A Spiritual Barometer - the tongue (James 3 v 1 - 12)

 

The three points are simply - the tongue, 1) what 2) why 3) how… listen to find out more, or download directly from here. Sermon is 30 minutes long.

Heading Westward

 

Latest News…

I’ve just been accepted to study Theology at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology for two years, hopefully culminating in an MA. If you’d like more details, please feel free to get in touch.

www.west.org.uk

Faith, works… Action! (James 2 v 14 - 16)

 

A simple outline:

1) Faith
2) Works
3) Action! 

The sermon is 35 mins long, and can be played by clicking the play arrow above, or downloaded directly by clicking here.

Living in Christ’s Law of Love (James 2 v 1 - 13)

The latest in the series on James (From Childhood to Completion) is online, download the MP3 directly from here (20Mb, 42mins), or click the play arrow below to listen without downloading.

Outline:

1) Don’t judge others (v 1 - 7)

2) Obey the law of Christ (v 8 - 13)

I am due to be preaching the next sermon in the series on Sunday 27th April.

The Power of the Cross Video

I have set Stuart Townend’s brilliant song - The Power Of The Cross - to a series of photographs, to draw attention to the words. See the video below. If you would like the better quality WMV file for your own use, please get in touch via email, or leave a comment after this post.

The Key Word (James 1 v 19 - 27)

The next installment of the James series is now available online, click here to download the MP3 file, or click below to listen.

The outline is below:

1. Accept the Word (v 19-21)

2. Act upon the Word (v 22 - 25)

3. Apply the Word (v 26 - 27)

I will hopefully get the audio of the next sermon, James ch 2 v 1 - 13 up before the end of the week.

Trying, both life and us! (James 1 v 2 - 18)

The audio for the second in my James series is now available. Click here to download the MP3 (right click, ’save target as’), or click below to listen to the streaming audio.

The theme of the passage is perseverance - our duty as believers to press on towards maturity, towards heaven.

1. The Importance of Perseverance (v2 – 4)
2. The Implementation of Perseverance (v5 – 15)
3. The Imitation of Perseverance (v16 – 1

Coming soon - video footage of the latest James sermon, ch 1 vs 19 - 27.

How do you read blogs?

I am currently investigating how people read blogs. By virtue of the fact you are currently reading this, you count as a blog reader - a Biblog reader, no less!

Someone mentioned to me the other day how he read my articles through RSS feeds. Does anyone else use RSS feeds to read this blog? Please let me know if so!

To access this blog via RSS use the feed code: http://simonhutton.wordpress.com/feed

It is my intention to start upping the posting frequency as I figured people only revisit the blog if they think that there’s a chance of something new being up there. My particular idea is to blog for a while on youth work, especially considering ‘what is effective youth work’. Stay tuned (or RSSed!) and feel free to join the discussion!

From Childhood to Completion

I have started a preaching series on the book of James. The sermons will be done monthly, and the first one is now available to listen to online, here on my blog.

The theme of James’ letter is maturity. He presents completion, perfection as the aim - chapter 1 verse 4 for example. What stops believers from becoming mature? Problems! Each section in the book of James contains a problem. But with each problem comes an opportunity to become mature, to become more like Christ. Finally, with each problem and opportunity comes a warning - that if the problem is not dealt with, there will be consequences.

The below table outlines the epistle, and you can hear the 30 minute introductory sermon by clicking the play button below. To download it, right click here and select ’save target as’. The MP3 file is 14Mb.

Passages	Problems	Warnings	Opportunities
1 v 2 – 18	Lack of wisdom v 5, 13	Spiritual death v 14 – 15	Spiritual maturity v 3 – 4, 12
1 v 19 – 27	Spiritual passiveness v 21 – 22	Worthless religion v 20, 26	Blessing in life v25
2 v 1 – 13	Favouritism v 1 – 3	Evil thinking v 4, 9, 10	God’s approval v 8
2 v 14 – 26	Unchanged life v 14	Useless ‘faith’ v 17	Complete faith v 22
3 v 1 – 12	Wild tongue v 2	A corrupt life v 6	Leadership and praise to God v 1, 9
3 v 13 – 18	Selfish spirit v 14, 15	Evil practice v 16	A righteous harvest v 17 – 18
4 v 1 – 17	Proud desires v 1 – 3	Hatred towards God v 4, 17	Humility v 6 – 7, 10
5 v 1 – 12	Impatience, grumbling v7, 9	Judged as guilty v 9	Blessing from God v 11
5 v 13 – 18	Practical welfare v 13, 14	Ineffective prayers v 16	Powerful prayers v 16

Sing - Choirs of angels!

Well, it is that time of year again when we send each other cards and gifts and exchange festive greetings to one another. This year my wife and I actually got round to sorting out our Christmas cards before the last Saturday before Christmas! We actually set up a scene using a set of decorative angels, took a macro shot on the camera, got loads of them printed, stuck them onto red card thereby producing our very own custom made card.

Inside the card we printed the words: ‘Sing, choirs of angels’ (from the carol - o come all ye faithful), followed by ‘Glory to God in the highest’, which is the words that the angels sang.  May this Christmas be one that brings glory to God in the highest as we remember the first ‘Christmas’ all those years ago and are struck with amazement once again at who Christ is and the wonder of the incarnation. 

 Happy Christmas and a fruitful 2008 to you all.