Author: Alex

In the first chapter of the gospel of Luke, 2 people have an encounter with the angel Gabriel. The first is an elderly priest called Zechariah, and the second is a young girl named Mary.
Continue reading “How Would You React To A Visit From Gabriel?”

I would like to thank my father-in-law for sharing this week’s thoughts.
For those of you who a married, can you remember back to the days of your engagement? You had met the love of your life. And even better, he or she had fallen in love with you too. Then after a while came that time when you set the date. After the down on the knee bit, you plucked up the courage to go and tell the parents and started making all the arrangements.
Continue reading “When God Changes Our Plans, By Rev. Ernie Banwell.”

Some years ago, Jonathan and I used to enjoy the teaching of Chuck Missler, a wonderful man of God who believed in teaching the Bible verse by verse. Like most teachers, Chuck had his own sayings. One of them was that the new testament is in the old testament concealed, and the old testament is in the new testament revealed. What he meant was that the old testament is full of prophecies looking ahead to the birth, life, and death of Jesus, while the new testament makes clear some of the things that weren’t understood during the days of the prophets. Isaiah, Micah, and others boldly shared the word of the Lord, but some of their messages weren’t fully comprehended until after Jesus died and rose from the dead.
Continue reading “Prophecies Fulfilled”

Some of my earliest childhood memories include attending Sunday School and singing these words: “If you want joy – real joy – wonderful joy, let Jesus come into your heart. Your sins he’ll take away. Your night he’ll turn today. Your heart he’ll make over anew, and then come in to stay. If you want joy – real joy – wonderful joy – let Jesus come into your heart.” Other songs we sang included: “Joy is the flag flying high on the castle of my heart.” And “Oh I’ve got joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, down in my heart to stay.” Perhaps you think these are cute songs for children, but you question their relevance for adults living in a world often influenced by suffering and struggle.
Continue reading “Abiding Joy”

I was recently struck by a couple of verses from Psalm 50. “Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God and keep the vows you made to the Most High. Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.” (Psalm 50: 14-15.)
Continue reading “God Wants Our Gratitude, Not Our Sacrifices.”

During my growing up years, I’m ashamed to admit that I went through a phase of wishing I could swap mothers with my best friend. It’s laughable now, but I was convinced my mother loved my friend more and would prefer to have her as her daughter. My reasoning behind this was that whenever she came to our house, my mother was loving, kind and gentle, whereas I often got yelled at, and it sometimes felt as though nothing I did was good enough. Of course, I now understand that it wasn’t Mam’s place to train and nurture my friends. They had their own parents to discipline and guide them, but she wanted to do her best by me, and sometimes, that meant correcting, training, and rebuking. The correction came from a bigger heart than I appreciated during those years. Yet I now understand and appreciate the love behind every rebuke, harsh word, or corrective act, and I’m grateful for a parent who loved me enough to discipline me.
Continue reading “Discipline Is Not A Negative Word”

In 2014, BBC Radio 4 began an audio drama series about the First World War that ran for about 4 years. While listening, I found it very interesting to learn about life when the war started in 1914. In many ways, it was a different world from the one we live in today, and I’m pretty sure 2 world wars contributed to many of those differences.
Continue reading “A Path Of Peace.”

In this 2-part series, we are discussing the fact that Jesus’ birth as a human baby in Bethlehem was not the beginning of his story as recorded in the Bible. Rather, this was the point at which God became flesh. Yet Jesus had always existed, even before creation itself. In part 1, we looked at a couple of his preincarnate appearances – when he physically visited Abraham and Jacob, speaking to them, and interacting in their lives. In fact, we could spend all day in the first book of the Bible alone and see Jesus everywhere. The Bible is his story, and we will find him on every page if we choose to look hard enough.
Continue reading “Jesus – The One Who Always Was, Part 2.”

Recently, our pastor asked me and 2 other church members to preach a series of 6 sermons on Jesus. Perhaps you think this would be a pretty easy undertaking. After all, he’s the central focus of our Christian faith. Even the name Christian has his title of Christ at the very core of it. We are Christ followers. Without Jesus and his death on the cross, there would be no salvation, and we would still be without hope, facing a lost eternity. Yet the trouble is that there’s just so much to say about him. Since I had to go first, I pondered where to start, and I came to the conclusion that we should start at the very beginning.
Continue reading “Jesus – The One Who Always Was, Part 1”

In Acts chapter 9 verse 10, we meet a man called Ananias. He is a devout believer, eager to hear and obey the word of the Lord. That is until his Saviour gives him a message he can’t fathom. Appearing to him in a vision, the Lord says: “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.” (Acts 9: 11-12.)
Continue reading “Don’t Hold The Past Against Them.”