The Heidelberg Catechism - The Foundations Of Our Faith

  I am the way to God: I did not come To light a path, to blaze a trail, that you May simply follow in my tracks, pursue My shadow like a prize that's cheaply won. My life reveals the life of God, the sum Of all he is and does. So how can you, The sons of night, look on me and construe My way as just the road for you to run? My path takes in Gethsemane, the Cross, And stark rejection draped in agony. My way to God embraces utmost loss: Your way to God is not my way, but me. Each other path is dismal swamp, or fraud. I stand alone: I am the way to God.   I am the truth of God: I do not claim I merely speak the truth, as though I were A prophet (but no more), a channel, stirred By Spirit power, of purely human frame. Nor do I say that when I take his name Upon my lips, my teaching cannot err (Though that is true). A mere interpreter I'm not, some prophet-voice of special fame. In timeless reaches of eternity The Triune God decided that the Word, The self-e...

C onclusion The lamp in the tabernacle shone on the table of shew bread. It is Jesus, the bread of life, that we illuminate. Matthew 5:14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Phil 2:14 Do all things without grumbling or questioning,15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,16 holding fast to the word of life. Light is comforting, healing warming irresistible, hope, direction. Don't get distracted with personal power issues, political issues, or cultural distractions. Preach the word. Hold forth the Word of life. Personal battles and power issues are disturbing. Don...

  The context of John 7—9 is the celebration of the annual Festival of Tabernacles (John 7:2–3, 14, 37),  eight days in seventh month of their calendar. Mid-September to mid-October (Lev. 23:33–44). Early each morning priests would carry water from the Pool of Siloam and pour it out on the west side of the brazen altar in the temple court. At night the priests lit four large candelabra in the court of the women, and the glow from the light could be seen across the city. These lamps were reminders to the Jews of the pillar of fire by which God led Israel through the darkness. Leviticus 24: 1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,2 "Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly.3 Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the LORD regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. THE FORCE OF THE TRUE LIGHT Dark...

  Talking with our German friends, Heinrich and Rita, they found Aussie English much much harder than either English or American.  It is our tendency to drop in words that only Aussies understand. Heinrich was utterly lost on someone who is a whinger. Now there is a good aussie word for that. Being a whinger or a whiner!  Now technically only Englishman can be whingers.  As in "A whinging pom!"  And Aussies can be whiners! Now a whiner is not an alcoholic, (that's a wino). A whiner is someone who whines like a dog. And that is something that gets up God's nose! It reveals what is really in the person's heart.  Affliction can reveal what is really there. Back in the Old Testament there was one event that is repeatedly referred to.  And it is refered to in our first reading from Psalm 81. It is that during the Exodus from Egypt while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they were a bunch of whinging whiners. God gave them Manna from heaven, every day excep...

Yesterday I spent some time at the Emergency at Hawkesbury Hospital.  It was an interesting day: Lots of young men arrived they came in cut and bruised.   They had discovered they were not invincibles, although every young man thinks he is until...Skiing accidents and trail bike accidents.  It was funny to hear the their dads spell out from where they are from.  Wahroongah (I am sure the receptionist knew how to spell it, but just made the dad spell it out.. similarly a young guy from Gymea) .. I was surprised! But sometimes there are events like that and news items that bring us back to our frail mortality. "A woman, making a phone call on a New York street, was struck in the head and killed yesterday by a flowerpot that was knocked off an eighth floor window ledge by lightning. Amelia Lynch, 28, died after the pot fell on her head, police said." There she is making a phone call and a flowerpot, struck by lightning, falls on her head. Listen to this: "Harold Lee Dunkin ...

With John 19 reading: Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, See Him dying on the tree! 'Tis the Christ by man rejected; Yes, my soul, 'tis He! 'tis He! 'Tis the long-expected Prophet, David's Son, yet David's Lord; Proofs I see sufficient of it: 'Tis the true and faithful Word. Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning, Was there ever grief like His? Friends through fear His cause disowning, Foes insulting His distress; Many hands were raised to wound Him, None would interpose to save; But the deepest stroke that pierced Him Was the stroke that Justice gave. Ye who think of sin but lightly  Nor suppose the evil great Here may view its nature rightly, Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the Sacrifice appointed, See who bears the awful load; 'Tis the WORD, the LORD'S ANOINTED, Son of Man and Son of God. Here we have a firm foundation;  Here the refuge of the lost; Christ's the Rock of our salvation, His the name of which we boast. Lamb of God, for sinners wounde...