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NEW YEAR'S GREETING


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A LETTER FROM PETER 1 Peter 1 – Part 1     Greetings from Peter 1 This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2 God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace. The pastoral letters from the Apostle Peter were written probably around 60 AD during his time as the Bishop of Rome. It may well have been that these churches were facing persecution and Peter is wanting them to hold on and remain firm in their belief in Jesus and his redeeming death and resurrection. That Peter has taken time to write this letter is indicative of his deep, personal care and concern for these new Christians, scattered throughout the fledgling chur...
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A LETTER FROM JAMES Chapter 1 – part 4 By David Woodbury 26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. (James 1:26-27 – NLT) James has already touched on the use of the tongue in verse 19 and he will go on later in his letter to explore the subject in more detail. However, here he is making the point that unrestrained use of the tongue demonstrates a religious profession that is of no value. We fool ourselves if we think that careless use of words will not give us away. What James is focussing on here is not so much religion in itself, but rather how the image of faith is perceived by those outside. Perhaps no other age in history has been as obsessed with image as the era in which we live, and whole industries have grown...
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The Power of Belief

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The Power of Belief By David Woodbury In western culture today The Salvation Army may well be a pale imitation of what it once was. True, it may appear successful, effective and relational, but the reality is that it lacks the potent energy that once fuelled the early Salvation Army. Somewhere, along the timeline of our existence, some vital dynamic went missing. Perhaps we became too sophisticated, too influenced by other religious organisations that surrounded us, or we allowed too much of the influence of an unchristian culture to seep into our organisational thinking and structure. Perhaps it is this very situation Paul had in mind when he wrote to Timothy: They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. (2 Timothy 3:5 – NLT)  In a previous post I explored the impact that early Salvation Army song writers had on the mindset of the organisation and its soldiers: What are we to make of their literary and music sentiments? Som...
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