Liar, Liar, Assyria On Fire.

In Isaiah 36 the ruthless Sennacherib threatens Jerusalem and makes a false claim to Hezekiah....

"Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land with the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it." (Verse 10)

I have always felt uneasy by people who say, "The Lord told me this or that". It can be a from of manipulation.


Have a good day,


Peter Clark.

Attacks On The Gospel Of God.

In Galatians Paul writes about false brothers who had infiltrated the church, and his response to them.

"We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you." Galatians 2:5

In gospel issues, there is no compromise.


Have a good day,


Peter Clark.

God Answers.

I needed this reminder this morning from Psalm 107:28

"Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he brought them out of their distress"

TFTD: Have you noticed that God gives us just the right word at the right time.


Have a good day,


Peter Clark.

A Daily Prayer.

Just one little verse, but a good way to start each day.

Isaiah 33:2

"O LORD. be gracious to us;
we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in the time of distress.

Have a great day,



Peter Clark.

A Sign Of Things To Come.

Isaiah 35:8-10

And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
9 No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

The Gospel In A Nutshell.

What is the gospel all about....in a sentence?

Galatians 1:3 summarises it well, ""....the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age...."

Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

The Fool!

Do you know one?

Isaiah 32:6

"For the fool speaks folly, his mind is busy with evil;
He practices ungodliness and spreads error concerning the LORD;
the hungry he leaves empty and from the thirsty he withholds water."

Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

Relying On God.

It is constantly repeated in the Scriptures as to WHO are we relying on?

When it really gets down to it ..... who are you relying on?

God's people, the people of Israel, should have been relying on God....

.....as should we, but no, we don't always do that!

"Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who rely on horses,
who trust in the multitude of their chariots
and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but do look to the Holy One of Israel,
or seek help from the LORD.

Are we trusting in our Bank balance, our superannuation, our weekly salary etc.?

We should be relying on God and seeking help from Him.


Have a great day,



Peter Clark.

A Loving God.

Did I need reminding.....always.

I read this morning Isaiah 30 verse 19 "How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you."

What difference does it make to your life to know that our God is gracious and that He loves us unconditionally?


Have a good day,

Peter Clark.

Don't Doubt God's Motives.

Isaiah 30: 18

"Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
He rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for Him!

Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

What We Have To Look Forward To.

Job suffered....we all know that...but his suffering came to an end.

Job 32:28

"God has delivered me from going down to the pit, and I shall live oto enjoy the light of life."

If we do happen to suffer.....it will not be forever.

Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

Light Not Darkness!

What does it mean for us to follow Christ?

John 8:12 helps us understand.

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

It is like having full vision all the time - knowing that we have eternal life.


Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

Let Us...Let Us...Let Us...

On this LORD'S day that we commonly call Sunday...

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And

let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but

let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:23-25)

Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

Staying Away From....

As I was reading my Bible this morning - Psalm 106, it occurred to me that there were phrases that were the downfall of the Israelites. Here they are...

"they grew envious"
"they made a calf"
"(they) worshipped and idol"
"they exchanged their Glory"
"they forgot the God who saved them"
"they despised the pleasant land"
"they did not believe"
"they grumbled"
"(they) did not obey"
"they yoked themselves"
"they ate sacrifices"
"they provoked the LORD to anger"

I found this a very sobering list.


Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

An Aspect Of Ministry.

Paul is writing to the Corinthians and defending his ministry.

He says this about what he is doing.....

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Christian ministry is about removing obstacles which prohibits the "knowledge of God".

In our own lives, we need to be conscious of rooting out anything that interferes with our knowing more of God.


Have a great day,



Peter Clark.

How It Will Be.

There is so much sadness and violence around, it is natural to ask, "Will it always be like this?"

We know, that the answer to that question is "no". It will not always be like this.

There will be a time when God finishes up this world.

We are in the process of "trying out for eternity" - being given the opportunity for each of us to use our free will to decide if we want a relationship with God stretching into eternity. This is our "Audition" for eternity.

When this world is finished as we know it, then.....

"the earth will be full of the
knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea."(Isaiah 11:9)


Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

"Faith" Wasn't Meant To Be Easy.

I was thinking this as I read Isaiah 11:6 this morning.

"The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them"

Who could imagine a wolf and a lamb living together,

Who could imagine a leopard and a goat together,

or a calf and a lion etc.

And how (according to our human, worldly thinking) that God would come into the world as a baby, and that this baby would be the saviour of the world.

TFTD: Indeed faith was not meant to be easy....if it was easy it probably wouldn't be faith.


Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

Rich Getting Richer, Poor Getting Poorer!

Despite this, the rich and the poor have one thing in common.....

Proverbs 22:2

"Rich and poor have this in common;
The LORD is the Maker of them all"

Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

Sermon Preached on 11th September 2011 Matthew 18:21-35

In today's Gospel reading, Peter asks a question.
He wonders how often he, as a disciple of Jesus, is required to forgive someone.
He knows what the rabbis say.
They say that you should forgive someone three times.
But Peter knows that Jesus seldom settles for what the other rabbis say,
so Peter asks Jesus,

"Lord, if another (Christian brother or sister) sins against me,
how often should I forgive?
As many as seven times?"

Note that Peter didn't go with the usual standard of three times.
He doubled it to make it six times –– and then he added one more for good measure.
"Should I forgive as many as seven times?"
It was hard to imagine that Jesus could find fault with that standard –– but, with Jesus, you could never be sure.
Jesus was always full of surprises.

And Jesus surprised Peter with his answer.
I think Peter was probably expecting a pat on the back.
After all, Peter was proposing a forgiveness standard more than twice the norm
more than twice what everyone else required
seven instead of three.

Jesus responded,
"Not seven times,
But, I tell you,
Seventy-seven times."
At least, that's what we think Jesus said.
The New Testament was written originally in Greek,
and the Greek words could mean either of two things:
Seventy-seven or seventy TIMES seven.
In one way, that's a big difference.
Seventy seven times OR 490 times.
If Jesus meant 490 times
just imagine trying to keep track of forgiving someone 490 times. Almost impossible!

Keeping track of forgiving someone seventy-seven times wouldn’t be easy either.

It really doesn't matter whether we are supposed to forgive seventy-seven times or 490 times.
In either case, keeping track of our forgivenesses would be an accounting nightmare.
Who could do it? Nobody!
And that's the point.
Jesus wasn't giving us a MATHS lesson.
He was giving us a GRACE lesson.

• Who can truly forgive seventy-seven times –– or 490 times, while keeping track?


• Who can forget the other person's sins while keeping track of them?

• If we were keeping track of each forgiveness, we would not really be forgiving.

As Corrie ten Boom put it,
To forgive someone means getting rid of the offense –– throwing it into the deep, dark sea –– and posting a sign that says "No fishing!"
To say "I can forgive, but I cannot forget"
is only another way of saying "I cannot forgive."
Forgiveness means forgiving AND forgetting.
So Jesus told Peter that the Christian standard for forgiveness is not seven times ––
but is seventy-seven times ––
or seventy TIMES seven if you choose to translate it that way.
It doesn't really make any difference which way you translate it, does it ?
because it's impossible for forgive even seventy-seven times while keeping score.

Then Jesus went on to explain to Peter (and to us) why he was requiring such a rigorous standard of forgiveness.
His explanation took the form of a story.
Jesus began his story with these words,
"For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves."

Whenever you hear Jesus say, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared with," we need to listen carefully !
Jesus is getting ready to give you a peek into the kingdom of heaven –– God's kingdom.
The kingdom of heaven runs by God's rules –– not by the rules of this world.

It’s true to say that we would all like to go to heaven someday,
so when Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared with,"
we need to listen.
He is telling about the place where we want to spend all of eternity.
Also, he is giving us a clue about how to get there.

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a king whose servant owed him ten thousand talents.
A talent was a measure of weight.
It was a lot of weight –– like a ton.
Ten thousand was the biggest number in their vocabulary.
So when Jesus said that this servant owed the king ten thousand talents,
it was like saying that he owed ten thousand tons of gold.
It was like saying that he owed the king a billion dollars –– or a trillion –– or a zillion dollars.
It was an amount beyond imagining.

So the king ordered his servants to sell this man and his family so the king could apply the proceeds from the sale to the man's debt.
But the man begged the king.
"Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything."

Now the king knew that this man could never pay him everything ––
and he was a compassionate man,
so out of pity he released the servant and forgave the entire debt ––
the whole thing ––
the servant was completely free.
It would be like China writing off the trillions of dollars debt of the United States of America.
Can you imagine that?

So the servant left the king's palace celebrating his good fortune.
But his good mood didn’t last.
Outside, he ran into a man who owed him one hundred denarii.
One hundred denarii was a drop in the bucket when compared to the zillion dollars that the servant had owed the king ––
but one hundred denarii was still a considerable sum ––
about three months' wages for the average worker.

The first servant said to his fellow servant, "Pay what you owe me!"
That was equivalent of three months wages.
He didn't have it.
Who does!
In today's dollars, we're talking about many thousands dollars.
About twenty thousand dollars.

This second servant couldn't pay, so he also pleaded,
"Have patience with me, and I will pay you" ––
the same plea the first servant had made to the king.
But the first servant who had been forgiven his debt
had the second servant thrown in prison until he could pay the entire debt
This was a way of giving this man a life sentence,
because he would never be able to pay.

The other servants, looking on, were appalled.
They knew that the king had forgiven the first servant,
and they expected this guy to do the same.
These other servants told the king what had happened.
The king was furious.
As you could imagine.
He called the first servant back to his palace.
He said:

"You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave,
As I had mercy on you?"

So the king handed this first servant over to be tortured until he could repay the zillion dollars he owed the king.
Then Jesus, who was telling this story, came to the point.
This is where the rubber hits the road for us.
Jesus said:

"So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you,
If you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

Let me emphasise what Jesus is saying here.
God has forgiven each one of us more times than we could ever count.
God has forgiven each one of us for sins both little and big ––
and God expects us to forgive each other for sins both little and big.
That's how we prepare ourselves for life in the kingdom of heaven ––
and it's how we transform a bit of this place where we now live into a heaven on earth.
I don’t know how to make that clearer,
We have been forgiven – and we need to forgive.
Jesus reminds us that God has forgiven us ––
and he calls us to pass it on.
If we do that, we are introducing a bit of heaven on earth.
To conclude, let me summarise…
God loves you.
Receive God's forgiveness.
Embrace it.
Enjoy it!
Let God help you to forgive yourself for your sins, both great and small. Let him help you to start a new day with a clean slate.
Once you truly embrace God's forgiveness,
then let him help you to forgive
your husband ––
or your wife ––
or your children ––
or your neighbor ––
or your co-worker ––
or the person in this congregation whom you don't like ––
or whomever has offended you.
Don’t leave this church building today without forgiving from the heart

When you do that, you will begin to experience a bit of heaven on earth.

The Importance Of Having A Good Name.

You hear of so many people risking their good name, and exchanging it for nothing (by comparison)

Proverbs 22:1 says,

A good name is more desirable than great riches;
to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

TFTD: Let us not risk our good names.


Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Our Goal Must Be...

How do we summarise in a few words the goal that we must work towards?

I came across it this morning...

Six words from Isaiah 10 and hidden in verse 20...

We "will truly rely on the LORD"

That seems to me to be the key to living a life for God.

TFTD: Can you say that you are truly relying on the LORD?


Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

Christ Has Given All For Us.

2 Corinthians 8:9

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."

Jesus left the riches of heaven....for what?

So that He might come to this earth, be despised, rejected and eventually killed a very cruel death.

But it did have a purpose. He came to take the punishment for our sin that we deserve.


Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

It Is Good To Give To God But.....

In 2 Corinthians we read of the Macedonian Churches who were "breaking their necks" to give money to the impoverished Christians living in Jerusalem.

That is fantastic that there were, and are, people who so readily give their money to the work of God.

But there is something even better than that....

What could be better than that?

2 Corinthians 8:5 tells us.... "but they gave themselves first to the Lord...."

Isn't this the key to everything?


Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Sermon Preached on 5th September 2011 Matthew 18:10-20.

Why is it that Christian people in churches have such a hard time getting on with one another?
There is a poem that says it well:

“To live above, with saints we love
Will certainly be glory.
To live below, with saints we know-
Well, that’s another story!”

In Chapter 18 of Matthew’s gospel we see that there are 3 essentials for Christians to get along with each other,
HUMILITY; HONESTY & FORGIVENESS

In this short passage set as our Gospel lesson today the issue of humility is raised.

Actually, the need for humility arises in verse 1.
The disciples come to Jesus and ask which one of them is the “greatest” (read)
They were so absorbed with themselves that they had been arguing about who was the greatest among them.
What we see here is pride.
What is pride?
You could say that it is,
thinking ourselves more important than we really are.
That is really easy for us to do.
We all would rather be celebrities rather than servants .
And so it is hard for us to learn humility,
It doesn’t come naturally to us.
And so, because the church is filled with sinful people,
Pride continues to be the root of much of the bad behaviour we experience in the church today.
Us wanting to get our own way is a form of pride.
Being so absorbed with ourselves that we think,
what we do is the most important thing that happens,
that our way of doing things is the only way.
“It’s my way or the highway” people say.
Early in Chapter 18,
The disciples wait breathlessly for Jesus to name the greatest man among them.
You can imagine them thinking that it will be them.
Jesus then blows their socks off.
He ignores all that and calls a child to come forward.
This child was the example of true humility and hence, true greatness.
True humility means knowing yourself,
Accepting yourself
Being yourself – your best self.
Being humble for us will mean avoiding two extremes:
(1) Thinking LESS of ourselves than we ought,
That is always a problem.
We might call it low self esteem.
We have to remember that we are God’s,
made in His image and gifted by Him.
There was once a slogan doing the rounds “God doesn’t make junk”
He has made us and we are NOT junk.
The other extreme we have to avoid is…
(2) Thinking MORE of ourselves than we should.
Do you know anyone who does that?
I don’t have to remind you about how painful it is.

An unspoiled child has the characteristics that make for humility:
Trust;
dependence;
the desire to make others happy;
an absence of boasting;
without the selfish desire to be greater than others.

These are not only characteristics of the child,
But they are also characteristics of the Christian believer.
As believers we put our trust in Christ,
That his death on the cross was all that was needed
for us to receive
forgiveness and new life,
In our liturgy we thank God for “all the benefits of His passion”.
We are dependent on God for our daily bread and protection.
We serve others and so on.
They are the things we do as “believers”.

The term “little one” comes up again in verse 10 (read)
It is a dangerous thing to look down on children (or other believers for that matter),
Because God values them highly (values us highly),
When we welcome a child (or another believer) we welcome Christ.
In verse 10 we see the Father cares for children and believers
And angels watch over them (children and believers)

Just like the Good Shepherd, God seeks the lost and saves them.
We see here that He goes after 1 and leaves the 99.
He doesn’t want to see even one of these little ones to be lost (that can mean both children and believers)
This is probably the best reason I could give you to invite others along next Sunday to our “Back to Church Sunday”
God doesn’t want any to be lost.
If we have found the truth,
The secret of eternal life,
We must share it with others.

Jesus said, that to enter the Kingdom of Heaven we have to become as a child,
To take on those characteristics that signify a Father and child relationship – dependence, trust, honesty.
How are you going at that?

Have You A Personal Goal?

Paul the Apostle had one - we see it in 2 Corinthians 5:9

"So we make it our goal to please him....."

Can we do any better than that?

Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

Looking Forward To What?

Reading this morning I came across a phrase that I have been pondering.

2 Corinthians 5:5 "He (God).....prepared us for this very thing...."

Immediately prior to this verse Paul is writing to the Corinthians and encouraging them about the "heavenly dwelling" which is being prepared for them.

He writes "if our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God..."(v.1) and "what is mortal may be swallowed up by life"(v.4)

TFTD: Day in and day out, God is preparing us for our "heavenly dwelling". Are you co-operating with Him as He attempts to do that?


Have a good day,


Peter Clark.

What Does God Require Of Us?

How are we to live, as Christian men and women?

Having repented and entered into a transforming relationship with the God of the Universe we are to...


He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah Chapter 6 and Verse 8.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Focus On........

I had a visit to the Eye Specialist the other day. As always I have to look through one of those machines that they have. He always says "look at my ear". I can tell you....it is not in any way, shape or form, an interesting ear!

In 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 18 Paul explains what we need to be focussing on:

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

That speaks for itself doesn't it? Does anyone NOT know what that means?

Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

God's Long Term Plan.

I was reminded this morning that even though we may have our ideas, God has His long term plan in place for us.

I was reading Micah, and in Chapter 4 and verse 10b God lays out His plan for His people.

"You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued. There the LORD will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies"

TFTD: Isn't it good that we do not have to worry about our future....God has it all in hand.


Have a great day,


Peter Clark.

Faith First, Then Understanding.

Have you heard of people who want absolutely everything crystal clear before they make any commitment to Christ?

(We do not do that with other facets of our life, do we?)

In 2 Corinthians 3 Paul is writing to the Christians who lived in Corinth and explaining about a "veil" that dulls understanding Spiritual things.

Paul then writes in verse 16 "But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away"

In this matter, as in others, "God's ways are not our ways"

Faith or trust or belief (all the same word in the original language of Greek) comes first, then God will give understanding.

Have a great day,


Peter Clark.