by Andrew Corbett | 2020 Aug,6 | Pastor's Desk
The young Jeremiah was called by God at one of the darkest times in his nation’s history. He was given a dangerous and potentially deadly task. God told him that he would be rejected and hated. But, despite this, and Jeremiah’s traumatic reaction to this divine mandate, God gave him a priceless promise:
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the LORD.”
Jeremiah 1:8
When would you most appreciate hearing God promise you, “I will be with you!” — in good times or bad? Jeremiah didn’t have this choice. God promised him that He would be with him. We might be forgiven for thinking that if God was with us, it would result in us being successful. After all, this is what …
by Andrew Corbett | 2016 Dec,2 | Pastor's Desk
What is the most difficult thing for you to do? If you are not sure you might try asking the same question in a different way. What is it that you really don’t want to ever have to do? What is it that you would much rather have someone else do, than do it yourself? This question is also answered by looking at how we spend our time. Those things which are really difficult for us to do tend to get put down our priority list even though they belong at the top of our priority list. When something is too difficult for me to do I tend to procrastinate attempting it and then treat my lower priorities as more urgent. My procrastinations are an indication of what I find most difficult. This year, I have had to come to terms with my propensity for avoiding the difficult. I needed to learn some things and for this to happen I have had to be taught.
by Andrew Corbett | 2016 Oct,19 | Pastor's Desk
The Psalmist once cried out to God for wings so that he could fly away from all his troubles. How many of us have joined the Psalmist in his prayer and added, “And me too Lord!” Yet God didn’t answer his prayer and never answers this for us either. As Francis Thompson found, running away from your problems only unleashes certain hounds who inevitably set off in pursuit and track us down. Wherever a person goes, they are often surprised to find their troubles have gone ahead of them. I think God didn’t give us wings for a reason.
by Andrew Corbett | 2016 Jul,21 | Pastor's Desk
“Everything’s going wrong at the moment!” “Things just couldn’t get worse!” are often sighed by people when they are under pressure. If you find yourself frequently using these expressions, then I want to show you three tools for dramatically changing this.
by Andrew Corbett | 2016 Feb,11 | Pastor's Desk
I was struck the other day when reading F.W. Boreham’s, WHEN SWANS FLY HIGH, as he discussed an apparently unsolvable problem he was facing, by his observation about many of life’s problems: “But the problem soon solved itself.” (p. 112) Shortly after reading this I was doing my morning devotions and had come to the story of Jehoshaphat in Second Chronicles where he too was faced with an overwhelming problem. But the gravity of his crisis and the urgency and enormity of its dire consequences if left unattended meant that this problem would never solve itself. If it is granted that some problems certainly do solve themselves, and it is similarly true that some other problems are solved by our diligence, there is surely yet another category of problems and King Jehoshaphat’s problem was definitely in this category.
