Text: ‘I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith [as this man’s]’ – Luke 7:9 Amplified Bible Thought: The well-known Bible text often quoted at weddings says, ‘Now abides faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love.’ 1 I want to reverse the order as we study the miraculous healing of the Centurion’s servant. We will see how love searched out hope and from that sprung faith. Love – ‘who was dear to him’ This is a love story that is quite amazing. Roman centurions are not normally noted for love. The dream of Nebuchadnezzar which Daniel interpreted revealed the next 4 world empires – Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian and Roman. 2 In the dream, the metal used to describe the Roman Empire was iron and that is how they really were – cold, hard, ruthless and unbending. So for a centurion to care so much about a servant was an anomaly. One could hire and replace servants anytime, anywhere. Slaves were two a penny, often the spoils of war. Yet this servant was dear to the commander in charge of Capernaum. Not only that, he cared about the Jewish nation too and had built a synagogue for them. It is amazing...
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Text: ‘These are the proverbs of Solomon. He was the son of David and the king of Israel’ – Proverbs 1:1 New International Reader’s Version Thought: Found in the middle of the Bible, immediately after the Book of Psalms, is the Book of Proverbs. Just as many of the psalms were written by King David, so the majority of these proverbs were written by King Solomon, David’s son. They came from the gift of wisdom God gave him. 1 Unfortunately, although Solomon knew the Word of God, he didn’t maintain a close relationship with Him and departed from the faith later on in his life. The idolatrous influences of his many wives and concubines were the cause of his spiritual downfall. 2 The main difference between Solomon and David was that David stayed loyal to God throughout his life. Even when he sinned, God was the first one he turned to when he repented. 3 So the challenge to us all for 2016 is this. It’s not enough to know the word of God. We need to know personally the God of the word. The goal is to be like David, a worshipper, a man after God’s own heart. 4 So how can Proverbs help us to do this?...
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Text: ‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse’ – Malachi 3:10 Thought: Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament dates from around 450 BC and is the final prophetic word to the Children of Israel before the coming of the Messiah – Jesus Christ. Significant subjects are tackled in its four short chapters – Love, Honour, Divorce, Healing and Money! Our text reveals seven words that can radically change every church and Christian, if they only had enough faith to preach and practise it. Most ministers do not like preaching about money. Most congregations do not like the minister preaching about money either! Yet obedience to these seven words could enable every church to be self-sufficient for its present spending needs and future expansion. So let’s unpack what the text really means. Bring Who is responsible for churches in Britain closing week after week, year after year – nobody? Or No Bodies! It’s so interesting during our door to door evangelism to hear the many lame excuses people give for not attending church – too busy with work, children, sports, elderly parents and so on. Yet these same people give time to shopping, recreation, appointments, leisure, holidays and doing what they want! Most churches have a weekday programme...
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