Skip to main content

2018: Learning (Experiencing) Jesus

Praise God for a new year. 2017 is gone and 2018 has come.
Happy New Year, just learnt that in Welsh you say Blwyddyn Newydd Dda, we'll come back to that :)

Matthew 11:25-30.

In the gospel we see themes such as Jesus calls His disciples, Jesus healing the sick, Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman, The Beatitudes, ... The whole of the gospels could as well be wrapped up in the title 'The Jesus experience'.

In the passage, Jesus makes his first recorded invitation to experiencing the rest and life which He gives. And He points out that as we learn of Him we continue to find that rest - unique experience. (John 6:53-55).

Revelations 22:17 points to the recorded last invitation: The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”.
As we experience this fellowship by the Spirit we are tuned in to echo what is the mind of Christ (and of the Father) - Matthew 11:25-27. In the joy of that experience, we can say 'Come!' to the unsaved.

May our year be filled with the experience of the presence and power of God, as we open the Word to learn afresh at the feet of Jesus. And I pray that God guides you into all that He has in store for you this year, in Jesus name, Amen.

God bless you exceedingly.

PS. About that Welsh Happy New Year, it's pronounced roughly as though saying blued in noweda. So, go forth and make some new Welsh friends.


2018 Key Passages:
Isaiah 58, Psalm 46, Matthew 11, Ephesians 4:17-5:20, 1 John 3,4.

Popular posts from this blog

In Christ is all we need

Luke 5:1-11 NIV; 2 Peter 1:3 NIV. Praise God! Happy new year!!! One time, I was meeting friends for a game of badminton. When I arrived at the court, I noticed I had come with the wrong bag. I planned to play in shorts, but I played in trousers, and my very competitive friends were not merciful. Peter described the Christian life almost like my backpack experience, except that he made the right switch. He picked the one that had all he needed for his journey. In Luke's passage (Luke 5:1-11 NIV), he records Peter's first meeting with Jesus. It was at a time when he had toiled all night but couldn't catch any fish. So he parked his boat by the seashore. But when Jesus saw Peter's boat, he got into it and used it to teach the crowd the word of God - to meet their spiritual needs. Again, in displaying his divine miraculous power, he used the boat to provide much fish - to meet the physical needs of Pet...

Disciples are Blessed

Matthew 5:1-12 NIV. [Series on: The Blessed] How would you describe a blessed and happy life? One of my friends believes there’s only one happy person each week, the lottery winner, and the rest of us just have make-believe happiness. Maybe you share my friend's view or have your own picture of happiness. The Bible also has its own picture, and in this short series on the Blessed we'll see who are the blessed of Scripture. In today's passage, Jesus gathers His disciples to the mountainside, away from the crowd and teaches them what a truly blessed and happy life—beatitude—looks like. Jesus shows that a blessed life is the life of a disciple, those who are: Poor in spirit (v3, Psalm 42:1; 63:1): who depend on God in everything. Mourning (v4, Isaiah 61:2-3): who seek God’s rescue/forgiveness by repentance. Meek (v5, Psalm 37:9-11): who humbly wait for the Lord amidst life’s ...

In trials, Be Holy!

1 Peter 1:13-2:3 NIV. Knowing the joyful truths from the last session about our faith, Peter then goes on to say, therefore...be holy! (v13). Being holy means to live a God-centred life. It looks like not conforming to ungodly desires (v14, 2v1) but setting our minds on the eternal things of God (v13, 2v2), living in reverent fear of God (v17) and loving God's people (v22). This cuts against the grain of the me-centred worldview of life. It is, therefore, no surprise that every trial and distraction in life combats any attempt at living a God-centred life. So how do we respond? Peter's encouragement in verse 15 is: be holy in all you do — keep being holy, continue (2 Timothy 3:12-13). In trials, be holy for three profound reasons - all based on the very nature of God. In trials, we are to be holy (keep being, continue to be) because: God is holy. Verse 16 says "Be holy, bec...