In Psalm 34:8, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’ is an invitation from David to take God at His word, to trust in the Lord and experience His goodness for ourselves, and to know Him personally, realizing that He loves us more than we can believe. The invitation is ours to receive personally, but it is also ours to extend to others. Basically, David is saying, ‘Try it; you’ll like it.’ David is inviting us to experience what he has discovered: the goodness of God’s salvation.…….

After the Jewish people finished their exile in Babylon in 538 BCE (538 BC), the Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great, gave the Jews permission to return to Palestine. 50,000 of them were alowed to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple under Zerubbabel, governor of Jerusalem.…….

n Part One of this series of four, we looked at some of the things required in planning for the end-of-life care. In Part Two we looked at the options for a person once they have died. And in the third part we looked at what happens to the deceased after they have either been buried or cremated. In this Part Four we look at what happens to believers who go to Heaven and unbelievers to go to Hell. As we saw in the previous blog the Bible says that there are no other options.

Christians know that once they die there are some major events that occur. The first is that the bodies of all the dead generally go into the ground or will be created. In some cases, the body will be buried at sea…….

n Part One of this series of three, we looked at some of the things required in planning for the end-of-life care. In Part Two we looked at the options for a person once they have died. In this third part we look at what happens to the deceased after they have either been buried or cremated.

Christians know that there are some major events that occur after they die. The first is that the bodies of all the dead generally go into the ground or in some cases the sea. The souls of the righteous go to Heaven (2 Corinthians 5:8 and Philippians 1:23), and the souls of the ungodly go to Hades, translated as ‘Hell’ (Revelation 20:13)...........………….

In the previous blog we looked at what is involved in preparing for end-of-life care. In this blog we will look at what is available for a person once they have died. Do they want to be buried or cremated? If they wish to be cremated, do they want the ashes cast out over the sea or a lake, or do they want them to be dug into the ground under a memorial tree? This would appear to be reasonably straight forward, but there are a lot of options that go with this which should be considered as well...........………….

Death comes to all of us, yet how many of us are prepared for it? If we were asked what the process of death involved, how would we answer?  We would think about making a will, and perhaps about the type of send-off service that we would like, but we would probably not have thought about any other aspects much at all..........………….

We should be familiar with the story of the woman who had been caught in adultery and was bought to Jesus to see how He would judge her.

During this story Jesus bends over and writes in the dust with His finger. Have we ever wondered what Jesus was writing? It must have been significant because when those around Jesus saw what was written they quietly went away, starting with the eldest, and there is no account of what was printed in the dust.............………….

These titles of God the Father are not common, so they require some investigation to help us better understand who our Heavenly Father is. The Biblical reference is 2 Corinthians 1:3–5 -  

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too (ESV)............………….

When we read through the Gospels, we see that on several occasions Jesus tells those who He was ministering to, to be quiet about Him. Our likely response is to be along the lines of, ‘Hold on, Jesus has a public ministry where He taught and undertook miracles, and He wanted the news about what He is doing to be kept quiet? It was not going to happen. He was so different to anyone else that it would be inevitable that the word would spread, because people would want to see and hear what He is doing and saying.’............………….

In Matthew 21:18-20 TLB we read - 

In the morning, as [Jesus] was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry and noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves. Then he said to it, “Never bear fruit again!” And soon the fig tree withered up.

The disciples were utterly amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”...........………….

How do we pray for our unsaved family and friends? The obvious answer is that we pray for their salvation. But what about the rest of their lives? We have no problems praying for our Christian family and friends in terms of their lives generally, but what about those who are not Christians? The Bible addresses God’s dealings with the Jews and then the Christians, but there is not a lot about how He interacts with those who are neither Jew nor Christian............………….

Those of us who are familiar with the Gospel account of Jesus’ trial and hanging on a cross will recall His conversation with the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate. At the beginning of Pilate’s examination of Jesus, he asked Him, ‘Are you king of the Jews?’ Jesus confirmed this statement by saying, ‘You have said so............………….

There are some words in the Bible that remain in their original form and have never been translated into an English equivalent.

Hallelujah is one example that means ‘praise Yah/Jehovah’. It is translated in the KJV version of the Bible as ‘praise (ye) the LORD’ because English Bibles substitute ‘the LORD’ for the name Jehovah/Yahweh. For example, Psalm 106:48 reads, ‘And let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD [hale˘lû-y≤h].’............………….

Do people in Heaven watch our lives on earth? If so, can they pray for us when we need help? The Bible mentions ‘a great cloud of witnesses’ in Hebrews 12:1, a verse that encourages us to run the race of faith with perseverance............………….

 Election is the process of getting a person to the point where they are saved, starting back from before creation. When they become a born again Christian, the person becomes a saint............………….

Election is the process of getting a person to the point where they are saved, starting back from before creation. When they become a born again Christian, the person becomes a saint............………….

Psalm 22 is known as a prophetic psalm because it enables us to understand the cross from Jesus Christ’s point of view.  This psalm clearly describes the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus 1,000 years after it was written by David............………….

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Matthew 27:46 NIV)

These words that Jesus cried out as He was hanging on the Cross have caused confusion and discussion among many Christians who have tried to make sense of this verse............………….

To understand God’s judgment in a Christians life, we should look first at how an unbeliever thinks. 

A natural person thinks that they can make right choices, but they do not realize that they do not have all truth. They judge their neighbour according to outward signs like how they have been treated, wealth, social behavior, health, intellect, influence, style, background, and beauty. As a result, the natural minded person criticizes others without realizing that they are guilty of the same things that they judge others of.[1]...........………….

God’s promises are either a spoken or a written commitment. A promise reveals a truth that will benefit us. It either declares God’s will concerning the good that He will bless us with, or the evil He will take away from us. The Bible contains 7,147 promises, according to Herbert Lockyer in his book, All the Promises of the Bible.[1]  ...........………….

The background to this statement from the Lord was that the people of Judah had committed a long list of sins against Him (Isaiah 1:4-15). Their sacrifices were no longer pleasing to Him and He threatened to close His ears to their prayers (Isaiah 1:15). Yet, despite their actions, God wanted to have a conversation with His people. He gave them a list of things they could do to please Him (Isaiah 1:16-17) and offered an invitation, ‘Let us reason together’............………….

To ‘pray through’ is usually when we pray regularly until we break through and get an answer to our prayer. This usually means that we pray more than just one prayer and then expect an immediate result. What we actually do is to keep praying repeatedly until either we get a feeling of peace that an answer is going to happen, or we get a response to what we are looking for............………….

In her biography Straight Up Ruby Tui, who has represented New Zealand women in both 15 a side and seven a side rugby union, talks about the song ’You are my sunshine’. As a young girl it seemed strangely familiar. As she put it, ‘I didn’t know the song, but I knew the song’............………….

Because the general public often associate nudity with sex, many Christian groups and denominations are not supportive of naturism and nudism. This is because they feel that the temptation to lust is too difficult...........………….

In the previous four blogs we have had a look at how some recognised sins in the first half of the 1900’s were progressively ignored. People’s way of life changed, and their standards became laid-back.

One of the key changes was that manners do not mean much anymore............………….

In the previous four blogs we have had a look at how some recognised sins in the first half of the 1900’s were progressively ignored. People’s way of life changed, and their standards became laid-back...........………….

In the previous three blogs we have had a look at how some recognised sins in the first half of the 1900’s were progressively ignored. People’s way of life changed, and their standards became laid-back..........………….

n the previous two blogs we were having a look at how some recognised sins in the first half of the 1900’s progressively become ignored. It happened as people’s way of life changed and their standards became more relaxed.

One of the key changes was the loss of manners.........………….

In the previous blog we started to look at how some recognised sins in the first half of the 1900’s had progressively become ignored in the second half of the century. It happened as people’s way of life changed when personal standards became more relaxed.........………….

What is sin? If we made a list of things that offend God, what would go on it? And does it really matter?

Sin is acting or behaving in a way that does not conform with God’s character or commands. It is about crossing lines that have been laid down for us by God. Sin is therefore an act of rebellion and distrust.[1]........………….