People sometimes say “family is everything”. But what does the Bible say about how we should see families? In this passage we see both the importance of families, but also how families shouldn’t come before God. We are warned not to take our salvation for granted but make sure that we are seeking to live by faith every day.
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Parenting is one of the hardest things that you can do in life — and it is also often a thankless task. It seems to be valued less and less by society. Yet, God values it hugely. In this passage we see the contrast between Elkanah and Hannah and Eli in the way they brought up their children, and what difference it made.
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In Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, the message people come away with is: ‘dreams can come true.’ It doesn’t mention God at all! Perhaps people might read this story of Hannah and Samuel and think that the message here is the same. But here, as with Joseph, the Bible’s message is something very different: God has to be central.
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If you wanted to change the world, how would you go about it? Become an activist or a politician? Try to get rich? The world is full of people trying to do just that — but God’s ways are very different to our ways. In fact, they are almost the complete opposite. God chooses to use people who look nothing like what the world would expect.
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Has anyone ever said to you they’d believe in God if God provides them with evidence that he exists? In this passage, the Pharisees asked Jesus to give them a sign — but Jesus’ reply showed their request up for what it was. We must avoid their attitude of hard-heartedness towards God and be aware of the root of unbelief.
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Is there any sin we can commit which is so bad it can’t be forgiven? Jesus says there is only one unforgivable sin — that is, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But, as we discover, it is a different kind of sin to any other. What does it mean for us and how we live?
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Media appearances, self-promotion, meetings with important people… these are all the things we associate with our political leaders today. Jesus is completely different to this. Jesus doesn’t promote himself, he doesn’t separate himself from ordinary people — he came with a heart of compassion towards us. This passage shows us that Jesus will not break a “bruised reed” — but what does that mean?
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Christians get lots of things wrong — you only have to have been a Christian for more than about 5 minutes to realise this! But I believe there are some ways that most Christians today are getting it wrong, without even realising. In this video we go through four different ways that Christians get it wrong:
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A lot of Christians give the impression that obeying God is simply about ticking off a long list of rules every day. The Pharisees thought that obeying the rules — like the Sabbath — was the most important thing. However, Jesus says they’d forgotten what obeying God was supposed to be about. Jesus turned their concept of obedience on its head and showed us what it really means to obey God.
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In this short passage, Jesus denounces towns which have rejected him. He shows that rejecting Jesus is a spiritual or moral issue, and that this will have consequences. This shows us that we need to pay careful attention to how we respond to Jesus and make sure that we listen to him every day.
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