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What’s the point? Why keep going? Solomon wrestled with these questions 3000 years ago as he wrote “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” As we have seen this means life is like a vapour or mist that disappears, if you try and grab hold of it, it just disappears faster. How can we make sense…

“Times have changed” someone might say, “the Bible is out of date with our culture.” What would you say? Yesterday we heard the need to guard our steps as we come to worship, the need to listen to God (Ecclesiastes 5). Today we fast-forward 1000 years and discover the Apostle Paul makes a similar warning…

My wife hates bananas! If I decided I wanted to show Dorothy how much I love her, I wouldn’t buy her a bunch of bananas! If I did, it would show that either I didn’t know her or just didn’t care what she thought. Sometimes when it comes to worship, people don’t think about what…

Time flies! When you realise this, and that you can’t slow it down what do you do? Do you try and cram in as much as you can? Try and fit in as many experiences as you can, try and get to the top of your career, make a name for yourself? The book of…

Solomon had everything, yet here in 1 Kings 11, we see it wasn’t enough. His striving for more and more led him to turn away from God, and tragically that led to a split in the kingdom as we’ll see as we read on in 1 Kings. The apostle Paul began his letter to Timothy…

What impresses God is not our achievements but our integrity. Solomon was an impressive man by the time we reach 1 Kings 9. Israel has become wealthy, Solomon has overseen the building of the temple and his own impressive palace. He has dedicated the temple and prayed that it would be a place of blessing…

Our daughter was born two months early and needed life saving surgery within 48 hours of being born. She was our firstborn and we thought we were going to lose her. I still remember the doctors giving us a side room in the hospital while our daughter was on a life support machine. Everything felt…

One writer says “who would complain if God allowed one hour of suffering in an entire lifetime of comfort?” I think most of us would sign up for just one hour of suffering in a lifetime of comfort! I’m sure you have had more than an hour of suffering in your lifetime already. The writer…

“Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination.” (Tim Keller, The Reason for God). In our reading today we have one of those…

False teaching is deadly. The apostle Paul is so concerned about it that the first thing he tells Timothy to do is to “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:3). False teaching must not be tolerated in the church. What is false teaching? It is anything which is different from…