By Not Known God’s gift of music is first mentioned in Genesis 4:21 and has long been used in worship. One of the earliest sacred songs is a hymn of praise to God for his work of saving Israel from Egypt (Ex 15:1-18). These themes continue through both Old and New Testaments. There are hundreds…

By Not Known For a long time, Presbyterian services typically began with the words, Let us worship God. A key word in that statement is us. Much in the Bible encourages God’s people to come together to admire God, thank him, confess sins, learn from him, thank him and ask things of him. The Old…

By Not Known Worship is a central Christian activity and will be our focus right through October. What is worship? Someone has defined worship as: … anything that recognises that God is God and that we are not. In this sense, worship is taking our place in the world under God, rather than separate from…

By Not Known The history of Christianity has been one of adapting the faith in different places. Christianity started as an Asian religion, specifically, a religion of Palestine. It has spread into Asia Minor, the wider Middle East, Europe, Africa, the Americas, East and South-East Asia, Russia and the Pacific. This is a great story…

By Not Known Much is expected of those who serve as church leaders, including the Elders and Deacons that we elect today. Read what qualities they are expected to have: 1The saying is sure: If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task. 2Now a bishop must be above reproach,…

By Not Known Some say that there are many valid ways to God and that each can choose which to follow. Others teach that all ways to God are equally invalid, but that someone may as well believe what they want to believe anyway. (The first view is classic pluralism and the second is a…

By Not Known Something significant happened amongst us last Sunday (31 August 03). We heard a clear message from the Bible challenging us about keeping on in our fallowing of Jesus. As Mr Thomas John explained it, Christianity is neither an instant process nor primarily a feel-good experience. Rather, Christianity is a life-long slog in…

By Not Known Life has many disappointing moments. We buy a product with a lfietime guarantee only to discover that its life ends shortly after we leave the store. Someone makes a promise to us and seals it with grand words – only to break it when it suits them. It is like that for…

By Not Known How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tiding, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’ (Is 52:7). As placed in Isaiah, these words are about those people who would announce the God’s new covenant in Jesus.…

By Not Known Among Christian people, we have a fairly clear sense of moral values. These values reflect God’s character and are derived from the Bible. Christians sometimes differ on how the Biblical teaching applies to different moral issues of our day, but the underlying principles are clear. We are to: be holy for I…