Wake Up and Worship!

This passage opens a four-psalm symphony of jubilant thanksgiving. Praise has been waiting in slumber (v 1, NIV), and it’s up to God’s people to awaken it and stir it into song. Psalm 65 offers a poetic list of reasons why praise is due.

First, the psalmist reminds the people that they vowed to offer God their thanksgiving if he would deliver them (v 1).

Hannah’s Prayer of Praise

Hannah has just given up the most precious thing in her life, her miracle son. What does she do next? Is Hannah going to ask God to forgive her but she wants her son back? Is she feeling the sacrifice is just too difficult to make, the promise impossible to keep? Hannah prays, “You make me strong and happy, Lord.” She kept her promise to God. The result is she feels strong and happy! Her entire prayer is one of rejoicing.

The Double-Outsider

The stories of those from Samaria is an interesting little thread through the Gospel narrative. The Samaritans and the Jewish people had some pretty significant theological differences. Which is why it would have shocked Jesus’ disciples that he chose a “good” Samaritan as the hero of one of his most famous parables.

Leprosy wasn’t just a chronic and debilitating disease.

His Enduring Love

History marches on, wars are fought, babies are born and others finish their tenure here on earth. Yet one unchanging truth remains, “God’s love never fails.”

God’s call to us is to give thanks to him; in every season of life – give thanks. As we enjoy the simplicity of his creation to the wonder of his deliverance in difficult times, give thanks, for his love never fails.

In Times of Trouble

God is our help in times of trouble. That’s the good news! But there’s good news and bad news. The rest of the story is that God doesn’t exempt us from trouble (compare John 16:33).

This world will never be free from sin and suffering.

Strange Love

Read Reflect The story is told of an illiterate woman who a couple of years after hearing and believing the gospel and experiencing the goodness of God in a multiplicity of ways, genuinely asked her well-educated daughter in their local language: “I hear us speaking all the time of us serving God but really, come […]

Overflowing Praise In The Congregation

One of the characteristics of a Spirit filled congregation is joyful thanksgiving and praise. Sometimes one hears the idea expressed “I come to church to hear the message – the rest is just preliminary.” Yes, but Psalm 100 instructs us to prepare our hearts and minds by “entering his gates” and his courts with thanksgiving and praise.

Make It Visible

Two millennia before the concept of individual learning styles became prominent in teaching, Paul emphasized the importance of truth being seen and experienced, as well as heard. Having enthralled the Philippians with the wonder of their salvation and hope of glorious future transformation, he earths his words in gritty practicality and pastoral warmth.