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All Things New (Revelation 21:5)

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  Saturday, 20 December, 2025 Psalms 114; 115 Isaiah 23:8-18 Revelation 20:11-21:8 All Things New (Revelation 21:5)   And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” We are now getting dangerously close to the end of Advent. I pray that God has been working mightily in you to make something new in your heart. Advent (as well as Lent) are, I find, seasons in which God can do some really amazing things in the human soul. (There is a reason the Church has been doing it for so long, after all.) And so, when you came into the beginning of Advent this time around, was there anything you wanted God to change about you? Maybe you didn’t have anything particular in mind, or maybe you had no intention of changing at all – nonetheless, did God have his own idea of what he wanted to do with you? This morning we hear the prophetic words of Chris...
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Fear Of The Lord (Psalm 111:10)

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  Friday, 19 December, 2025 Psalms 110; 111 Isaiah 22:15-23:7 Revelation 20:1-10 Fear Of The Lord (Psalm 111:10) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;     all those who practice it have a good understanding.     His praise endures forever! I recently read a book called “Triumphing Over Sinful Fear” by the English divine John Flavel. What a wonderful title, or at least I think so. I mostly picked up a copy because I feel like (in the circles I move, at least) we have a stunted understanding of what it means to fear the Lord. It seems like we don’t like to talk about the fear of the Lord because we don’t really like to talk about the alternative: the fear of other humans, or of pain, or of anything else that is not God. But it is a shame, because if we did, we might all come to the sudden realisation that we actually don’t have anything to fear at all! If we fear pain, then read the history of the m...
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Shattered Doors (Psalm 107:16)

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  Thursday, 18 December, 2025 Psalm 107:1-22 Isaiah 22:1-14 Revelation 19:11-21 Shattered Doors (Psalm 107:16) For he shatters the doors of bronze     and cuts in two the bars of iron. Where were you, when God opened the eyes of your heart to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Some wandered in desert wastes, when God gave them the living water of Jesus. Some were in the prison of the punishment of their sins, when the forgiveness of Christ’s blood was applied to their record. Some had fallen into the pit of self-autonomy, when the Lord rescued them and gave them the gentle yoke of his authority. The litany of human errors seems endless; yet Christ always has a way of answering them. No matter what door humanity slams in his face, he strides up and shatters them. When God decides to show someone the grace of his love, there is nothing they can do to refuse it. We still have the journey of this life to take. There is stil...
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Fallen Is Babylon! (Isaiah 21:9)

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  Wednesday, 17 December, 2025 Psalm 106:1-24 Isaiah 21 Revelation 19:1-10 Fallen Is Babylon! (Isaiah 21:9) And behold, here come riders,     horsemen in pairs!” And he answered,     “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods     he has shattered to the ground.” This is the first time in a long time that I have enjoyed the lead-up to Christmas without social media in my life. I have to tell you, it’s pretty great. Not only have I re-learned that hardly anyone actually cares about the fact that the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, or, Christmas Day, is completely free of any alleged ancient pagan influences (why is this such a big deal on the internet?), but I also have very little to worry about, because when it comes to world events, I am living under a rock. My church and family takes up all my time. But back when social media was everywhere for me, I felt a ...
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A Man Sent Ahead (Psalm 105:17)

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  Tuesday, 16 December, 2025 Psalm 105:1-22 Isaiah 13:1-13 Revelation 16 A Man Sent Ahead (Psalm 105:17) he had sent a man ahead of them,     Joseph, who was sold as a slave. What does the future hold for you? As a Christian, our relationship with the flow of time probably should be different to others. We recognise that, firstly, God has made time to move forwards and for us to live in that. Yet we also recognise that God is both over and outside time. If God is the same yesterday, today and forever, then his goodness and mercy is just as much in the part of the stream of time we call “tomorrow” as it was in the bend behind us called “yesterday”. Today’s Psalm refers to the sovereign purpose of God in Joseph’s life. Yes, he was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, and imprisoned in Egypt after being falsely accused of sexual harassment. Things looked pretty bleak for Joseph, for a fair amount of his early life. Ye...
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The Stump Of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1)

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  Monday, 15 December, 2025 Psalm 104:1-25 Isaiah 10:33-11:9 Revelation 15 The Stump Of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1) There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,     and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. How often have we heard these words! Hopefully you have at least twice a year – once through the reading cycle for Advent, and again at whichever Lessons and Carols service you attend! This passage gets better and better as it goes on. There are more and more amazing scenes of peace and getting-along-ness as you read on. But what makes it really hit home is what has been working to lead up to this moment. The wickedness of the land had come to such a fever pitch that God sent the Assyrians – and then the Assyrians themselves were so wicked that God cut down them as well. People had formed a society, God had let them try and work it out themselves, they had ended up in misery and sin, and God replaced them with som...
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I Did Them (Isaiah 48:3)

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  Saturday, 13 December, 2025 Psalms 101; 102:1-11 Isaiah 48:1-13 Revelation 14:13-20 I Did Them (Isaiah 48:3) The former things I declared of old;     they went out from my mouth, and I announced them;     then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. God seems to be really concerned about making sure we know who did what. It makes sense; we don’t like to act under false pretences with each other, why would we want to worship the wrong deity? In our first lesson from Isaiah, there seems to be a bit of competition in people’s minds between the true God, and the little statues people have on their shelves at home. Who made the universe? Who holds it together? Who makes it all move the way it does? The thing on my shelf that I made? Or God? God says: I told you I would do it, then I did it, so give me credit where it is due. Then God turns around and says look, I’m going to do new things. Because, if people...
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