Jesus is preparing His Body to be be able to prepare the world for His soon return – a radical Messianic preparation is underway. Where are you at?
Here’s the first of our ten-part VLOG series providing a little more nuance and tone for each of the ten chapters from the hard-hitting Body Zero book.
Why not study with a friend or even in a small group?
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Hello! My name is Mairi, the face behind My Heart Notes 😀
Last summer I knew that I needed to spend more time praying and reading the Bible as I really felt that my emphasis on the importance of the Bible wasn’t matched by my own lifestyle. So I found a plan, a journaling Bible and set the alarm a bit earlier.
But I also wanted to study the Bible and not just read it, so I tried to find a resource that would integrate note-taking within my Bible. When I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I felt God say, “you do it.” And so I began my wee plan for producing some Bible-study videos.
Tonight the first one goes live and I would love us to study the Word together – to share what God says with each other! So if you’re interested, all you need is your Bible and your favourite highlighters.
You can follow regular content on the Facebook page, below, and the Instagram feed HERE.
There isn’t a greater healing possible than that of the human heart. Not a healing from angina, leaky valve problems, left ventricular hypertrophy or some other kind of disease, but healing from the unbelieving, human spirit condition of hard-heartedness, common to us all. (more…)
I was reading 2 Peter earlier this morning in the ESV as I leaned in to God for a cuddle. A phrase struck me that I found immediately vivid and helpful:
Right at the beginning of the letter in 1:21, Peter refers to the human writers of Scripture who were “carried along” by the Holy Spirit. Right at the end of the letter in 3:17, he warns of not being “carried away” with the error of lawless men.
Carried along and carried away – two phrases that, though having different roots in their original Greek, are constructions Peter clearly contrasts with each other as a word play.
Bumbling Peter, the restored rock of the church who, on more than one occasion, knew what it was to be carried away by the deception and cowardice of Satan. But also Mighty Peter, the stalwart Great on whom Christ would build His church as its Spirit-carried leader.
Have you seen the new version of the Disney classic Jungle Book? We watched it the other day and loved it! But there’s a scene in the original 1967 animated movie that illustrates Peter’s point here better than the new one and that came to mind as I read:
The point is that, positively, in order to be carried along by the power of the Holy Spirit and not, negatively, to be carried away by the schemes of the devil, we must do two things:
a) Be On Guard – (2 Peter 3:17) – Every day when we wake up, and every night when we go to bed, let’s make sure to pray. Pray that you would be alert to the schemes of the enemy and increasingly aware of the power of the Holy Spirit.
b) Grow in Grace & Knowledge – (2 Peter 3:18) – This ‘being on guard’ isn’t a passive hope; it’s an active priority to take your Bible and increase your knowledge of who Jesus is as we become more like Him in His grace.
In 2 Peter 3:-3-4 Peter tells us that in the last days there will be scoffers. This means that there will people and spiritual entities who will scoff at the reality of being carried along by the Holy Spirit.
So, let’s do what Peter tells us to do in response to this in verse 8:
Do not forget this one thing….with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day.
He is nearer that you think.
Read Acts 17:27 then ask Him to show you His nearness again.
This is the seventh and final post that I’m going to do on the book of Hosea. But seventh in the series though it may be, I want to treat it as though it is the first and the last.
Layered over the timeless theology of this minor Prophet’s book, and this series, has been a certain amount of poetic thought. I hope it’s been clear; I hope it’s been helpful.
But, in just a few paragraphs, what is the message of Hosea? (more…)
It’s impossible to journey through the book of Hosea in a casual way. You would never slip into your favourite flip flops to start an ascent of Arthur’s Seat and neither can we receive from this book what we’re meant to receive without the serious footwear of meditation and prayer.
There are many lows in this book. Imagine the lows from Hosea’s perspective as he discovers that his wife, Gomer, has been unfaithful to him yet again. Imagine his heart sickness.
But God has also been on display as the One moving behind the scenes and also the One moving the scenes He’s behind. He’s in the grandeur and He’s in the infinitesimal.
