This week, we look at Jesus' predictions about the future and ask what it means for us. What does our future hold? And is it good? We look at our time here on earth, as well as remind ourselves about heaven.
This week Sharon's tackle one of the key objections people have about the church: the church is just after my money! We carry on our study in Mark's Gospel and Jesus is going to tackle this head-on!
One of the big problems that those outside the church have with those who profess to be Christians is the level of hypocrisy that they see. Christians are hypocrites. They say one thing but then do something completely different. Why do they not simply practice what they preach? Well, that is what we are going to get into today. Are Christians hypocrites? And is it hypocritical to call someone a hypocrite? (There’s a question that is a head spinner!) And the only person really qualified to answer it is Jesus, which is exactly what He does in today’s passage. He is going to accuse the religious of being hypocrites and then explain why they are hypocrites...
Ever been so tunnel-visioned on something, so focused in on the detail that you didn't see the bigger picture? In this week's Livestream, Jesus meets a group of people who had done just that...and as a result, they missed the most important lesson of all.
This week we will be hearing from James Sloan, who is the Chief Exec of Imagine If Trust who will be talking about what it means to Love your neighbour as well as introduce to us Imagine If Trust - part of our church's social outreach.
Have you been thinking about your New Year’s Resolutions for 2021? Got your new diary and goal-setting mindset? Most of us do. It’s a New Year. It’s a New Start, and given the strangeness of 2020, we are hoping that 2021 will be a lot better. Well, as we carry on our Bible Study of Mark’s Gospel, we have a chap who goes to Jesus and basically asks Jesus to summarize everything down to a simple point that he can both understand and apply to life. It’s as if this chap goes to Jesus and says to Jesus, “Listen - I am planning for 2021 - what’s the most important thing that I should focus on this year?” And this answer Jesus gives him won’t just set us up well for the new year, but also for life.
Thinking and planning for 2021? The new year is fast approaching and this week's story from Mark's Gospel is so timely for us as we think about and plan for 2021. This week, Jesus is talking to a group of leaders, smart well-educated people about the root cause of a serious mistake that they are making, a mistake that we don't want to carry into 2021 that is for sure.
Have you ever had to deal with difficult people? They look to build themselves up at your expense, maybe even ridicule you. They are ... well, just plain old difficult to deal with. Well, you are not alone. Jesus had the exact same problem. So how does He deal with them, and what can we learn from that? What can we learn about how to deal with criticism, how to deal with haters and how to deal with difficult people?
Overcoming adversity - part 4. The power of forgiveness is something that we talk a lot about in the Christian church. Christ forgave us, so we can and should forgive others. And it is no coincidence that Jesus talks about forgiveness at the end of our mini-series on Overcoming Adversity.
Overcoming adversity - part 3. When it comes to overcoming adversity, we often find ourselves praying and asking God for help. But does that make sense? Does God even care about my prayers? Does He even listen? And if He hears me - will he actually do anything? This week we take a look at what Jesus says about prayer, and how we can know what God's plan for our lives is.
We all have obstacles and adversity to deal with - heck, we are in the middle of a pandemic that is affecting us all. So how to do we overcome such things? Well, the standard answer is just to think positively, be optimistic, see the glass as half full..but does that really work? Or does Jesus have some other advice to give us?
