Theology

 *NEVER LET GO OF YOUR DREAM* Persistent people begin their success where most other people quit. As Christians, we need to be known as people with great persistence and endurance. A person with commitment, persistence and endurance will accomplish more than a thousand people with interest alone. The more diligently we work, the harder it is to quit. Persistence is an habit and so is quitting. As you launch into the New Year 2021, never worry about how much money, ability or equipment you are starting with - Just begin with a million worth of determination! Always remember that it is not what you have that mattered most in life but what you do with what you have that makes the whole lot of difference. Many people eagerly begin "the good fight of faith" but along the line they forgot to add Patience, Persistence and Endurance to their enthusiasm. By Perseverance, the snail reached the ark ... Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Many times, our Dreams and Plans appear not to be succeeding...

 *30/12/2020* MID-WEEK *HOLY COMMUNION* SERVICE TOPIC: *A PROPHET WITHOUT HONOUR PART THREE* Text: Matthew 13:53-58 Mark 6:1-6 Luke 4:16-30 Topic verse: *But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honour except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house"* Mark 6:4 Jesus announces the five purposes for which God has sent him: to preach good news to the poor... to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour (Luke 4:18-19) This announcement takes place during Jesus' visit to the synagogue of Nazareth where he publicly presents himself to the nation as God's Messiah. Invited by the leader of the synagogue to read from the Scriptures, Jesus stands, is handed a scroll that he unrolls to the intended passage, reads the passage, rolls the scroll up again, hands it back to the attendant, and sits down to speak while all eyes remain fixed on him (Luk...

 *TURNING TO GOD IN THE FACE OF CATACLYSM* Some have recognized the present crisis as a moment for spiritual reflection and renewal. The following is excerpted from a remarkable March 26,2020, Wall Street Journal article "A Coronavirus Great Awakening?" by Robert Nicholson, director of a nonprofit organization for Christian advocacy in the Middle East, it reminds us that at times like this we should turn to God and seek His will. "Could a plague of biblical proportions be America's or Nigeria's best hope for religious revival? As the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches, there is reason to think so ... Gazing at the ruins (of that war) from his window at Cambridge University, British historian Herbert Butterfield chose to make sense of it by turning to the Hebrew Bible. "'The power of the Old Testament teaching on history ... lay precisely in the region of truths which sprang from a reflection on catastrophe and cataclysm,' Butterfi...

 *2020 CHRISTMAS SERVICE* TOPIC: *A KING IS BORN* Text: Isaiah 7:10-16; 9:6-7 Matthew 1:18-25; 2:1-23 Luke 1:26-56; 2:1-52 Two thousand years ago a man appeared on the scene of history. He was born into the world and grew up into manhood just like every other person, but this man was different to anyone else. He was no ordinary man. A virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit to bring Him to birth. He was God, Himself, coming to the earth in human form. He was the "Son of God" (Luke 1:26-35). *"In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth". John 1:1,14* The Prophecies of Jesus' birth 1. The Messiah would be the seed of a woman. Genesis 3:15 Galatians 4:4 2. The Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham. Genesis 12:3 Matthew 1:1 3. The Messiah would be a descendant of...

 *23/12/2020* MID-WEEK *HOLY COMMUNION* SERVICE TOPIC: *A PROPHET WITHOUT HONOUR PART TWO* Text: Matthew 13:53-58 Mark 6:1-6 Luke 4:16-30 Topic verse: *But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honour except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house"* Mark 6:4 Jesus has returned to Nazareth, his hometown, with the disciples. On the sabbath he was given a chance to teach in the synagogue. His teaching there amazed the home audience, making them wonder about the source of his teaching, of his wisdom and of miracles he was reported to have performed elsewhere (Mark 6:2). They took offense at him because *they reasoned that none of what they were seeing could be traced to his human origins* (Mark 6:3). In that they were correct! But they would not go further and trace their source to God because they still saw Jesus as just the carpenter. They had failed to see God at work. In response, Jesus repeated the proverb that says a prophet receives honour...

  *WILL JESUS FIND FAITH?* *In times of crisis more people turn to God, yet usually for only a short time. Will we break the pattern?* Jesus posed a startling question to His disciples in *Luke 18:8: "When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"* Faith in God is diminishing day by day, year by year. Statisticians and researchers have produced many reports showing the decline of faith in America and the Western world. When a crisis strikes our world - be it a war, a terrorist attack or a health pandemic - we often see short-lived return to faith. More prayers go up to God for a short while. Recent Pew research polling has found that most people are praying more during the coronavirus outbreak than before. But the pattern we've seen before is that as a great crisis is resolved and fades, life goes back to normal. Churches are mostly empty again. What are people thinking, and does it matter? Why should we be concerned about what society at large believ...