by Andrew Corbett | 2024 Jul,25 | Pastor's Desk
Over the past twenty-nine years of pastoring Legana, I have generally preached through biblical books verse-by-verse. These biblical books series have been interspersed with various shorter topical series (which is why it took me eight years to preach all the way through the Book of Jeremiah). As I now commence my last biblical book teaching series, through Malachi, I hope to leave a deposit in your souls about the value and authority of God’s Word and how we need to worshipfully approach it. While we all want to “cut to the chase” and “get to the point” when we approach God’s Word we must do so carefully. This takes time. “Time” is what most people complain they do not have. This is why I am doing so much background work on this often-neglected book so that you can take advantage of my time investment on your behalf. In this series so far, I have introduced the context of this book, discussed who Malachi was, explored where Malachi was, and examined who was Malachi’s immediate audience. I am now considering why Malachi was so profoundly upset and what we can learn from his passionate love for God and His Table.
by Andrew Corbett | 2022 Aug,19 | Pastor's Desk
WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR? The Jewish leaders had a very strict understanding of who God accepted and who God rejected. Obviously, they taught, God had accepted the Jews as His favourite – particularly Jewish men. Jewish women were sort of accepted, but only as second-class members of God’s people. This obviously also meant that unless a gentile (a non-Jew) converted to Judaism they could not be accepted by God. Therefore, God rejected all gentiles — and He especially rejected Roman gentiles — but He reserved His ultimate rejection for Samaritans! Jesus then tells the Temple-lawyer the story of the Good Samaritan.
by Andrew Corbett | 2016 Nov,4 | Pastor's Desk
In the West, unlike the East, we suffer the enormous disadvantage of living in a culture largely unfamiliar with the sacred. Added to this, there has arisen an understanding among contemporary Christians that there is no warrant for making any distinction between ‘the holy’ and ‘secular’. But rather than regarding everything as holy it has tended to mean that everything which was once holy is now regarded as ordinary (‘secular’). This then leads to certain sacred rituals of Christianity being trifled with (treated as less important than they are). When this happens, the Christ-instituted rituals of Christianity are misrepresented and therefore misunderstood, which in turn, diminishes people’s vision of God’s glory. Let’s rethink rituals.
