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Mark 16:6 “Don’t be alarmed.”

Mark 16:6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. The account of Jesus’s resurrection and the witnesses of the empty tomb must have been amazing, overwhelming, crazy, scary and monumental. A young man dressed in white surprises the three followers of Jesus: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. He settles their fears saying, “don’t be alarmed.” He knows that they are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified, who had died, who He then tells them that, “He has risen!” The young man lets them know that Jesus is not here. He invites them to see the empty tomb and to see the place where He lay. Who is this young man dressed in white? Does it really matter who he is? We have no name, we have very little information about him, yet he was quoted in Mark 16 speaking to Jesus’ followers. His message was what mattered, there were four main parts to i...
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2 Timothy 3.16-17

9 th February 2018 16  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17  so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. God-breathed is what really speaks to me about Scripture and the effects of the Word of God, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Paul writing to Timothy in these verses is directing him away form the error of the people of the Ephesian church depicted in the chapter. They were leading lives of ungodliness, they were evildoers and impostors who were going from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. People who are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,  treacherous , rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—   having ...
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Luke 8:22-25 “Where is your faith?”

Luke 8:22-25 “Where is your faith?” 22  Now on one of those days Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out. 23  But as they were sailing along He fell asleep; and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. 24  They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and [ f ] it became calm. 25  And He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?” Jesus got in the boat with the disciples. Jesus was in the boat with the disciples. He directed the disciples to go to the other side of the lake. So, the disciples launched out and they headed in that direction. As the disciples were heading i...
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One Verse Wonder - Judges 3.31

Judges 3 .31 -   After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel. This verse in the book of Judges tells the story of Shamgar. Tt is not the whole story of his life, it is just the story of a chapter in his life when he did what was needed to be done regardless of the odds. Shamgar was willing to go out and fight in the battle before him armed only with a simple oxgoad. He did so much with so little. The out come of his bold action was to save Israel. Shamgar was a hero in this chapter of his life and rescued the people God had sent him to save. My story is full of chapters, some good and some bad. I am 42 years old and the book is probably over half written. Also, within those chapters there are good and bad paragraphs. The bad are when God takes a back seat in my life where I leave Jesus behind and when I stop listening to Him. Often in the small things, not just the big things, there can be ugly bits in...
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Greater Love - John 15:13

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John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Love... The one thing we all need. The one thing we are desperate for is love. God is that love. God is a holy, holy, holy love r. Jesus displays God’s love relationally and personally. I can trust in God’s love because of Jesus. When I am faced with the perfection of God and His love, my own capacity to love is just pale and weak. In fact, the difference between my ability to love and God’s ability to love is so vast. Jesus’s love is seen throughout His perfect life, His perfect death and His perfect, tremendous, victorious resurrection. Jesus freely laid down His life and exchanged, not just heaven for earth, but heaven for death. The cost was massive but the gift of His love is free. Greater love has no one than this: than to lay down his own life for his friends. Jesus did this for me.   My debt Jesus paid, but my debt to Him is eternal. This debt is a debt of love and of loving ser...
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Repentance & Grace - Galatians 6:1

Galatians 6:1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. This verse is loaded and God spoke to me through His word about repentance and grace. The first challenge in this verse is for us to look at someone else: a person caught in sin. A sinner and I am, we are all sinners. No one is perfect not even one as Romans 3:10 reminds me. Sin is one of the things we all have in common. We all need to remember to be in this humble position as a brother or sister who is only where he or she is by Jesus’s love, righteousness and grace. Remembering this fact may make it easier for me to be gentle. The second challenge focuses on us as individuals. Looking at myself, hopefully living in the moment by the Spirit, prayerfully dependent on grace, there is the opportunity for me to restore that person gently. If I have been forgiven I need to forgive. If I have received tr...
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The Finish Line - 2 Timothy 4:7

2 Timothy 4:7 7  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. These are some of Paul’s last recorded words and here he is writing to Timothy, his young apprentice, disciple and son in the spiritual sense. Paul’s relationship of love, care and concern for Timothy is very apparent and these words must have touched his heart as they have touched mine. These words Paul scripted are practically an epitaph - I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. What would I want on my epitaph or my tombstone? I can remember hearing some examples of other epitaphs. An old one read something like this: here lies captain John Smith, who died from an accidental discharge from his lieutenant, good and faithful servant. A bit tongue in cheek, yes. Here is another: I told you I was sick. The final one I remember is perhaps a good one for a Christian which was found in the Alps and says: died climbing. Paul’s solemn wor...
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