We’re now on week 5 of our walk through the book of Exodus, the 2nd book in the Bible. And I want to share some thoughts to help you to pick up a specific theme that reoccurs throughout chapters 5-11 in particular. We’re considering this week the concept that someone can have a hardened heart towards God; as demonstrated over and over again by Pharaoh (King of Egypt). Other parts of the Bible refer to people also having a calloused heart or a darkened heart. (Matthew 13:15; Psalm 17:10; Ephesians 4:18; Romans 2: 5)  Read More

Exodus chapters 7 to 10 lead us through Moses’ confrontations with Pharaoh, with, as David Pawson says, words followed by works, discourse followed by destruction. The plagues reveal both God’s justice and mercy - his grace in giving warning before final judgement and his power and sovereignty over the Egyptian gods and Pharaoh. But most of all a demonstration to both the Israelites, Egyptians and us, that God is God alone. In our response to this God entreats us not to harden our hearts, for now is the time of salvation. Moses brought word from God to Pharaoh ‘Let my people go that they may worship me’ (Exodus 7:16, NIV). We are set free to follow, to serve, to worship. God calls us to worship with everything we are and everything we have.  Read More

Moses is without doubt one of the heroes of scripture. A leader who managed to lead 2 million people right to the edge of the Promised Land. A leader who took up leadership at 80 years of age and led for 40 years. A man who suffered abuse, grumbling, open revolt, great victories and tragic disappointments. It would be easy to view him as a superhuman. A man totally different to you and me. However, as we read through Exodus we discover that in many ways he was just like us. This is never more apparent than in his interaction with God when he is being called to leadership. Moses is presented with an incredible call and commission – lead the people of God out of captivity to the superpower of his day. His response – send someone else.  Read More

God says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” As well as saying this to simply differentiate himself from the many other gods worshipped at the time, I also find this name deeply reassuring. It starts, “I am the God of your father…” Moses probably didn’t know his biological parents, Amran and Jochebed, very well, if at all, as he grew up in the palace. They had been given some precious time with Moses as a baby, at least until he was weaned, but may not have seen much of him since.  Read More

Welcome to our first devotion in our new series on Exodus. If you have already watched or heard the first sermon in this series (and If not check it out on the Everyday App or on our Youtube Channel), you will know that these devotions are a key part of our journey through this amazing book. In these devotions we will have a chance to reflect on what has been preached, but also to draw out something that there wasn’t time to get to in 30 minutes on a Sunday or as part of our Online Church Service. In our sermon we looked at the big themes of the book, the highs and lows, the patterns of redemption that point to God’s big salvation narrative, and finally at the fact that in walking through Exodus we will constantly be bumping into Jesus. In this devotion I want to draw out 4 specific themes for us to think about this week.  Read More

The Lord's Prayer is like a diamond with many different facets - Jesus is teaching us to pray this prayer containing so many different forms of prayer; adoration, submission, spiritual warfare, confession, petition - it's all in there. But the form of prayer I want to say a bit more about here, is intercession. Or more concretely the part of intercession where we seek God for him to reveal what his will is so we can work with him. That is what intercession is. We work with God, through our prayers, in seeing his will breaking through in situations and lives here on earth.  Read More