Nehemiah 1
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
The Leader and Prayer audio (6MB)
Nehemiah 1:1-11
Have you ever looked at the great Christian leaders of our time and wondered what it was that gave them their success? Were they just natural leaders? Had they worked hard at their studies of management and leadership as so many young leaders today are taught to do? Or were they perhaps just the right person at the right time? What about you? What would make you a good leader?
Well, today we launch into a study of the life of Nehemiah, one of the great leaders of Israel at a very difficult time in their history. And what we find today is that much of Nehemiah’s success goes back to the fact that he was a prayerful man. Today we’re going to think about the prayer that opens the book, that introduces us to him and sets the scene for what will follow.
The Cross: The Answer to Sickness and Death
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- Written by: George Hemmings
Part of a series based on The Cross of Jesus by Dr Leon Morris audio (6.5MB)
At the start of this year, Sarah forced me to do something I've never done before. It was a completely new experience, one that I didn't feel entirely comfortable with, and still struggle to believe has happened. Sarah made me join a gym. Before this year, I'd never even stepped foot in one, now I'm a paid up member of our local sweat club. Although I have to confess I'm a sporadic attender! I only joined reluctantly, having accepted that I needed to drop a few kilos and get a bit fitter to keep up with the kids at Tom’s Crew. But on that first visit, the manager was in full sales mode, promoting all the benefits of joining the gym. The sales pitch made the gym sound like the great preventive and cure for all manner of ailments. The gym not only helps strengthen the muscles and lungs, improves the cardiovascular system, boosts one's immune system. It helped me to see that all those people, pounding out a furious rhythm on the treadmills are really just running away from sicknesses, trying to outrun death.
Of course it's not just the poor unfortunate souls in the gym that are in this race. Our world strives, with all it's might to avoid sickness. There's almost nothing in this world that we try to avoid more. We might welcome the odd ‘sick’ day here. We kind of look forward to being that little bit sick. Sick enough to miss school or work, but not so sick that life’s miserable. But we don’t want anything more than that. After all, being really sick is no fun at all, it robs us of the joy of life. But it's more than that. We don't even like to think about being sick and not just because of the discomfort. Being sick robs us of our freedom, our control. And there are few things that we cherish more than our freedom.
The Cross - The Answer to Isolation
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Part of a series based on The Cross of Jesus by Dr Leon Morris audio (5MB)
You may have seen any of the countless programs about the sinking of the Titanic over the past few weeks. One of the things I find interesting about the sinking of the Titanic is that when they wanted to call for help all they had was Morse code, a technology that had been in use for a couple of decades to transmit messages by radio. That’s just 100 years ago.
Since then we’ve seen an explosion in communications technology. From telegraph using Morse code to telephones, to radio to television to Internet technology until today we have unprecedented access to others through mobile phones, email, facebook, twitter and probably a dozen other social networking tools that I haven’t even heard of yet.
Personal Isolation
It’s interesting though, that despite the many ways we have of connecting you’ll still find that many people feel a deep sense of isolation. Even young people who communicate regularly through social media can feel alone, unable to connect in any real way, unable to experience the closeness of a relationship that allows them to express the deepest feelings within them. A sociologist from MIT in the US claims that the growth of social media has actually resulted in an increase in isolation. She says this: “Under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, it is actually isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality that is a poor imitation of the real world.”
The Cross: The Answer to Guilt
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- Written by: George Hemmings
Part of a series based on The Cross of Jesus by Dr Leon Morris audio (6MB)
Tonight, after all the church events are over, after the boys have gone to bed, you’ll find me flopping down on the couch. There I’ll indulge in at least three of the top five guilty pleasures. I’ll have some chocolate treat on the coffee table, alternating between a trashy novel and catching up on some ridiculous reality TV. We all love guilty pleasures like these don’t we? I wonder what yours are? In case you are wondering, the other two in the top five are expensive accessories and greasy food. The enjoyment we get from these things is somehow heightened by that thrill of knowing we probably shouldn’t be indulging in them. We should feel guilty, but instead we find pleasure in these things.
Series: Theme: Why the Cross?
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Why the Cross?
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Eph 4:17-24 |
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1 Cor 12:23-26 |
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1 Kings 17 |
Why the Cross
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Part of a series based on The Cross of Jesus by Dr Leon Morris audio (6MB)
I trust no-one here would doubt that the cross is central to the Christian faith. Without the cross Christianity becomes just another religion, emptied of its power.
The cross is central to our life together; central to our belief in Jesus as the Son of God; central to our salvation, central to our preaching of the gospel.
You can see that in the way Jesus’ life is portrayed for us in the 4 gospels. There we find a sketchy history of his early life, then a brief account of various incidents in his time with his disciples over a period of 3 or so years, followed by an extended account of his death and resurrection.
You can see it in Paul’s preaching - he sums it up in 1 Corinthians 1:23-24: “we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Today’s reading from Hebrews states: “9but we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
So let’s think about why the Cross is crucial to us as Christians?
Mark 16:1-8
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Jesus is Risen audio (3MB)
You can imagine how the disciples must have felt. First of all, all their hopes had been dashed as Jesus was arre Save sted and then put to death. They may not have understood everything that Jesus told them but they had a pretty good idea that he’d been talking about building his kingdom. His kingdom, right? That means he must be a king. Well, the Romans had a bad record of getting rid of would-be kings and it seemed Jesus was just another example.
So what were they going to do now? Go back to their old lives with their tails between their legs? Try to pick up where they’d left off three years before? They must have been totally depressed mustn’t they? Maybe they even felt let down. All the things Jesus had promised had come to nothing.
They were certainly scared. John tells us they were hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jewish leaders: afraid, no doubt, that they’d be next to be arrested, since they were Jesus’ closest followers. It would have been a sombre time wherever they were that passover Sabbath.
Well they may have been heartbroken and scared stiff, but at least the women knew what they had to do. Mark tells us that as soon as the Sabbath was over, that is, as soon as the sun had set on the Saturday night, they went out and bought spices. (late night shopping was around even then.) They hadn’t had time to buy spices on the Friday. They’d only just had time to follow the soldiers to see where Jesus was laid before the Sabbath began.
But off they go now and buy spices but it’s already dark so they have to wait until the morning to use them. You can imagine what a long night it would have been. Finally dawn breaks in the distance and they go out very early to the tomb.
You can tell how distraught they’ve been because it isn’t until they’re nearly there that they remember there’s a very large stone lying across the entrance. In fact there are also Roman guards put there to keep people out. So how are they going to move the stone - what a shame the men hadn’t come with them?
But when they arrive they’re amazed - this very large stone has been rolled away. Again you can imagine their confusion. Imagine the questions that’d be going through their heads. What’s going on? Is Jesus still there? Who moved the stone? And where are the guards?
