Word of Salvation June 2018   Always Thankful - by Rev. David Waldron Text: Psalm 118 Readings: Luke 17:11-19; Psalm 118 Theme: The thankful psalmist calls all the covenant people of God to respond in gratitude to the Lord for his constant goodness and ever faithful love. Proposition: Jesus is the reason to be always thankful.   Introduction Helen Keller, American author, political activist, and lecturer, was struck by an illness when she was under two years old which left her blind and deaf. With the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan, she learned to communicate and went on to graduate...

Word of Salvation – Vol.41 No.39 - October 1996   Unless The Lord Builds the House   Sermon by Rev PG Van Dam on Psalm 127:1 Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 8:12, 22-30, 54-61, 10:23-29, 11:1-13 Suggested Hymns: BOW 87:1, 2, 5; 86:2, 5, 7 (with the Law) or 523 (with Creed); 203:1, 6; 241 Dear Brothers and Sisters. The two thoughts which readily come to mind when mentioning the name of Solomon are a.         his great wisdom and riches, and b.         how he used both for the building of the temple of the Lord. We will concern ourselves mainly with the...

Word of Salvation – Vol.44 No.3 - January 1999   Out of the Depths   Sermon by Rev J Haverland on Psalm 130 Scripture Readings: Job 19:13-27; Psalm 86 Suggested Psalms: Ps 32; 51; 130   Congregation. It is always hard to wait for something.  Children, you know how hard it is to wait for your birthday.  "How long is it?" you ask.  “Two months."  Two months?!  That seems like forever! Waiting is hard for adults as well – you’re waiting to be served in a supermarket; all the lanes are full and you are in a long queue and the...

Word of Salvation – Vol.46 No.18 - May 2001   Living In Unity And Community   Sermon by Rev B Aldridge on Psalm 133 Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:11-18, Psalm 133 Suggested Singing: Bow 100; 187; 489:1,4,5; 133; 477; 240   Beloved people of God. One of the fables of Aesop goes something like this: There was a father who was sick and tired of his sons fighting and quarrelling.  One day he called them all together and asked the eldest to bring him five sticks tied together in a bundle.  Handing the sticks to the youngest, he ordered him to try...

Word of Salvation – Vol.53 No.15 – April 2008   Prayerfully Resisting Temptation A Sermon by Rev John Westendorp on Psalm 141 Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:1-3 Suggested Singing: BoW 195; 73:1,6,7,8; 141; 23a   Introduction: Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Some people are quick to claim that the Bible is irrelevant for modern living.They see a huge gap between the people of Bible times and us today.They lived primitive and simple lives... in agricultural communities.We live in fast-paced industrialised cities with all their complexity.They lived thousands of years ago in times of ignorance and superstition.We live in an age where science...

Word of Salvation - August 2018   B.C.15 – What’s so original about sin? Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp Bible readings:  Psalm 51 & Romans 7:7-25. Text: Psalm 51:5 Belgic Confession: Article 15   Introd:  I think most of us find it hard to take when someone tells us some “home truths” about ourselves. We don’t find criticism easy to handle.Compliments are not too hard to put up with. But when something even slightly negative is said about us...     we tend to either let it to go in one ear and out the other ear...             or else we react angrily...

Word of Salvation - July 2018   B.C.12 – God’s Guardian Angels Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp Bible readings: Psalm 91 (esp.vs.11) Belgic Confession: Article 12   Introd: It’s an indisputable fact that ours is a very materialistic age. Most people have little time for anything they can’t touch or see... or prove in a test tube. So most people today don’t really take the existence of angels seriously. People generally put them in the same category as elves and fairies. They look cute... chubby little cherubs in medieval paintings. And on Christmas cards... and in nativity plays for Sunday School...

Word of Salvation - June 2018   B.C.2 – How We Know God Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp Bible readings: Psalm 19, Romans 1:16-25 Belgic Confession: Article 2   BC stands for Basic Christianity.  What are the fundamentals of the faith? BC also stands for Belgic Confession – a document in which the Christian church (in a time of great persecution) spelled out the basics of what she believes. When Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep it needs to grasp again the basics of the faith and confess them in a world where the faith is increasingly under...

Word of Salvation - May 2018   B.C.1 – I believe in God Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp Bible readings: Psalm 14, John 10:22-39 Belgic Confession: Article 1   BC stands for Basic Christianity.  What are the fundamentals of the faith? BC also stands for Belgic Confession – a document in which the Christian church (in a time of great persecution) spelled out the basics of what she believes. When Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep it needs to grasp again the basics of the faith and confess them in a world where the faith is increasingly under...

BOW 375 Behold what manner of Love; BOW 519 By the sea of crystal BOW 48 "Great is the Lord our God" How Deep the Father's love for us" "Speak O Lord" Scripture Reading: Psa 51; Rom 5:12-21; Gen 3:1-7; Sermon: "Really bad...unless" Prayer REJ 402 "It's Your Blood that cleanses me" BOW 530 "Praise God, You angel hosts above" Beloved people of God, There is one question when we speak about our perfect and sinless, powerful God who created everything that keeps cropping up and it is this, "Where did sin and evil begin?"   And if that isn't hard enough...

BoW 367 O Lord my God when I in awesome wonderBOW: 359 "Great is your faithfulness"BOW: 361 ""This is my Father's world"Scripture Readings: Psalm 104; Matthew 6:25-34; Rom 8:28-39;Sermon: "God is in control?"BOW: 104 v 5, 6, 7, 13; "Your Spirit O Lord"BOW: 533 "Praise God from whom all blessings flow" Brothers and sisters in the Lord.One of the things that we firmly affirm as truth is that God is absolutely sovereign. What we sometimes find harder to explain is how that works out in this world, especially when terrible things happen. At those times we can understand why people would...