Posts by Norman

TEXT: ‘So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’ (Romans 10:17). Marconi is credited with being the inventor of the radio in 1920, after discovering he could send a signal over long distances. Turn the dial on any radio today and there are a multitude of programmes on the AM & FM frequencies. Digital radio and the internet now mean virtually anywhere in the world one can pick up the broadcast of that invisible signal. The Bible says, ‘There are many different languages in the world, and every language has meaning’ (1 Corinthians 14:10 NLT). What sounds like gibberish to one person is clearly understood by another. The Bible says, ‘Faith comes by hearing’, so what are you listening to? What we are reading and hearing is sending out a signal to us, and it will influence us in either a good or bad way, if we let it. God’s Word acts in the same way, sending out positive signals.  When we understand it, we can act on it because faith has been created. The unbeliever remains unmoved because it sounds like foolishness to him or too good to be true. What can help us to tune in to faith’s frequency? 1. Listen with your heart...

TEXT: ‘And the Lord turned and looked’ (Luke 22:61). Sometimes words aren’t necessary, as one look can convey what’s needed to be said, or get things done. Mark’s gospel mentions several times, “He looked” and these two words caught my attention and formed the basis for this teaching. In Part 1, we studied Jesus’ look; in anger at the scribes and Pharisees’ hardened hearts; as a reminder to Peter when he denied Him; and His look of love at the rich young ruler. In Part 2, we study three more “Looks”. 1. Jesus looked in the temple – ‘And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve’ (Mark 11:11) His disciples had wanted Him to look at the magnificence of the temple, but Jesus was more interested in what was going on inside the temple. He didn’t like what he saw. What should have been the house of prayer for all nations, had become a den of thieves. Revelation chapters 2 and 3 record when Jesus looked at the 7 churches in Asia. He commended, criticised, cautioned and cajoled them to do the right thing which...

TEXT: ‘The women who had been companions of Jesus from Galilee followed along. They saw the tomb where Jesus’ body was placed. At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared’ (Luke 23:55, 24:1 MSG). The watching women saw Jesus on the cross, when some of His disciples may not have, for they ran away when Jesus was arrested. The women heard Jesus cry, “It is finished” and saw the soldier plunge the spear into His side, confirming His death. They saw Joseph, with the help of Nicodemus, take Jesus’ body down from the cross. After they bound it with strips of linen and spices, they laid the body in Joseph’s tomb and rolled a large stone across the entrance. Early on Easter morning, the women came with more spices to anoint the body of Jesus. The only question they were asking on the way was, “Who will roll away the stone?” They weren’t aware the tomb had been sealed on the orders of Pilate, and a Roman guard of soldiers were stationed to ensure Jesus’ disciples didn’t steal His body and then claim He had risen from the dead. This negated any chance the women had of...