(June 27, 2025) Brian Bell shares some encouraging points…
In this short meditation we will consider some thoughts from Nahum 1:7NLT— ‘The Lord is good, He is a strong refuge when trouble comes. And He knows everyone who trusts in Him.’
(June 02, 2025) Norman and Margaret Moss share another precious meditation…
As a young pastor fresh from Bible college one of the duties expected of me was that I should regularly visit not only members of our church, but also any possible friends and connections that offered opportunities of bringing comfort or Christian witness.
And so it was that ond day I found myself visiting an elderly lady in her home at about 4pm one day. On arrival I was somewhat surprised to find that her room was full of birds.
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(February 14, 2022) Robert McQuillan shares…
Personally, I strongly believe in God’s power to heal whoever calls on Him when sickness strikes.
It used to be common that Christians testified on Sundays about having asked God for healing and how He had answered them! They wanted to share how trusting God and His word had resulted. But for many years trendy music, overdone announcements and tithing mini-sermons have been more important!
Today, in many churches it’s a rarity to invite slickly people to respond to an altar call for prayer in respect of needed miracles.
Don’t church leaders believe in the power of God’s word regarding healing? Have they forgotten how to pray with confidence? Has the great truth of divine, not faith, healing by God’s power been forgotten, no longer understood?
Positive power words
Maureen and I delight to pray positively for sickly folk, having experienced several divine healings – and miracles – ourselves over a lifetime.
Example: Years ago we were asked to teach a church camp about healing and praying for the sick. But… Friday I suddenly developed a severely sore throat, and couldn’t talk.
Now I could have phoned and hoarsely whispered a negative ‘I can’t come Saturday.’ But I didn’t. Instead we stayed overnight enroute with good friends who made me a cosy bed on a comfortable couch before a roaring log fire. Feeling so ill, I enjoyed a hot drink, sucked honey and relaxed.
Appreciating the comforts, I prayed positively to God, asking in Jesus’ name that He graciously heal me, confirming that I trusted Him to restore me. Even claimed a healing scripture that means so much to me… 1 Peter 2:24b: ‘By His wounds (stripes) you have been healed,’ and endeavoured to fall asleep.
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(October 21, 2021) Brian Bell reflects …
As Moses approached the end of his earthly life, he reminded God’s people about the festival of harvest (Deuteronomy 16:10) which was one of the three festivals they were to celebrate each year. These festivals were an opportunity for God’s people to reflect, remember and recognise the Lord’s blessing on them.
Here in Northern Ireland, ‘Harvest Sunday’ is for the most part, still a fairly traditional celebration, usually in the colder, wetter, and darker months of September and October and held especially for folk in our farming/agricultural communities.
God’s handiwork
Last Sunday, October 17, we celebrated harvest in my home church and while we would not be described as being folk who live in a designated farming/agricultural community, some of our folk do come from such backgrounds. The church sanctuary was therefore modestly yet tastefully decorated and as I looked at the various displays they reminded me not only of the harvest of creation – fruit, vegetables, and such, but also of the harvest of salvation.
For me, the harvest of creation can be seen in the words of David J Mansell’s song Jesus is Lord which say, ‘Jesus is Lord, creation’s voice proclaims it, for by his power, each tree and flower was planned and made.’
Creation is God’s handiwork – but he has given us a fairly significant role in managing it and we see this in the rewards as we reap what is sown.
The harvest of salvation is also God’s handiwork. As the good seed of God’s word is sown, the Holy Spirit can lead people into a saving experience and he reaps a harvest of those who respond in faith.
This theme of reflection is also found in Jeremiah chapter 8, from which I will share some brief thoughts…
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(August 28, 2021) Dr Jim McClure, noted theologian, explains an important aspect of the Christian faith…
The Hebrew and Greek words of scripture are like inexhaustible mines and one finds new treasures each time the words are examined.
I have selected an important one to reveal just some amazing truths – salvation.
Firstly – by way of introduction, salvation as found in the Old Testament is a great salvation – ‘yasha.’
The Hebrew word moshia, which is usually translated as ‘saviour’ in the Old Testament, comes from the Hebrew root yasha, which has been translated as avenge, defend, deliver, help, preserve, rescue, and save, has the meanings of opening wide, being large in capacity, living in abundance, being free, safe, helped, rescued, victorious and being made whole.
It is a word that contains amazing riches and is found around 180 times in the Old Testament. When we consider that in the New Testament the noun Saviour, sōtēr, is found 24 times and the verb sōzō meaning to save, deliver, heal or make whole is found 110 times, it becomes evident that not only does the Bible say a lot about salvation – it is scripture’s dominant theme.
(July 23, 2021) Erica Grace, ex-missionary to South America, shares a personal reflection…
What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Missions’?
You’ll probably say: the ‘lost’ and that would be right.
A lost man
There was a young man who was totally lost.
He had lost his career, his home, his future, his dreams. He was so lost people had given up on him. He drank himself to oblivion every day and often had wild fits of violence. Friends would bring him to his desperate wife each night, where she would endure his frustrating beatings. She had resorted to hiding money so she would have enough to feed her son.
One night this wild he met a humble missionary. He was reading the story of the Prodigal Son with a very heavy accent.
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(March 25, 2018) Ben Godwin reminds us of Easter realities as he shares a king’s goodness toward a troubled young man…The news spread rapidly. Israel had suffered a devastating defeat. King Saul and his son, Jonathan, had been slain in battle by the Philistines.
It was common in ancient regime changes to execute all the royal family to eliminate any heirs to the throne and a nurse acted quickly.
Terrified, she scooped up a five-year-old prince to whisk him to safety. But in her haste she stumbled,
dropping the boy… and unfortunately both his legs were broken. Consequently, Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, was lame the rest of his life.
Mephibosheth is a fitting type of the human race – he was of a royal line but crippled by a fall.
Years later, during his reign as king, David wondered, ‘Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?’ (2 Samuel 9:1 NKJV). He was told Mephibosheth was living like a pauper in an obscure town called Lodebar.
Lodebar means ‘without pasture or barren place.’ That describes our spiritual condition before we met our heavenly king! Life without God is a barren wilderness. Nothing can satisfy the hole in our soul that only he can fill.
David, a type of Christ, gave this maimed man four things which God has also given to us: (more…)
(June 1, 2017) Stuart Reynolds shares a revelation…From the presumed monopoly by denominations to the limits of our clever labelling, the Holy Spirit has been hijacked and sabotaged!
The sharp-sighted evangelist Vance Havner described the result of this misunderstanding, mishandling and misapplication: ‘Satan has scored a point in making us so afraid of extremism about the Holy Spirit…that we may miss the true in our fear of the false. We can be so wary of getting out on a limb that we never go up the tree!’
We need to let the Holy Spirit be himself, and that we may become and do all we were intended to.
May I introduce you to ‘The Pentecostal Baptist’ – someone the Bible records having these Holy Spirit credentials: ‘Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true.’ And in that place many believed in Jesus’ (John 10:41-42, NIV).
1) An inviting clarification
We believe in ‘full salvation.’ The reality of God in the gospel of Christ is radical – God’s book teaches it…truly knowing Jesus Christ demands it…the presence of the Holy Spirit enables it. (more…)
(April 8, 2017) Chris Pick, Special to ASSIST News Service shares an Easter reflection…Let’s go back in our hearts to that Black Friday nearly two thousand years ago. The Roman Governor Pontius Pilate presented before the crowd two men: One man named Barabbas and the other Jesus. Pilate declared: ‘It is your custom that I free one prisoner to you at Passover! Which do you choose?’
‘Give us Barabbas!’ the angry mob cried.
Why did the crowd choose this man over the Messiah? What did they expect?
One was a sinner – one was sinless but chose to become sin
It is quite possible that Pilate presented before the crowd two men named Jesus. Some scholars believed Barabbas’ real name was ‘Jesus Barabbas.’ The Greek scholar and early Christian theologian Origen found many early manuscripts of Matthew 27:16-17 which referred to Barabbas as ‘Jesus Barabbas.’ And the name ‘Jesus’ was a common name in first-century Galilee.
So, if Barabbas’ first name was Jesus, then the question could be rephrased, ‘Which Jesus do you choose?’ It’s a question that can still be asked today as we are presented with so many different ‘Jesus’ figures globally. To some, he is a great teacher. To some, a prophet. To some, he is God’s son. To some, a mere man. And sadly to some, just a myth. (more…)
(March 6, 2017) Robert and Maureen McQuillan reminisce and share a challenge to dare …An article in a magazine about movies/TV shows/comic characters grabbed our attention last week –taking us back to the fifties, yet speaking about a real need today!
In a day when some serious-minded Christians, including church leaders, are saying that we need a fresh revival, here was an article by the delighted editor about another revival, that of the renowned 1950s British comic book hero – Dan Dare.
First Eagle, April 14, 1950
Okay… many, especially our younger generation and non-Brits will wonder who’s he? Who was Dan Dare? This editor (not an aged senior, by the way!) stated it simply – ‘Before there was the science fiction Quartermass, before Doctor Who, before … there was Colonel Dan Dare – Pilot of the Future.
Boldly going places
We can easily add that decades before Star Trek and the Klingons or Star Wars and Dark Vader, there was Dan Dare and his arch-nemesis, the evil reptile-looking Mekon of Mekonta, ruler of the Treens! Decades before James T Kirk ever declared the Enterprise’s mission to ‘boldly go where no man has gone before’ we who were kids in the fifties can reflect and boldly declare that Dan Dare has been there, done that! (more…)
Connecting with You! 