Today's Devotions

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Showcase: Assorted Treats

  • Introduction to The Death of Death..by JI Packer +

    INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ___ to John Owen's The Death Of Death in the Death of Christ ___ By J.I. Packer _________ Read More
  • An Interview with Os Guiness on the 25th Anniversary of Francis Schaeffer's Death-Justin Taylor, 2009 +

    Next week (May 15) will be the 25th anniversary of the death of Francis Schaeffer, who died in his home Read More
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alex kirk and familyBelow are some notes from Alex Kirk's excellent sermon on Belief, from John 16. The sermon audio is at the end of the notes.

 

Belief is:
1. our work: we've got work to do in our hearts to detach from the things of
this world and to trust in the Jesus

This week, are you going to be anxious about money or are you going to
find ways to believe in Jesus?

This week, are you going to gossip about someone and climb the ladder
socially or are you going to believe in Jesus?

This week, are you going to lie and cover something up or are you going
to be a truth-speaker and believe in and trust in Jesus?

This week, will you spend just a little time each day in prayer, reading
Scripture, seeking after God and cultivating belief in your heart?

We've got decisions to make, and this is a real work that Jesus invites us
into!

2. But belief is also a gift from God.

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9 not by works, so that no one
can boast. -Ephesians 2

Faith and belief is a gift from God, and in the passages that follow what we'll talk
about this morning Jesus hammers this home over and over again

That the Father is the one that initiates and gives people the gift of faith and belief

The good news about that is that we're invited to pray and ask for it

This morning, whether you're here in a church for the first time ever or you've been a church person your whole life but you're struggling to believe in a particular area of your life

The invitation from God is to ask for the good gift of faith or belief

Jesus' disciples did this once, after some really intense teaching about forgiving over and over again and the importance of that the disciples are totally overwhelmed and they say:
5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 6 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this
mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.
Which brings us to the 3rd important thing to say about belief or faith in the
Scriptures:

3. It doesn't take much.

With just a little bit of faith, just the smallest, slightest bit of belief at work in your
heart can work wonders

The good news here is that once we're trusting in Christ, God is easily pleased but
hard to finally satisfy

1. Not every hunger and thirst is holy.

Some of them are good at the core but have unhealthy expressions in our lives that
just need to be re-directed

So for example, some of us have co-dependent relationships—your desire for
friendship is good, the co-dependent part is not  So that core hunger for relationship is good, it just needs to be made healthy

But not every hunger and thirst is holy. Some of our hungers and thirsts just need to be cut off, pruned back, they require a necessary ending in order for us to thrive

Sometimes the hunger or thirst that I'm still feeling emotionally or spiritually is a
sign of some part of me or my life that I've allowed to live for too long with Jesus

And that hunger or thirst just needs to be done away with once and for all
lopped off because it's just death, it's like a gangrenous appendage—if that
doesn't go it could poison the whole rest of the body

2. Remaining hunger or thirst presses me deeper into Jesus

http://www.chathamchurch.org/mediaPlayer/#sermonaudio/321

 

 

Reflections to Consider

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Publications

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Music

  • Jesus be the centre

    Center is a song that speaks of the essence of our life in Christ, and echoes the words the Christ Read More
  • I Lift My Hands

    A powerful hymn of adoration and praise Arkansas Gospel Mass Choir. This succinctly captures the joy of knowing our savior. Read More
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Audio & Video

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Favorites

  • Transforming this World: The Hope of Glory by NT Wright +

    Wright confronts the perspective that this world doesn’t matter, and that we live only to be in heaven. He shows Read More
  • What is Good in a World that Defies Hope: a talk by NT Wright +

    This is the second part of three talks by NT Wright at Harvard University in November, 2008 on the topic Read More
  • The Stream, the Lake and the River: NT Wright +

      Acts 2.1-21; John 7.37-39; a sermon at the Eucharist on the Feast of Pentecost, 11 May 2008, by the Read More
  • Jesus in the Perfect Storm by NT Wright +

    Zechariah 9.9-17; Luke 19.28-48; A sermon for Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011, In the University Chapel of St Salvator, St Read More
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Hidden Blessings

  • Christ is a Great Savior: a review of the movie Amazing Grace +

    Amazing Grace is a historical drama about William Wilberforce who was elected to British Parliament at the age of 21 Read More
  • Wilberforce, Hollywood's Amazing Grace, Charlotte Allen +

    William Wilberforce's relentless campaign eventually led the British Parliament to ban the slave trade, in 1807, and to pass a Read More
  • Making Beauty out of Ugly Things: Grace by U2 +

    Grace, she takes the blame She covers the shame Removes the stain It could be her name Grace, she carries Read More
  • The True Nature of Grace and Love: a movie review of the Soloist +

    The 2009 movie The Soloist is based on a book by the same name, written by Los Angeles Times columnist Read More
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