Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Christmas: The Kingdom of God is Within You

Around about 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah picked up his prophetic binoculars, and throughout his book he fiddles with the focus, sometimes seeing a few years ahead, sometimes focussing on 200 years ahead where he sees the people going into Exile in Babylon, 270 years ahead where he sees them coming back to Israel, and so on...

Monday, December 22, 2014

Readings for Christmas Day: Christmas isn’t about celebrating the Birth of Jesus


Yes, I know that's quite a provocative title and I did toy with Christmas isn't primarily about celebrating the Birth of Jesus, but you can see which one I settled for.

Readings for Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve means: the Evening of Christmas
In the first of a series of posts on what I called Scriptural Timing, I wrote about how I have been blessed as I have explored Scriptural concepts of time and applied them in my own life and that I wanted to share that blessing with others. Scripture (both Old and New Testaments), but dare I also say God, has a different clock and calendar to the ones we have inherited from the Greeks and the Romans.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Advent 4: I am the Lord’s servant


This week's lectionary readings, instead of a Psalm, include what I like to call Mary's Song of Great Reversal. Caught up in the Spirit, she seems to understand the conception of the Messiah in her womb as the first act of God to establish justice through her son — he would scatter the proud and bring down rulers and send the rich away empty and he would also lift the humble and fill the hungry with good things.
O, for such a Christmas...and for such a Christmas people.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Christingle Service: You are the light of the world


Our Christingle Service was held at our Coffee Service in the evening of the first Sunday in Advent. A wonderful time of all age worship accompanied by coffee, cool-drink and mince pies was had by all. The orange symbolises the world, the tinfoil base Jesus,the one and only foundation, the red ribbon the love and blood of Christ, the four toothpicks the pain and suffering of Christ, the 9 fruit/sweets on the toothpicks the fruit of the Spirit, the candle symbolises Jesus, the Light of the world. My message was Jesus words: You are the light of the world (Mt5:14)
A quick reminder how to make one in preparation for our Carols by Candlelight this Sunday, 21 Dec 18:30
1 Orange, symbolising the world; a red ribbon around the orange, Christ's love for the world; 4 toothpicks to secure the ribbon, Christ's pain and your pain, which he carried; 9 "fruit" on the toothpicks, the fruit of the Spirit; a tinfoil base, Christ, our foundation; a hole gouged into the orange, the tomb of our Lord; a candle placed into the hole, Christ, the Light of the world.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Advent 3: Good News...for those who are being saved

Wow, this week's lectionary readings are an exciting and hope inspiring assortment. Good news after good news after good news...for those who are being saved!

Last week I asked the important question: Are you baptised in the Holy Spirit? Not, Have you been baptised in the Holy Spirit, but are you baptised in the Holy Spirit...because we leak, and yesterday's daily bread, yesterday', anointing, was for yesterday, not for today of for next week. God's economy

Friday, December 5, 2014

Advent 2: Prepare the Way for the Lord


Comfort, comfort my people,
    says your God.
 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
    that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.

Israel had been through a terrible time. These words are spoken to the nation in Exile in Babylon, after a dreadful siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, which in fact the LORD had

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Sermon on the Mount Series


If you are looking for small group material for 2015, please have a look at my Sermon on the Mount series,
15 talks (recorded in HDTV by Emmy Award winning Digistream), Daily Devotions, Bible Study material and a special Children's Presentation for each talk with activities for Family and Children's Church use. More Info and Orders

Prayers for 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children

Image sourced here
The global 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign, which runs from 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, through to International Human Rights Day on 10 December.

Here are some prayers (sourced variously from The Daily Office and the Mission Unit of MCSA) I have found useful for personal and corporate use:

Monday, December 1, 2014

John Wesley's Christmas Gift to those seeking that "holiness without which no one will see the Lord"

On the First Sunday in Advent 2014, as I have distributed my Pastoral Letter, Advent 2014: A Call to Discipleship, to my local and worldwide congregation, it is apt to post the following "rules" that John Wesley published in 1738. One doesn't have to be Wesleyan or Methodist (these two are very different in the 21st Century) to see the value in such meetings.

My current project for my spare time, now that I have submitted my Masters thesis to Wits for an MScMed (Ethics and Health Law), is the development of a Discipleship Course based on John Wesley's Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship (which is his major exposition on the Sermon on the Mount) and Scot McKnight's Sermon on the Mount. This will be a sequel to my Sermon on the Mount Series on Basic Christian living

Looking for a Pastor


                                                               

2015 is a Sabbatical year for me and I would love to spend some of it visiting some of the churches that have found the JohnWesleyProject.com Sermon on the Mount material useful, both here in South Africa and abroad. Chris (my wife) and I are also waiting on our Lord to hear His plans for our life and ministry as we enter into a new season in life.