5. The King and the Kingdom 2 Samuel 7
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Romans 9 and the OT: Who is the King?
{podcast id=256}
5. The King and the Kingdom 2 Samuel 7
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Sunday 18 August 2013
Series: Who is the King? And what has happened to his people? A short history of God and his people. A study guide can be downloaded here.
Bible Readings: 2 Samuel 7.8-16; Romans 1.1-6; Matthew 3.13-17; Luke 1.32-33; Ephesians 2.1-22; Hebrews 11.10,16; 12.22-end; Rev 21.1-4, 22-end
David establishes a City and brings the Ark of God to the city so religion and government is centralised in the same place. God promises David that his kingdom will endure forever and his son will build a House for God.
Christians who remain Christians 18 Aug 13
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- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Christians who remain Christians
Albert Camus, a French atheist philosopher, in 1948 spoke to a group of Dominican scholars. It was a post-war dialogue between believer and unbeliever. In the talk he said,
I shall not try to change anything that I think or anything that you think (insofar as I can judge of it) in order to reach a reconciliation that would be agreeable to all. On the contrary, what I feel like telling you today is that the world needs real dialogue, that falsehood is just as much the opposite of dialogue as is silence, and that the only possible dialogue is the kind between people who remain what they are and speak their mind. This is tantamount to saying that the world of today needs Christians who remain Christians.
He said he was opposed to changing one’s beliefs in order to reach some agreement between views that were really not able to be reconciled. He spoke of a Catholic priest he had heard speak at the Sorbonne who said he was anti-clerical. Camus thought this was a bad thing. He preferred that “Christians should remain Christians”.
It is an important idea. Especially at a time when public opinion on some important moral matters is being swayed by powerful lobbies.
4. Who is the King? 1 Samuel 8, Acts 17
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Romans 9 and the OT: Who is the King?
{podcast id=257}
4. Who is the King? 1 Samuel 8, Acts 17
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Sunday 11 August 2013
Series: Who is the King? And what has happened to his people? A short history of God and his people. A study guide can be downloaded here.
Bible Readings: 1 Samuel 8.1-9; Acts 17.1-9; Matthew 3.1-12
God as the rejected King and Saul as God's chosen and rejected King and God's big purpose to have a king over his people and the world. What is involved in having God's King over us.
3. A Kingdom of Priests Exodus 19, 1 Peter 2
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Romans 9 and the OT: Who is the King?
{podcast id=258}
3. A Kingdom of Priests. Exodus 19, 1 Peter 2
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Sunday 4 August 2013
Series: Who is the King? And what has happened to his people? A short history of God and his people. A study guide can be downloaded here.
Bible Readings: Exodus 19.3-6; 1 Peter 2.1-10; Matthew 2.13-18
God fulfills a promise to Abraham by forming a nation (Jacob's family) to be near him as his treasured possession, to praise him and to declare his praises as his priests.
Where is God? 4 Aug 13
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Where is God?
Sometimes when I do a crossword there is a clue which says, “A place of worship”. The answer may be “temple”, “chapel”, maybe even “church”. It is a common understanding that these kinds of places are where people worship. The focus is on what people do, although it is not clear whether that is what makes them sacred places.
The Bible has a different angle on this. The Old Testament Temple got its holiness from the fact that God said he would be there. Indeed Israel’s holiness was primarily the result of God’s presence being among them. The story of God’s people is in a way the story of God living among them, or not.
By the time of Jesus it was a moot point as to whether God was living among the people in the way he had been, say, in Moses’ day.
2. Patriarchs and Promises. Genesis 17, Galatians 3
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Romans 9 and the OT: Who is the King?
{podcast id=259}
2. Patriarchs and Promises. Genesis 17, Galatians 3
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Sunday 28 July 2013
Series: Who is the King? And what has happened to his people? A short history of God and his people. A study guide can be downloaded here.
Bible Readings: Genesis 17.1-22; Galatians 3.1-29; Matthew 2.1-12
How the blessing promised to Abraham comes to all and what the blessing is, and what we ought to do about it.
What does your family tree look like? 28 July 13
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
What does your family tree look like?
What does your family tree look like? Some of us can trace our ancestors back a very long way. Someone in my family has traced my father’s line back to at least the mid 19th century (when they migrated from England to Australia) and possibly back to the 16th century. The “by” ending is apparently a Viking affix, so my ancestors were one of the many invading groups that helped make Britain the mixed community that it is.
But ancestors are of more than historical or curious interest. Families have values, traditions, customs, and behavioural characteristics that get passed on from generation to generation. Marriage sometime ameliorates and sometimes strengthens these characteristics.
Many of us can look with pride on what we have inherited from our forebears. Some of us have a mixed inheritance. We are not always aware of what has been passed on to us, it is just “how we are”.
However there is a danger when we regard our own heritage as the norm.
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