Philippians 3:14

PRESSING AHEAD IN 2023!

(December 17, 2022) Brian Bell encourages leaving the past behind and moving ahead in 2023…

As we come towards the end of 2022, I encourage you with Paul’s words in Philippians 3:13, ‘I am still not all I should be… forgetting the past… and looking forward to what lies ahead.’

The apostle speaks about his past which he wants to forget, his present as he recognises he is a work in progress, and his future based on Christ’s accomplishment and provision.

I believe Paul’s encouragement in this verse is not related to employing techniques to help us forget, but about that good old topic of perspective.

Paul wasn’t saying he had discovered a way to eradicate past memories (in his case the many believers he had persecuted prior to his conversion). It was not that Paul could or had actually forgotten, but that he would not allow those memories to hold him back. So, I suggest that is the context for Paul then saying he was ‘… looking forward…’

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BRRR! BABY, IT’S COLD OUTSIDE

(August 24, 2022) Maureen McQuillan shares some ‘wintery’ thoughts…

Each new morning the sun shines brightly and it looks so summery outside… trees and other plantings growing so well. But as I step outside to do some trimming, I shiver and rush back indoors!

Why? Because, like that old 1944 song popular with Dean Martin fans goes: ‘But, Baby, it’s cold outside!’ I haven’t been singing it but I’ve certainly been feeling it. Some mornings it’s even zero degrees or less. Brrr!

Roll on next Thursday, September 1! Why? It’s the first day of spring here! Then December 1, officially the first day of summer.

Not just the weather!
But it’s not just me looking for change… lot of people are, and I don’t mean just the weather. People are still concerned about covid and other ‘bugs’ around at this time (wise folk wear masks when mixing with others); TV news usually has more bad news than good…

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BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

(October 24, 2019) Robert and Maureen McQuillan share…

Funny title again this month too…  just to get you thinking!

A few weeks ago an email article arrived from a stranger – obviously a minister pf the good news of Jesus Christ – expressing his delight to be in good health once again and able to post encouraging blogs. Evidently he’d been ‘out of ministry circulation’ for a couple of years and was now knowing a release within and sensing fresh purpose in God.

Something very important too… he felt that he really knew that he had something important to say, to share in his new blog writings that would bless people.

(Robert shares from here…). Must say that the other Sunday in ministering at a great church I had similar feelings! After not having ministered in a church for a couple of years I felt, I knew in my heart, that I had something important to share that was timely in God and would challenge, bless and encourage.

And that’s what happened… as confirmed not only in my heart by the Holy Spirit but several times by the inviting pastor and his wife. And by those receiving not just from me but from the Holy Spirit!

Oh, what a feeling!
That jovial line may be the catchcry of a certain motor company but it describes what I sensed in my spirit that Sunday – and in a church where English wasn’t the common denominator! (more…)