy Spirit. What is going on there? At one end of the spectrum are those… Continue reading Warning … Danger! What was going on with Ananias and Saphira?
When the Holy Spirit breaks in
In Acts 2, when is seeking to explain what has happened, he quotes from the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit even… Continue reading When the Holy Spirit breaks in
What do you do with difficult Bible passages?
Our church have been working through Mark’s Gospel both in our Sunday morning services and at our midweek life group. Most of Mark feels like plain sailing (well, there is the occasional storm). However, there are a couple of more challenging texts. I suspect that the ones that stand out are Mark 10 which raises… Continue reading What do you do with difficult Bible passages?
Twenty-one
If you’ve been following along with Faithroots over the past few months, you’ll have got used to reading quite a few articles linked to Mark’s Gospel. That’s because I’ve been linking in the day to day articles with the teaching programme that our church are currently following. However, once a month, we take a break… Continue reading Twenty-one
How do you respond when God shakes your world?
Today at church we were looking at “The Birthday of the Church.” You might think we are a bit out of season for Pentecost but we’ve been working through the big story of the Bible at our monthly “all-age-services”. As you may recall, there were different responses to the events as people heard God’s name… Continue reading How do you respond when God shakes your world?
