Wellfield: a little taste of heaven

Looking at the ‘new heaven and the new earth’ from Isaiah 65 on Sunday morning, someone said at the end, ‘This church is like a little taste of heaven - everyone here, and all the kids running round and that.’ Great quote. But it’s not just a sentiment - it’s totally true!

The difference the gospel makes

Came across this, from 'Pioneers.org'. Absolutely brilliant, and inspiring.

“New heavens and the new earth”

Isaiah 65:17:

“See, I will created new heavens and a new earth.”

The Jews were the only ancient people who didn’t believe in the immortality of the ‘soul’. Because they believed in the Creator God, they believed in the resurrection of the body - and a physical new creation. Floating around on clouds in togas … that’s got nothing to do with Christianity. (Phew.) But why do we need to know about the “new heavens and the new earth”? What difference does it make to us now?

Gideon's Army

Judges chapter 7 tells the famous story of Gideon defeating the mighty Midianites - though of course it wasn't Gideon at all who won. That’s the point of the story. God made it blindingly clear that it was all His doing, by shrinking Gideon’s army down to a mere 300, armed with clay jars and torches.

We were learning about prayer yesterday from Isaiah 64. Prayer is about realising the work of the church is God’s, not ours - a lesson we are discovering in quite a similar way to Gideon…

Joy and prayer

If you discover a good thing, don’t you want more
and more of it? Discover a good TV show, or website,
or a fun place or fun people - you look for more of the
same. That’s exactly the point of Isaiah 61 and 62.
Jesus Christ is so good: he brings healing to our broken
hearts, freedom, comfort to our mourning, joy, security,
in a world where we thought such things were impossible.
If you get it - you crave more.