Letters
God's Gift to Us
- Details
- Written by: Bill Stewart
Romans 5:12-17
audio (3MB)
In the movie The Matrix everything is an illusion. The promo tells us that although the humans think it is 1999, it is really two centuries later. The lives everyone believes they are living are really just dreams they are having inside virtual reality (the Matrix). Inside the Matrix, we meet computer programmer Thomas Anderson (played by Keanu Reeves), who goes by the hacker name "Neo." A group of people comes to Neo's door, and when Neo gives them a disk with the illegal software they want, the leader says (foreshadowing what is to come), "Hallelujah. You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ." Neo believes he's living a normal, but slightly troubled life in 1999. By day, he is a computer programmer for a large, generic software company; by night, a hacker, providing the fruits of his labors to other troubled souls. He lives alone, he doesn't sleep, and there's a profound emptiness in his life, but it's something he can't put his finger on - until he is contacted by Trinity. Morpheus has sent Trinity to contact Neo, believing he is The One of prophecy. Morpheus explains it to Neo in this way: "When the Matrix was first built there was a man born inside that had the ability to change what he wanted, to remake the Matrix as he saw fit. It was this man who freed the first of us and taught us the truth. When he died, the Oracle prophesied his return and envisioned that his coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix." Neo is the Chosen One, the savior, and the one who will lead his people to freedom. But in order to do that, he must sacrifice himself, and rise from the dead. Sounds familiar, doesn't it! I want us to keep this is mind as we take a brief look at today's reading from Romans chapter 5.
Phil 1:1-11
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
A Church Alive
Philippians 1:1-11
Paul had some tough times as he traveled around the Mediterranean telling people about Jesus. He faced opposition from various sources: from the Jewish leaders who were worried that he was taking people away from their Jewish worship, from Roman authorities who were concerned that this new religion was causing civil disturbance and even from commercial interests who were bothered that this new found faith might take people away from their superstitions so they’d stop buying the religious mementoes that were on sale everywhere. This particular opposition came to a head in Philippi when Paul and Silas cast out an evil spirit from a female slave; an evil spirit that had enabled her to tell fortunes, at considerable profit to the woman’s owners. As a result Paul & Silas had been thrown into prison and even when they were released were asked to leave town quietly.
Eph6:10-24
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
Be Strong in the Lord & in his Mighty Power audio Eph 6:10-24
Do you remember when we looked at Paul's prayer in Eph 3 that I commented how difficult it is to achieve the sort of unity that God wants from his church. In fact I pointed out that that's why Paul prays the way he does: because only by God's power can this miracle come about. Paul knows that apart from the problem of our own weakness, our hardness of heart, there are forces in the world that'll try everything they can to stop us showing God's wisdom and glory to the world. The reality of life for the Christian is that we face opposition from the spiritual forces around us every day. We have an enemy whose sole aim is to ruin our efforts at every point. So Paul warns us. He says "our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
Eph5:21-6:9
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
A New Way of Relating - Mutual Submission audio
God has instituted an amazing plan, a plan that involves you and me in showing the world how great is his wisdom and glory. Not only has he instituted this plan but he's carried it out and continues to carry it out generation after generation. He's restored our spiritual life. He's put us in churches where the gifts he's provided for growing those churches will build us into a unified body as we become mature in our faith. Those gifts will provide us with stability, he says in Eph 4, so that we can grow up into Christ and build up one another in love as we each do our part.
Over the last two weeks we've seen a little of how we can do our part. We can learn to speak the truth in love. We can learn to put away falsehood, wrath, anger and malice. We can earn a living so we can give money away. We can tame our tongues so that everything we say is gracious, uplifting, life giving. We can live lives that are counter-cultural, in that they shun immorality, obscenity and greed. Instead we can seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that others are blessed by our presence among them. And today we discover how we can do our part in the context of our household and work settings.
Eph5:3-20
- Details
- Written by: Bill Stewart
From Darkness to Light
by Bill Stewart audio
1 LIGHT OR DARKNESS? (Let no one deceive you!)
"For once you were DARKNESS,
but now in the Lord you are LIGHT.
Live as children of LIGHT
– for the fruit of the LIGHT
is found in all that is
good and right and true." (Ephesians 5:8-9, NRSV)
Light or darkness? It couldn't be more appropriate to today's reading from Ephesians that overnight we've begun "daylight saving". Have you ever thought about how much light and darkness still influence our lives – even in the age of electricity, with sources of light being available 24-hours a day? One writer (Craig Koester) has this to say about it:
"…the interplay between light and darkness is a fundamental feature of human existence. Day and night, brightness and shadow, establish the contours of the world we see. … Light comes gently with the promise of dawn but glares down from the noonday sun; it gives the assurance of vision yet threatens exposure. Darkness may fall quietly around two lovers while cloaking the movements of the thief; it can lull the weary to sleep but also awaken the terror of the unknown.
