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Mortification (Romans 7:12-14)

We could say that in the garden of Eden there were two gardens. There was the garden that Adam was living in and there was the garden that was living in Adam. We can say of the eternal state of God’s people that there will again be two gardens – they will be in Paradise and Paradise will also be in them. Today, we don’t live in a garden, but if we are Christians there should be a garden in us. What is that garden? Our souls should be like a garden. Before we believed in Jesus, our souls were like a piece of ground full of horrible weeds. At our conversion, the heavenly Gardener changed the ground of our souls, giving it life and planting the seeds of beautiful graces. However, he did not eradicate all the weeds, although he did reduce their power. He wants each of us, through the power of the indwelling Spirit, to continue weakening these weeds and watering the graces. As time goes by, there should be more signs of grace and fewer weeds in our garden. Paul’s solution Paul in Romans 7 s
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Jesus is the Door (John 10:9)

  ‘ I am the door. If anyone enters by me,  he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture’ (John 10:9).   Two of the seven ‘I am’ sayings occur in this passage in John, and both sayings refer to Jesus describing himself as a shepherd. In the first five verses, Jesus could be referring to a fold in a town or village where every shepherd took his sheep. That fold had a porter who opened the door of the fold so that the shepherd could lead his sheep in for the night and take them out again on the following day. Jesus then says that he fulfils the functions of the porter at the door as well as those of the shepherd who looks after the sheep.   Describing the Christian Life People look for ways of describing the Christian life. Some may focus on what God does for a believer and others may mention what disciplines a believer should engage in to help his spiritual life. No doubt, they would want a description that is straightforward and short. ‘Fifty-two steps to healthy Chris
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The Light of the World (John 8:12)

Sometimes we hear someone say something startling. When we look at them, we might think they are confused, even self-deceived. They may only say such a comment once. That is how some people reacted to Jesus, except in his case he continued to make unusual, indeed unheard off, claims about himself, which inevitably caused strong reactions. The ‘I am’ sayings are a set of unusual personal claims, except in his case they are true assertions that reveal who he is.   While these sayings may be startling, they are also simple statements in the sense that in most of them Jesus as the master communicator used straightforward illustrations and word pictures to say who he is and what he had come to do. When he said them, people could work out what he meant, although that did not mean that they believed him.   The important aspect of his teaching, whatever the topic, is that his words were spiritual. He taught about the things of the kingdom of God, including entering it as well as living in it i
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​Seeing a Miracle (John 6:1-15)

There are different ways of viewing this story. At the moment we view it as readers who have read it before and we all may see different things in the account as it speaks to us individually. A literal participant would have his view of what happened as well. According to John’s account, there are four different kinds of participants who viewed what had taken place. There is Jesus, there is the crowd, there are the disciples including Philip and Andrew, and there is the unnamed boy. We can make some comments about each of them. Jesus Jesus is travelling round Galilee teaching the people about the kingdom of God. He has not yet began teaching them on this occasion. Rather, he is with his disciples initially up on the mountainside. We are not told what he and they were speaking about apart from some remarks he made concerning the gathering crowd who were ascending the hillside. The first thing we are told about Jesus as he was with his disciples is that he saw those who were not his disc
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