Read Your Bible, Find Your Saviour.

2 Chronicles 7:12-22 The gathering together of God’s people - “I ... have chosen this place for Myself” (2 Chronicles 7:12). Note also 2 Chronicles 7:15-16 - “... this place... this temple.” The key verse is 2 Chronicles 7:14. Taking this verse together with Acts 1:12-14, we may say, ‘This is the kind of prayer that leads to Pentecost.’ What we have here is humility, prayer, longing for God and repentance. We must ask, ‘How are we to pray?’ * We are to pray with humility. Remember the parable of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:9-14). * We are to pray with longing for God. Prayer is more than just words. There is to be intensity and persistence. The parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8): She kept on praying until she received an answer. We are to “cry out to God day and night” (Luke 18:7). * We are to pray with repentance. Our words are to be backed up by our life. When God hears this kind of prayer, arising from our hearts and lives as well as ...

Here are two links to an audio version of a lecture given in January 1987:  The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith,Part One The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith, Part Two _________________________________ The Holy Spirit is the Breath of God.   All Scripture is God-breathed. We experience the Breath of God upon our life when we listen attentively to the God-breathed Scriptures. Paul speaks, in 2 Timothy 3:15-17, of the  relationship between the Breath of God (the Holy Spirit) and the God-breathed Word (the Holy Scriptures) – ‘the Holy Scriptures … are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’. 1) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to make us wise.     The wisdom which comes from the Spirit and the Word is a special kind of wisdom. It i...

Let us pray for God's blessing - not only for ourselves but for others. Let us pray, "Lord, bless me and make me a blessing to the people that I meet." May we bring to others "the pleasing aroma of Christ ... the aroma that bringd life" (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).  

"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord ... when he (Moses) came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35  they saw that his face was radiant" (Exodus 34:29, 34-35). Moses didn't realize that his face was shining - but the people saw that his face was shining! There's an important lesson for spiritual leaders here. Moses was too aware of his own shortcomings to realize how much blessing was coming out from him to the people. We should never think, "How much I've been blessed" without also thinking, "How much I've sinned." It's by the grace of God, that the blessing comes to us. It's by the grace of God that the blessing comes out from us and reaches out to others. We must never forget what Paul said about himself and his calling: "Although I am less than the least of all the ...

In Ezekiel 38:23, we read about God's purpose in history - "I will show My greatness and My holiness. I will reveal Myself to many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord." It is important that we see the divine dimension in the events which take place here on earth. There are political events, but politics isn't everything. There's more than politics. There's the work of God. He is working out His plan, "I will pour out My Spirit on the nation of Israel" (Ezekiel 39:29). True blessing comes when God pours out His Spirit. This is something for which we must always - the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In Ezekiel 40-43, we have a description of the temple. We can measure the physical dimensions of the temple, but there is something that we cannot measure: "I saw the glory of the Lord fill the temple" (Ezekiel 43:5). This is the spiritual dimension. This is the presence of the Spirit of the  Lord. We look beyond the ...

Exodus 2:23-25 The Exodus is more than a departure. It's a deliverance. It's more than a protest against Egypt. It's an answer to prayer. It's more than a social revolution. It's a spiritual revelation of God's love. Exodus 3:1-22 Moses may have been content to remain in the background. God was calling him to step into the foreground - for God’s people. This is more than the story of Moses. It’s the story of Israel. It points forward to God’s purpose for all nations. When we read the Old Testament story, we find that God is saying to us, ‘This is just the beginning. There is more than this.’ From Exodus to the Gospels, to Acts, to the book of Revelation: We’re not at the final triumph yet. Like those who have come before us - Moses, the Psalmist, the prophets, Jesus, Peter, Paul, we must face conflict. There will be glimpses of glory, but the full glory is still to come. In Exodus, we see God’s people on a journey. It’s a journey with Go...