Northern Souls

I started a series on discipleship a while back, suggesting we would look at the following topics:

Bible Prayer Church Evangelism


The goal is to help ensure that we are disciple-making disciples in our churches and so obedient to our Lord's command for the church. We start this month with the Bible.

Have you ever known someone who never stopped talking and never really listened. They might think of themselves as your friend. They might assume they know you, or know what you're going to say, but it's very frustrating, because actually they just make assumptions and project themselves and their opinions onto you.

Sometimes we can treat Jesus a bit like that. We might be forever talking to Jesus telling him what we need, what we'd like him to do and what we think about things. We might think we know him well and be confident that we know what he would think about a given situation or issue. We might even be very happy to tell other people what Jesus thinks. But do we ever …

Church magazine Article for August

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In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7 NIV)
I think one of the greatest challenges of the Christian life is to be joyful in suffering. Peter describes the Christians he is writing to as being able to “greatly rejoice” despite their “grief in all kinds of trials.” How is that possible?
I think Peter helps us here. First, we can rejoice in the wonderful realities of following Jesus, despite suffering now. In vv.3-5 he tells us about these benefits:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that ca…