I won’t have a huge amount of time to write today, so I thought I’d share this really helpful post. Lots of good tips here on Bible study in general but also good for those who are more visual than I am!
Enjoy!
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels A bible study tool for a visual learner Just this week some of my colleagues and I had a quick briefing on …
The importance of Research for a Visual Bible Study
It has been an interesting day in my house, with nothing quite going according to plan!It has been an interesting day in my house, with nothing quite going according to plan! As a result, I’ve not been able to sit down and write anything today.
However I have just seen this post from another blogger and wanted to share it with you.
I do hope you enjoy it! And God willing, normal service will resume on my blog soon!
There are no other gods other than God Himself. He is the beginning, He is the end, and He sustains all things through His Son Jesus. For with …
Believe in Jesus
I really do encourage you to check out Allens blog-Devotional Treasures. you certainly won’t regret it!
Formonthills Nature Reserve, Glenrothes, Fife. Photo by Alan Kearns Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and …
Sing To The Lord!
Everybody needs Christ, especially those who think they already have Him. I got my first taste of high school and college ministry under an …
Reaching the Jesus Friendly
Some say that a miracle is a suspension of the normal rules governing reality. Others may say that it is God intervening in our lives in a powerful way.
When we think of miracles, we might imagine mountains moving or sight being restored. These are, indeed, great miracles! But not all miracles look like this.
I say that having clothes on your back and food in your belly is a miracle to.
Having a roof over your head it’s a miracle as well. As are your eyes which allow you to read these words.
Having the ability to walk up and down the stairs would be a miracle to some.
Surely though, the greatest miracle of all is being restored to righteousness in and through Christ Jesus our Lord! Our sins forgiven, and being fully justified before our Heavenly Father.
Have you experienced this miracle for yourself? You can do so today…
All you need do is believe and trust in Him, confess the things that you have done wrong, and then ask and receive God’s forgiveness. Let the knowledge of that forgiveness miraculously change your life forever!
If you are seeking a miracle, first check you have not already received one! God bless you this Lord’s day.
It was my pleasure to stand in for our local vicar at short notice this week. In this video, I share a few thoughts about why I think Jesus turned water into wine from John 2.
For some technical reason I do not understand, I was not able to upload the video directly to this post. However include a link below to the video on Facebook. Hope you enjoy!
On this, the final day of 2020, I have completed a one year Bible reading plan. I have been following a chronological plan, where you read the Bible not as it is laid out, but instead in the order things actually happened. I wanted to offer a few thoughts today on one year Bible plans, and whether you should tackle one in the new year.
Firstly, if you intend on reading through the entire Bible in a year, I think that is a positive thing to do. Too few people, claiming to be Christians, have never read the entire Bible. They may have read much of the New Testament, or select chunks of the Old, but have never systematically read each and every word. Christians, of all people, should read the Bible!
If you have never read the Bible before in a committed way, then you may find a one year plan helpful. It directs you through each daily reading, and you know that if you stick to it, then you will have completed the entirety of Scripture by the end of the year.
To read the whole Bible in one year requires quite a big commitment. The Bible is no small volume, and so you will need to read quite a chunk each day to get through it. This requires both discipline and no insignificant amount of time. Depending on how fast you read, you will need to set aside anything from 15 to 30 minutes to do it. Given how much TV we watch in the modern age, that isn’t a massive bite out of your day!
A one year Bible plan is really about quantity, not quality. What I mean is, its focus is about reading through all the Scripture rather than really studying it. If it is your first read of the Bible, then that is not necessarily a bad thing.
For me, while I did see some benefits of reading through the Bible in a year, I also found it hard going at times and there were many days when I completed my readings, yet could not give you much of a summary of what I read. It did not necessarily “stick”.
The other thing to be wary of is making it into a law. To do this, you will need to ready every single day of the year. I fear if you fall behind, it will be too difficult to catch back up. Again, for me at least, this can be discouraging. There are some days when I’ve forced myself to sit up late to do the reading, and felt bad on the days when I’d missed it. Reading the Bible is not meant to be about placing burdens on our backs, and should rather be an uplifting experience.
Given these warnings, are there any benefits? Absolutely!
As mentioned above, this gives you a systematic way of approaching the Bible, and a great way of helping you read it if you’ve never done so before.
Following a reading plan helps you get a better overview of the Bible. We often read specific passages and dive deep into them, or we tend to stay on our favourites. A reading plan directs us to the whole Bible equally, and this can help you see the bigger picture.
I have been using a chronological plan, and this likewise helps you to see the events of the Bible in their context. Particularly around the Old Testament prophets, you will see where they appear in the narrative.
So is a one year Bible reading plan for you? Well, as the saying goes, “Know thyself!” If you feel this would help you, then go for it. If you feel like it might become a chore, then better to read one verse a day and commune with the Lord than six chapters you resent.
As we close out this year, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to every one of you who have taken the time to read my blog. It was back in March, during the first UK lockdown, where I started posting daily. I saw huge growth in readership during that time, and I am sorry that I have not been able to maintain daily postings.
I will continue to post where I can in 2021, and I hope that you enjoy what you read. Always feel free to comment or get in touch, as I do love hearing from you.
May I take this opportunity to wish you a very happy and blessed 2021!
This week I have started on the Course for Christian Studies. This is a two-year course designed to help Christians understand the Christian faith more deeply and to also act as a gateway into various forms of ministry.
For me, I’ve tried to study the Christian faith myself over the years and so hope these early weeks of the course won’t be too stretching for me! We shall see! Theological training is important, and week one of the course is entitled “You too can be a theologian!” Properly handling the Bible and understanding matters of doctrine is important for all believers.
I have wanted to get involved more and more in the life of my church. My gifts largely centre around teaching, and while I have been very fortunate over the years to be able to teach in a variety of ways, if I want to do more in my church then I do need to obtain more formal training. I understand this, and it is wise that those in positions of authority or teaching are properly equipped.
I have been praying a lot about my own ministry and its future. I am certainly keen to explore more formal ministry further, and completing this course is a great first step. Through it, I hope to learn al ot but to also meet other believers on a similar journey. Also, I hope it will help me to more fully understand God’s will for my life.
As I progress on the course, I will try to write about it from time to time. I won’t give you a blow by blow account, but hope to keep you updated on my progress and the things I am learning.
This first course module is all about Encountering God. Those on the course come from a variety of churches and backgrounds, and so we begin by getting to know one another.
One activity involved noting down words we use for and about God. These included:
God is everything to us, and so one single name does not fully convey Who He is. The Bible refers to God in a huge variety of ways. Some you will relate to, and some you may find more difficult.
We can no more define God than we can measure the distance between east and west. God is beyond our comprehension, and we are shown various dimensions of His character throughout Scripture. And yet, paradoxically, we can know Him. We can know the unknowable. The Almighty God came down as a Man, a human being just like each of us, and He lived a life like we live.
It is a mystery that the God of the Heavens has made Himself known to us through His Son. The God so far above us connects with us on our level. He meets us where we are.
Who is He to you? I will be spending some time this week thinking about this question. Have I put Him in a box, and have I limited Him? Do I know Him as I ought to, or do I concentrate on the bits I want to? I rejoice in His salvation, but do I submit to His Lordship? Have I painted a picture of Him in my mind which is not true, and if so, how can I really learn Who He is from the Bible?
The course this week has challenged me to think about this. I do not wish to limit God, nor do I want to know Him only in part. He is Saviour and Friend, but also Lord and Judge.
We can know God through the Bible, but it tqakes effort on our part. We must study the Scriptures and learn about Him. Not just gathering facts about Him, but understanding Who He is through relationship. I may know my wife’s date of birth, hair colour, shoe size or telephone number yet these are just facts about her and tell me little of who she really is. Likewise, I may gather pieces of data about God and still totally miss Who He is.
Only through systematic study of Scripture can we fully know God as He is revealed to us. Let us leave behind any preconceptions or traditions, and see what the Bible really has to say. I pray that the Holy Spirit will help each one of us do that.
I hope this has been of interest, and I’ll post more about the course over the coming weeks and months.
Everywhere you go, do whatever you can to make someone feel valuable
Many people do not feel all that valuable or valued. In fact, many feel worthless and unwanted. As Christians, we know this is not true. God values every single human being, and the price He paid for them was the cost of His Son.
Not everyone is open to our Christian message however, but that does not mean we cannot communicate their value. We value the people in our lives, yet often do not show it or neglect to tell them.
If you truly value your spouse or children, then make an effort to show them that. There are myriad ways you can do this, but one of the simplest and most effective is just to say “thank you!” You or they may not think it a big deal to cook dinner every night, or put the bins out, or work every single day, or raise the children. But do not take these things for granted, and make sure you let them know you appreciate them and what they do.
Similarly, for those outside of your household, you can still recognise their value. Whether it is the local shopkeeper who has helped you during this time of lockdown, or the nurse or care worker who has looked after you or a relative, you can ensure they know how valuable they are and their contribution is.
Everywhere you go, do something to show the people around you how much you value and appreciate them. A note of thanks or encouragement can brighten someone’s day. Use social media to promote some one, service or business which has helped you out. Be a blessing and go the extra mile to recognise those who work tirelessly behind the scenes or who are rarely thanked.
You can make a difference. You can shine the light of Christ in this often dark world. What will you do this week?
Say what you mean, and mean what you say
Some say talk is cheap, but actually it can be very costly. How many relationships were ruined after someone said something in anger that they really did not mean. Words can leave deep wounds, yet we seem to respect them so little in our society. A single misplaced tweet can be enough to cause outrage the world over.
Say what you mean. Be clear with your words and make sure everything you say is what you mean. Don’t be hasty and don’t let your temper get the better of you. Better to remain silent that unleash words which cannot be taken back.
Similarly, mean what you say. Don’t be a person without integrity. Do not say one thing and do another. If you make an appointment for 7pm, make sure you are there on time and be a person of your word. If you hit something unexpected that makes you late, call ahead.
Your children remember what you say, and they remember when you don’t keep your word. If you promise to take them out on Saturday, you had better make sure you do. Trust is more easily destroyed than built. One broken promise can devastate trust for a lifetime.
God is the perfect example of this to us. He says precisely what He means, and means every single word He says. There are no broken promises in God; if He has said it, you can consider it done whether you see it yet or not.
My words fall far short at times, but I strive to be a man of my word and to never say a thing I do not mean. I am challenged today, and hope you are too. Let us all come up higher and be people who keep our word.
You may not feel like the one they need, but you’re the one they’ve got. And it’s not an accident!
As a parent, I rarely feel like i’m doing a good job of it. Sometimes I see myself reflected in the behaviour or words of my children, and it isn’t always pretty! Being a parent is the best but toughest job there is. I often feel like I do not know what I am doing myself, let alone helping to shape another life and ready them for the world.
The same is true at work sometimes. People come to me asking for help and advice, or looking for a solution to a serious problem. I feel a tremendous pressure to come up with the right answer, even if I haven’t a clue what it is!
Bottom line – I’m only human, and I’m just doing my best. The same is true for you I’m sure!
You may not feel like the right person for the job, whether that is a form of employment, caring responsibility or anything else. Even if you do not feel like the one that is needed right now, you are the only one that is there, and that is no coincidence.
Whatever situation you find yourself in, whatever job, whatever family commitments, you are there for a reason. God has specifically placed you there and you can deal with what is in front of you.
That does not make it easy of course, but draw strength from God to do what you need to do. Take heart in the fact that there are no accidents, and God has chosen you and placed you in your situation to bring Him glory in whatever way you can.
You might believe others are more qualified or better suited, but God chose you. Trust Him to have made the right decision, and do your very best with His help.
How you act when no one is watching you is who you really are.
How you act and behave when no one is looking says a great deal about your character.
I am a manager at work, and it is very interesting to see how some staff behave when they think you are not watching them.
At one place I used to work, the staff arrived early and the managers not until later. It was surprising how little work was done in those minutes before the managers arrived. Some staff would read the paper while others surfed the web. Others might ask a colleague to clock them in even if they were not ready to start work.
The temptation to cut corners is powerful when no one is watching us. We might think if no one knows, then there’s no harm in doing a slightly less than perfect job.
But God is always present. And for the Christian, we must live before God as if He is always watching… because He is.
We need to do the right thing even when no one is watching us. That’s called character, and who we are when no one is looking should be no different than if we are being carefully observed.
Do you live two distinct lives? The one when someone is present, and the other? If so, I encourage you to remember that God is always with you and sees all that is done in secret. And the person you are when no one is watching is who you really are.
Andy Brown 