Episodes
Tuesday Aug 30, 2016
WISE - Faith
Tuesday Aug 30, 2016
Tuesday Aug 30, 2016
Faith
People always say that faith is blind! However the Bible says that faith is a total confidence in God’s faithfulness, which leads to reliance, trust and total obedience to Him (Hebrews 11v6). We see this faith in the Godly obedience of those around us and from the Bible and church history.
Faith in Salvation
For salvation, faith is a voluntary change of mind and heart in the sinner in which the person turns to God, relying on and accepting His offer of salvation through Jesus Christ.
- Mind - recognition of your need of salvation. Acknowledging Christ’s death on your behalf and your need of forgiveness.
- Emotional (Heart) – your personal assent to the gospel. You ask yourself, “What must I do to be saved?” and then you agree to make salvation a part of your life.
- Will - Personal trust in Jesus Christ.
Now as a follower of Jesus, you are to continue having faith in Him. Four things at least you are to have faith in Him for:
By faith - He is praying for you
Jesus Christ is making intercessions for His followers (Romans 8:34). He knew the disciples troubles (Mark 6:48), just as He knows your troubles now. He feels your cares and knows what you are going through (Hebrews 4:14-16).
By faith - He will come to you
Ever felt like God is far away? Well you aren’t alone! King David often felt God was far away and unconcerned. However he also knew God would ultimately rescue him. Jesus always comes to you through difficult times, although He may not come in the time you think He should come, because He knows when you need Him most.
By faith - He will help you grow
When the disciples were in the storm and Jesus came to them walking on the water (Matthew 14:22-33), the purpose of this incident was to show that Jesus would be leaving them soon, so they had to learn to trust in Him when He wasn’t physically present. Peter wrote later on in his life, “for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers” (1 Peter 3v12).
By faith, He will see you through
At the same event, Jesus said “Come” and Peter went with Him. This must have encouraged the other disciples, for upon seeing Jesus’ power they worshipped him. Whatever troubles you are undergoing are temporary, and Jesus will see you through.
By faith, you have salvation. By faith Jesus is praying, will come to you, grow you and help you through troubles. By being obedient to God, you are showing others your salvation and showing that faith, is not blind, but active!
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Monday Aug 29, 2016
SALT - Beverly
Monday Aug 29, 2016
Monday Aug 29, 2016
An interview of less than 3 minutes with a Christian answering 6 questions.
Let's go!
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Click on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!Saturday Aug 27, 2016
Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 44
Saturday Aug 27, 2016
Saturday Aug 27, 2016
Part 44 - John 10:16–18
Other flocks – the Gentiles.
Jesus goes on from talking about himself as a Shepherd to give a very clear, if not very long, indication that he knew that his word would go out through all the world. By ‘other sheep not of this sheepfold’ he clearly meant those who were not of the ancient people of God, the Jews. Us! The Gentiles (though perhaps a few ethnic Jews may hear or read this. If so – welcome.) This is perhaps the clearest indication we have in all the Gospels that Jesus knew his words and their effects would spread through all the world. Because he only had a man’s body he was limited to how many people he could actually contact and influence himself. After his death and resurrection his people would be able to do ‘greater works’ than he could do because they would spread through all the world in ever widening circles.
There was an explosion of activity after his death and the giving of the Holy Spirit all across the then known world. An Ethiopian returned to Ethiopia with the Good News; the apostle Thomas almost certainly reached south India with it; Paul probably reached the furthest western end of the Mediterranean area, to Spain, with it; and these are only the ones we know about.
What does it all say to us? The divide between Jew and Gentile that was the subject of what Jesus actually said is not likely to be of much significance to us. But what about all the other divides that people are so good at making between themselves and other people who are slightly different from them? The most obvious difference is between black and white and all the differing shades of brown in between. The divide between rich and poor can be just as deep if less obvious. Between accents. Between ethnic backgrounds. Between those who live one side of the tracks and those who live the other side. Between this cultural background and that one – even sometimes between generations. Between those who wear these sorts of clothes and those sorts. We have many, many ways of dividing people up and, to its deep shame, the Christian church has sometimes been at the forefront in drawing the distinctions. Yet all are clearly wrong in the eyes of Jesus. He said he had other sheep from the other side of a very deep divide. He promised to bring them in, that they would listen to his voice, and be part of his one flock. We might say, in a common English idiom, that ‘that is all that matters’. Particularly at the end of the day ‘that is all that will matter’.
The clear challenge to us is to accept all manner of people into our fellowship and friendship. If you live in a situation where there are long held and deeply rooted divisions among people that is not easy. I was going to go on to say that it is easy for those of us who do not face those particular problems to talk like this, but I wonder. Do any of us live in situations really free of divisions? Or is it just that some of the divisions are much less obvious, more subtle, harder to see? Think carefully about it – for yourself, where you are, not for other people.
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Friday Aug 26, 2016
Friday Prayers 26 August 2016
Friday Aug 26, 2016
Friday Aug 26, 2016
Partakers Friday Prayers
for the Persecuted Church Worldwide
We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!
God of all comfort, for those who are tortured both in body and mind, give them the grace to endure and to see their suffering as part of following in Christ’s footsteps. Merciful God, for those asked to pay the ultimate price; who are martyred because of their love for you, may they truly know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. Amen
Father God, for those who are widowed and orphaned may they know the comfort that comes from your promised presence even when they walk through the valley. May they be strengthened by your Spirit, enabling them to rejoice with the psalmist as they proclaim that the LORD will not abandon them in death. Amen
Heavenly Father, we ask that you would make us ever mindful of our brothers and sisters around the world who need us to stand with them as they suffer in your name. Teach us what it means to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony; we pray that we would not love our lives so much as to shrink from death.
We ask these things O Father, through the name of Your Son, Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.
Amen
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Monday Aug 22, 2016
Think Spot 22 August 2016
Monday Aug 22, 2016
Monday Aug 22, 2016
Think Spot - 22nd August 2016
G'day! Welcome to Partakers Think Spot at the start of new week!Romans 1:1-5
Jesus is Unique
Prayer
Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ your Son! We thank you that because of Him, we can enter into a dynamic and active relationship with you! We ask this prayer and give you praise, through your Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside all those who are following! Amen!Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file
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Saturday Aug 20, 2016
Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 43
Saturday Aug 20, 2016
Saturday Aug 20, 2016
Part 43 - John 10:11-15
I am the good shepherd
Now we come to one of the most well-known things Jesus said. He compares himself to a shepherd: a good shepherd. From what he goes on to say he uses the word ‘good’ mainly because he is prepared to die for the sheep. This is the first time Jesus has made any allusion to his death in John’s gospel.
We have to be careful here. We may be so used to thinking of the leaders of Christians as shepherds - which is what pastor means - that we tend to think of Jesus here as simply the top shepherd, the boss shepherd, but Jesus is using the imagery here to emphasize his relationship to his people. He even equates his relationship to his people - that is to you and me - to his relationship to his father, to God. That is amazing! Once again we are seeing the difference between their way of thinking, dominated by the significance to them of the small group to which they belonged, and our (Western) way of thinking where the individual is much more important than anyone else or any group of people. We are, of course, fully entitled to our culture and there is nothing much we can do to escape from it but we must make every effort to grasp hold of the full import of this teaching of Jesus. We have seen it again and again in many different sorts of comments and metaphors throughout John’s Gospel.
Jesus says ‘I am the Good Shepherd’ and then goes on immediately to say that he will lay down his life for the sheep. This leads us to some important made up words for the way the Gospel should be presented. First we get ‘Christocentric’ which clearly emphasises that our Gospel must be centred on Christ. Then we get Cruco-Christocentric which says that our Gospel must be centred on the Crucified Christ. This is important. We must not place the emphasis on the Social Jesus by seeking to emulate him in his many good works - important though those are and our imitation of them is; we must not place the emphasis on his work in outreaching to other people which we copy in evangelism; not even on his divinity as that would lead us to try to emphasise his Glory in pageants of glorious worship and praise. No! Our sole emphasis is to be on the great work that he accomplished on the Cross, for our redemption, our salvation, our growth in purity and holiness, and our eventual glorification with him in the eternal kingdom. There is nothing in what he did that we can emulate at all. He alone did those things and achieved those purposes. That may seem to be an almost useless abstraction. Should we not concentrate on doing things to the glory of God and the benefit of his Kingdom? No! Our central core emphasis must always be on Christ and him crucified. We must be Cruco-Christocentric. Only Jesus, his death and the resurrection that validated that death, are to lie at the centre of our thinking and all our activity. Only then will our motivations be right and acceptable to the Lord God.
Then will we be good and obedient sheep at the centre of his flock, following his guiding, living the sort of lives as we go in and out to the Kingdom pastures that are the best and greatest of all lives to live. Note here how much in this Gospel the emphasis falls not so much on sin, though it is a consideration, but on the importance of the continuing life that is opened up for the Christian as they set out to follow him. Jesus was always looking forward to his follower’s futures, not deeply concerned about their pasts. His was an orientation to the future not the past. Even to the woman caught in adultery he said “go now and leave your life of sin”. As we saw last time .‘Jesus is the gate’; he is about us going in and out to find pasture - it is our continuing lives that are now the prime concern of our most gracious Lord. To keep them strong we must always centre and focus all our beings on Christ and him crucified. We must be Cruco-Christocentric in everything.
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Friday Aug 19, 2016
Friday Prayers 19 August 2016
Friday Aug 19, 2016
Friday Aug 19, 2016
Partakers Friday Prayers!
19th August 2016
We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!
Today we are praying a prayer of Clement of Rome - for those in authority over us.
You, O Lord, have given the authority of the kingdom to them through Your almighty and unspeakable power,
so that we, knowing the estimation and honour given to them by You,
might submit ourselves to them,
in no way opposing Your will;
to whom give, O Lord, health, peace, concord, stability,
so that they may discharge the rule given to them by You without offence;
For you, heavenly Master, King of the ages, give to the sons of men glory and honour and authority over those upon the earth.
Lord, direct their plans according to what is good and pleasing in your sight,
so that by devoutly administering in peace and gentleness the authority which you have given them they may experience your mercy.
You, who alone are able to do these and even greater good things for us,
we praise through the high priest and guardian of our souls, Jesus Christ,
through whom be the glory and the majesty to you both now and for all generations and for ever and ever.
Amen
(A prayer taken from 1 Clement 61.1-3).
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Monday Aug 15, 2016
Think Spot 15 August 2016
Monday Aug 15, 2016
Monday Aug 15, 2016
Think Spot
15th August 2016
As you go into this week, remember that when you are feeling defeated, dejected or discouraged, that Jesus joy is inside you. Joy is not necessarily loud and obtrusive but also quiet and peaceful. Allow that joy of Jesus to carry you through. Let His loveliness embrace you and allow Him control over your circumstances.
A prayer to help you into this new week:
We thank you Jesus
that you are altogether lovely and lovely altogether.
We thank you that you are with us when
everybody else rejects, despises, defeats or discourages us!
Amen.
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Saturday Aug 13, 2016
Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 42
Saturday Aug 13, 2016
Saturday Aug 13, 2016
Part 42 - John 10:7
Jesus is the Gate.
When we move on to the second picture in this sequence on Shepherds in v 7 - 10 we find that Jesus says he is the Gate. In fact he says I AM the Gate for the sheep, one of the seven I AM statements with a description following. This one is often overlooked because it is so close to the next I AM statement – I AM the Good Shepherd – which is both more striking and more easily understood. In fact it is quite surprising that he does not call himself the ‘gatekeeper’ that he mentions in the previous verses. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is the ‘gatekeeper’.
What Jesus did say about himself was “I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture … I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” He is clearly moving towards his striking statement in chapter 14 “No one comes to the Father except through me.” There is only one way to a full life worth living and Jesus is that way.
Neither the word ‘focus’ nor the word ‘centre’ appear in the New Testament. It is this statement here that has to stand in place of them. Jesus is the focus of all that goes on in the life of a Christian, a true Christian who follows Jesus. He is there when we go out and he extends the ‘going out’ metaphor to include grazing in the green pastures that he leads us to. He is also there when we ‘come in’ to be saved. All that happens in a Christian’s life, or a Christian church, is to be centered and focused on him.
That is not quite as easy as it might appear to be. People can invent hundreds of ways to concentrate on something else other than Jesus. We can emphasize being good, being regular at church, being careful to evangelize at every possible or inappropriate opportunity, enjoying all the most exciting special gifts of the Spirit, going to every big event that a great many people are at that we ever hear of, and so on.
But if you think about those things, what might you find? Being good is more about the individual’s smug goodness than anything else; being regular at church only demonstrates to other people the consistent loyalty of the person; evangelizing at every opportunity is another way of holding oneself up in front of other people; enjoying all the special gifts of the Spirit is simply exciting; going to special events is an attempt to get an extra jag of spirituality; and so we could go on. There is virtually no human activity which cannot be used for the holding up of a person to an admiring world!
The only thing that should possibly compete with Jesus for the Christian’s attention is the Bible, the Word of God.
If we are to enjoy the rich presence of Jesus throughout our daily living we must concentrate on him. We can do many other things to keep ourselves occupied and to help other people but one, and only one, person and no thing must stay at the centre and the focus of our thinking and our whole lives. That person is Jesus.
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Friday Aug 12, 2016
Friday Prayers 12 August 2016
Friday Aug 12, 2016
Friday Aug 12, 2016
Partakers Friday Prayers!
12th August 2016
We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!
Today we are praying a prayer of Benedict (480-547).
Gracious and Holy Father,
please give me:
intellect to understand you;
reason to discern you;
diligence to seek you;
wisdom to find you;
a spirit to know you;
a heart to meditate upon you;
ears to hear you;
eyes to see you;
a tongue to proclaim you;
a way of life pleasing to you;
patience to wait for you;
and perseverance to look for you.
Grant me:
a perfect end,
your holy presence,
A blessed resurrection,
And life everlasting.
Amen
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