In recent years the term community has become a bit of a buzzword used in all walks of life from politics to religion. One of the reasons it has become a popular word is because of the perceived lack of it in society today. This has been especially so within the church where those connected with particular places have shared …
Called to Freedom
Galatians 5:1 + 13-14 The rallying cry of William Wallace in the film ‘Braveheart’ is that of freedom. Here in Galatians Paul also uses a call to believers to remind them of what God has done. He tells them it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Not to be slaves to an old way of life or …
No Longer a Slave
Romans 6:6-11 It is often found that those who have been imprisoned for a long period of time find it difficult to accept their freedom upon release. A life of living to someone else rules and regime is difficult to break when they have been set free. The same is so for us, who have lived under the captivity of …
To Save, Not Condemn
John 3:16-17 If you believe some things you read, you would think Jesus came to this world to punish us. We see a vindictive God who can’t wait to strike us down with furious vengeance. These verse tell us that God sent His Son out of His love for us so that those who put their trust in Him will …
Releasing the Captives
Isaiah 61:1-11 During the period of time on which this part of Isaiah is focused, the once mighty city of Jerusalem lay in ruin. It had been decimated by invading armies and left to ruin. The very place where God’s presence had dwelt with His people was now just dust and rubble. The words of the prophet bring hope that …
A People Saved
Deuteronomy 33:26-29 These words uttered by Moses are a final blessing to the Israelites before they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land without him. They declare praise to God for who He is, what He has done and what he will do for his people in the future. Moses asks Who is Like you? and answers with the response …
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I Have Heard Your Cry
Exodus 6:5-8 As God speaks with Moses he again reminds him of why He has asked him to go to Pharaoh and request that the Israelites should be set free. “I have heard their groaning and I have remembered My covenant.” God had promised to Abraham to make him the father of a great nation and that He would be …
Rescuer
Leviticus 25:38-42 One of the commands of the Jubilee was that none of the people of God should be owned as slaves and that in the year of Jubilee they should be freed. Slavery was something this nation was all too familiar with, having spent years in Egypt working for the Pharaohs. God had liberated them from this slavery and …
Liberation
One of the grand themes of the bible is God bringing about liberation. Starting with the Exodus, where God delivers His people from slavery to the New Testament where Jesus proclaims He has come to set the oppressed free, the bible is a collection of stories of how God has brought about the opportunity of freedom for us all. In …
Entering Rest
Hebrews 4:9-11 The writer of Hebrews offers us another glimpse of what the Sabbath is about and of what it offers us a glimpse of. The author of the book tells us of those who have entered God’s rest and stopped their work as God did on the seventh day of creation. This rest is the freedom we have in …
A Blessing Not A Burden
Mark 2:23-28 Jesus had many disagreements with the Pharisees throughout his ministry. As his disciples picked grains and ate them, the law-makers jumped in with accusations of not keeping the Sabbath by doing work. Jesus responds to their accusations by telling them that the Sabbath was made for humans and not humans for the Sabbath. The Pharisees delighted in creating …
Made For All
Isaiah 56:1-8 Christians have often drawn lines in the sand to define who is in and who is out. The Bible has been used in many of these instances to back up these claims of those God loves. In Deuteronomy 23:1 eunuchs are excluded from the assembly of the Lord but here in Isaiah they are welcomed in. There are …
Choices
Exodus 20:8-11 The Ten Commandments set out the principles in which the people of God would flourish and become moulded into the holy nation they had been called to be. The fourth commandment instructs the people to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy. The Sabbath is the pinnacle of the week; a chance to recharge from what has …
And God Abstained
Genesis 2:1-3 Did God get tired? It’s a valid question when reading about the last day of Creation. If God needed to rest, was it because he was tired? We can probably answer with confidence that, “No, God was not tired.” So why did he do no work on the seventh day? Well, another translation for the Hebrew word Shavat, …
Evening and Morning
Genesis 1:1-5 There was evening and there was morning… You may have never considered these words but they remind us of something important. For most of us we start the day with morning and we end it with evening but these words are the other way round in Genesis. Evening then morning, darkness then light. The Jewish Sabbath has always …
To Cease
Leviticus 25:1-7 The Jubilee came as the pinnacle of a much longer Sabbath cycle. Every seven years the land would be given rest and, after this cycle had taken place seven times, the Jubilee would take place. God’s decree was that the land would rest and that no seed would be planted, no field ploughed and no harvest gathered. The …
Sabbath
The Sabbath is the last piece of creation. Having made all that is, God stopped creating on the seventh day, blessed it and made it holy. Libraries worth of books have been written about this day and some times, in all the arguments, something of its importance is lost. It doesn’t matter if it is a Saturday or Sunday, the …
Living in Reality
2 Corinthians 5:20–6:10 Paul’s plea to the church in Corinth is that it takes hold of the reality the people find themselves in. The good news has been proclaimed to them and they are encouraged to take hold of the grace offered and be reconciled with God. As we are reconciled to God, we also need to seek reconciliation with …