L-T Hopper
Genesis 11:27-12:
Tomorrow at our Good Friday service I’ll be preaching from Matthew 26:27-28, looking for an answer to a question – an obvious question for Good Friday: “Why did Jesus die?
The answer is found in three religious sounding terms in those verses – “Covenant”, “Sacrifice” and “Forgiveness of Sins”. To find out more, you’ll need to come along, or wait a day or two and listen to the sermon online…
However, in a teaser, here’s a recent news article on the topic of sacrifice that I couldn’t quite make room for in my talk. (You can read the full article here on www.news.com.au)
Chinese Man Killed Catching Suicidal Girlfriend
A MAN has died after catching his girlfriend as she jumped from the seventh floor of an apartment block in China.
The young Chinese man, identified only by the surname Wang, held out his arms to break the woman’s fall as she plummeted from their apartment in Quanzhou in south-eastern China.
Mr Wang was killed by the impact of his girlfriend landing on top of him, while the woman suffered bone fractures and other serious injuries but was not in critical condition.
The witnesses reported seeing Mr Wang on the street below the apartment, trying to persuade his girlfriend not to jump.
The woman was under treatment for multiple fractures and required surgery, but she did not suffer any life-threatening injuries.
In this tragic story, a young man sacrificed his life to save the life of his girlfriend – who didn’t even want to be saved.
What , you may be asking, could this story possibly have in common with the death of Jesus?
Bill Forgeard
Mathew 26:27-28
Martin Jones
1 Corinth 15:12-28
Andrew Carruthers
John 4:1-30
How do we see people? two eyes and ears, a nose and a mouth? or do we take the time to actually get to know someone?
I came across this Dramatic interpretation of the woman at the well. It links quite well with Andrews talk on Sunday “BROKEN STONES” as it is based on the same passage he taught from.
For Christ’s renown,
Shane.
On my recent holiday I read a book about the devotional life of Hudson Taylor. It was a means of grace from God to refresh my soul. I share some excerpts to help you see why.
“I thought that holiness, practical holiness, was to be gradually attained by a diligent use of the means of grace. There was nothing I so much desired as holiness, nothing I so much needed; but far from in any measure attaining it, the more I strove after it, the more it eluded my grasp, until hope itself almost died out…
When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known if before.”
Here is the sentence:- “But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”
Hudson Taylor continues:- ” Ah, there is rest!” I thought. “I have striven in vain to rest in him. I’ll strive no more. For has not he promised to abide with me – never to leave me, never to fail me? And he never will.”
“How then to have our faith increased? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is and all he is for us: his life, his death, his work, he himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not striving to have faith…but looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and for eternity.”
L-T Hopper
We are to delight in God
Aristotle said happiness is the end of human existence.In other words happiness should be the goal of your life.
Where does the world find its pleasure? Where does the world finds its happiness? Its satisfaction in life?
the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS [32:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (15)
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