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Hope from the Bible in a time of coronavirus

Posted on by Phill Sacre
Hope in a time of Coronavirus title

I know that a lot of people are anxious about the coronavirus at the moment, and I wanted to say something specifically about how the Bible speaks into that situation. I thought the best way would be through a Facebook livestream – I’ve decided to do a short livestream on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings with a short reading and thought from the Bible.

Tonight’s livestream was on Psalm 46 and is here: (apologies for the first bit – Facebook had issues – skip forward a couple of minutes for the real thing!)

https://www.facebook.com/bible.understand/videos/515697699093796/

The previous one from Wednesday night was about Jesus calming the storm and is available here.

If you’d like to be notified of these videos when they go live and you have a Facebook account, please do “Like” the Understand the Bible Facebook Page.

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What is Christianity? – 3: Old Testament + Israel

Posted on by Phill Sacre

Part three of a six-part series on the question “What is Christianity?” To answer the question we’ll look at a very brief overview of the whole Bible.

In this session we think about the rest of the Old Testament, in particular how God promised to undo the curse of the fall and yet how sin kept on getting in the way. At the end of the Old Testament we are left with a big question – how is God going to deal with the problem of sin?

You may also listen to the audio-only version if you prefer.

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Repentance: (4) Hatred of Sin | Psalm 97

Posted on by Phill Sacre

I think many of us feel uncomfortable about saying that we hate anything – but yet the Bible does tell us to hate certain things.

The passage is online here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+97&version=NIVUK

The Doctrine of Repentance is available in lots of places online e.g. as a PDF here: http://www.onthewing.org/user/Watson%20-%20Repentance%20-%20Modern.pdf

Sermon recorded as part of a livestream on the Great Clacton Parish YouTube channel.

Podcast available here.

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What is Christianity? – 2: The Fall

Posted on by Phill Sacre

Part two of a six-part series on the question “What is Christianity?” To answer the question we’ll look at a very brief overview of the whole Bible.

In this video we think about Genesis 3, one of the most important chapters in the Bible. We think about:

  1. What sin is,
  2. What sin does,
  3. How it explains the world.

If you don’t have a Bible you can get them online or via apps, e.g. the YouVersion Bible app, or http://biblegateway.com. The two Bible translations I mention are called the New International Version and the New Living Translation. You can read the Bible passage online here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+3&version=NLT

You may also listen to the audio-only version if you prefer.

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Repentance: (3) Shame for sin | James 4:1-10

Posted on by Phill Sacre

Shame is a dirty word in our society, yet the Bible has a lot to say about it. Should we feel shame? And how? What does the Bible say about it?

This is what was to be the sermon at Wednesday Worshippers today (18th March 2020) but due to the coronavirus situation had to be online instead!

The passage is online here.

The Doctrine of Repentance is available in lots of places online e.g. as a PDF here.

You may listen to the podcast if you prefer – here.

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New Course: What is Christianity? – 1: Creation

Posted on by Phill Sacre

This is the first of a six-part series where we will be looking at the question “What is Christianity?” To answer the question we’ll look at a very brief overview of the whole Bible.

In this video we think about:

  1. Why it’s important to look at the Bible;
  2. What the Bible says about creation …
  3. … and what that means for us.

If you don’t have a Bible you can get them online or via apps, e.g. the YouVersion Bible app, or http://biblegateway.com. The two Bible translations I mention are called the New International Version and the New Living Translation.

You may also listen to the audio-only version if you prefer.

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The Understand the Bible App

Posted on by Phill Sacre

I have started work on an Understand the Bible mobile app which will make it easier to use the discipleship programme from a mobile device. Please do stay tuned for more news – if you haven’t already, do sign up for notifications and / or the mailing list.

In the meantime, if you have a smartphone and would like to help me give the app a test run to check if there are any problems before it goes live, please do get in touch!

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Repentance: (2) Confession – 1 John 1:5-10

Posted on by Phill Sacre

This episode is only available on audio – you may listen to it online here.

The second part of the series in repentance (unfortunately I didn’t record the first part!) The passage is 1 John 1:5-10. 

The book I mention is called “The Doctrine of Repentance” by Thomas Watson, a puritan, and – because it is well out of copyright – is available for free online e.g. here. These sermons are based on his section “Ingredients of Repentance” – the first one we looked at was sorrow for sin.

Sermon preached at St Mark’s Church on Wednesday 11th March.

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Discipleship Programme now open!

Posted on by Phill Sacre

Just a quick update – if you’ve visited the website over the past couple of days, you might have noticed things changing a bit. Over the last few weeks I’ve been hard at work creating a discipleship programme, which is basically a way of making it easy for people to go through all the videos online.

At the moment it’s still in the early days, but I’d love for people to sign up – especially if you’re willing to let me know if there are any problems or if you have any suggestions!

You’ll have to register for an account, but it’s dead easy – especially if you’ve already got a Facebook or Google account.

See the discipleship programme for more information!

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Can we please God without faith? | Hebrews 11:1-6 | Justification #5

Posted on by Phill Sacre
https://youtu.be/Bb81Farf0xE

Many people have the view that, on the day of judgement, God will tot up our good deeds and – if we’ve done enough – will let us into heaven. Many people think it doesn’t matter whether you have faith, just that you’ve done enough good deeds. But what does the Bible say?

The podcast episode is available here.

To support Understand the Bible, see the support page.

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