Partakers Christian Podcasts

Psalm 109 1-5 My God, don't turn a deaf ear to my hallelujah prayer. Liars are pouring out invective on me; Their lying tongues are like a pack of dogs out to get me, barking their hate, nipping my heels—and for no reason! I loved them and now they slander me—yes, me!— and treat my prayer like a crime; They return my good with evil, they return my love with hate.  6-20 Send the Evil One to accuse my accusing judge; dispatch Satan to prosecute him. When he's judged, let the verdict be "Guilty," and when he prays, let his prayer turn to sin. Give him a short life, and give his job to somebody else. Make orphans of his children, dress his wife in widow's weeds; Turn his children into begging street urchins, evicted from their homes—homeless. May the bank foreclose and wipe him out, and strangers, like vultures, pick him clean. May there be no one around to help him out, no one willing to give his orphans a break. Chop down his family tree so that nobody even remembers his name.

Big Story - Act 5 Scene 1: The Early Church with Roger Kirby The story is not finished. We are ourselves part of it. Mark begins his Gospel by calling it the “beginning of the Gospel” perhaps hinting that there was a lot more to come after he had finished writing. If so we are part of the continuation of the Gospel. The first 20 chapters of the book we call the Acts of the Apostles are devoted to 3 main themes: the giving of the Holy Spirit to all the followers of Jesus; the understanding that the Christian Way is open to all: Jews and Gentiles; and the spread of the Good News round all the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. All these are very important for us. The remaining 8 chapters of the book are concerned with various legal arguments surrounding Paul and his work. These were important to Luke writing to encourage his patron, Theophilus, to follow the Way but are far less important for us. First then: the gift of the Holy Spirit. You are probably familiar with the way in which the Spir

  Big Story - Act 4 Scene 3: The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus with Roger Kirby The most difficult part of the Big Story of the Bible to talk about is the Resurrection of Jesus. The big question is ‘did it really happen?’ All those of us who live in the modern Western world are in a culture that says it did not. The primary reason for this is that our culture says something is only true if it can be replicated. If an experiment carried out in the USA is true it must be possible to repeat it in Australia for it to be legitimate. And, of course, the return to life of the dead Son of God is the ultimate event that cannot be replicated. The assassination of Julius Caesar cannot be replicated either, but many national leaders have been assassinated in recent times so that is a near enough repetition for that ancient event to be accepted as having truly happened. But the resurrection of a man from death is another matter altogether. How do we get out of this problem? Part of the answer

Psalm 47 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. 47:1 Oh clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with the voice of triumph! 47:2 For Yahweh Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth. 47:3 He subdues nations under us, and peoples under our feet. 47:4 He chooses our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. 47:5 God has gone up with a shout, Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet. 47:6 Sing praise to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises. 47:7 For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding. 47:8 God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne. 47:9 The princes of the peoples are gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted! Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Big Story - Act 4 Scene 2: The death of Jesus with Roger Kirby And so we come to the pivotal moment of history. It is hard to know what to write about it. In all probability anyone and everyone who listens to this, or reads it, will know the details of what happened and if I am telling the story of the Bible this is perhaps not the best place to go into the detail of what the death of the Son of God on the Cross meant. What I am going to do, therefore, is try to relate the great event to all that has happened in the Great Story so far. We started with Creation. The fundamental point of Genesis chapter 1 is that men and women are made in the image of God and therefore are uniquely endowed with conscience and insight into all that surrounds them and happens to them. If we are made in the image of God then it follows that it is possible for God to walk this earth in the form of a man, as indeed he did in Jesus, the embodiment of God in human form. He died as the Son of God and as a human being. Next came

  Big Story - Act 4 Scene 1: The life of Jesus with Roger Kirby Of course we are now approaching the climax of the Biblical story: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. But there is a curiosity here. The ancient creeds of the Christian church say things like: … born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate … without a word about his life in between. We, too, give a great deal of attention to Christmas and Easter, but probably not so much to his life in between. Yet, at a rough count, there are only 4 chapters in total in the 4 Gospels about his birth, 14 about his death, but no less than 73 about his life in between. What, in our excitement about his birth as a human being, the incarnation, and his death, for our salvation, are we missing? The stories all 4 gospel writers tell concentrate on 3 things: first that Jesus was the long expected Messiah and secondly and closely associated with that that the Kingdom of God had arrived, and thirdly that this Messiah and this King

Psalm 105 1 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. 2 Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. 3 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. 4 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.   5 Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, 6 O descendants of Abraham his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. 7 He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. 8 He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations, 9 the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac.   10 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: 11 "To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit." 12 When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it, 13 they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another.   14 He allowed no

  Big Story - Act 3 Scene 3: The decline of Israel with Roger Kirby Most of the Old Testament is taken up with the steady decline of the life and faithfulness of Israel from the high point of the Exodus and their understanding, experience and the closeness of the Lord. To trace that decline we will follow the story of the place where the Lord was: the tent of meeting, the tabernacle and the Jerusalem temple. The story begins with the Lord having no resting place. His presence was symbolized by cloud and fire in Exodus 13: 21, 22. “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” This was associated with a “tent of meeting” where the Lord would go to speak to Moses outside the camp, Exodus 33:9 “As Moses went into the tent, the pillar o

  Big Story - Act 3 - Scene 2 - the LORD reveals himself with Roger Kirby The next major action in the Biblical story is the return from Egypt of all the descendants of Jacob/Israel 400 years after Joseph took them there. What are most interesting are not the details of their history but the way in which God, the LORD, reveals himself to them. He does this in 3 ways: he tells them his name; he carries out many overt acts demonstrating the power of his activity on their behalf; he stations himself in the middle of his people to travel with them. That is knowledge, action and presence. 1. Knowledge. When Moses, seeking authority for what he had just been commanded to do, asks what God’s name is he gets 3 answers. In Exodus 3: 13 – 15 we read: “Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name? ’ Then what shall I tell them?’. God said to M

Psalm 53 (as read by Jenny) For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Mahalath.” A contemplation by David. 53:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” T hey are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity. There is no one who does good. 53:2 God looks down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there are any who understood, who seek after God. 53:3 Every one of them has gone back. They have become filthy together. There is no one who does good, no, not one. 53:4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God? 53:5 There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them. 53:6 Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings back his people from captivity, then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. Right mouse click or tap here to save this Podcast as a MP3.

  Big Story - Act 3 - Scene 1 - Israel - Abraham with Roger Kirby All right – I know I have got it wrong! Abraham came before Israel, but he was part, the first part, of the story in which Israel was the major player so I stick by my heading. Amazingly God’s original plan had not worked out. God had created a perfect world, so perfect that he said it was ‘very good’. Into it he had put a man and a woman and, because they were made in his, God’s, image they had the power of self-will and decision making. And it had all gone wrong. Mankind was unable to relate to God because God was holy and pure and they were neither. What could God do about it – working within his self imposed limits that it would be done through human beings? What God chose to do was to take a man from whom would come a family, and from that family a nation, and give him the responsibility to turn it all around and make it work. That man was Abraham. In the same way that God later said he did not chose Abraham’s descendants becau

Psalm 52 (as read by Jenny) For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, “David has come to Abimelech’s house.” 52:1 Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God’s loving kindness endures continually. 52:2 Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. 52:3 You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah. 52:4 You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. 52:5 God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah. 52:6 The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying, 52:7 “Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.” 52:8 But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house. I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever. 52:9 I will give

  Big Story - Act 2 - The Fall with Roger Kirby   Question: what has been your biggest disappointment, the moment when something really special you had planned, or made, or hoped for did not work out and your dreams came crashing to the ground? It seems rather extraordinary but that seems to be what happened to God, the Designer and Creator of all that is. He had planned and built the perfect world for Adam and Eve and their descendants, put them in the most perfect garden ever, and they – the two of them – had immediately spoiled it and brought the whole scheme crashing to the ground. I know we say God knows everything including the future but in the introduction to the story of the Flood we read that the LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth and his heart was deeply troubled. God was disappointed – whatever the systematic theologians may say are his attributes. Adam and Eve were the first to get it wrong and therefore most at fault. Genesis 3: 1 –

Psalm 71 71:1 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed. 71:2 Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me. 71:3 Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. 71:4 Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. 71:5 For you are my hope, Lord Yahweh; my confidence from my youth. 71:6 I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you. 71:7 I am a marvel to many, but you are my strong refuge. 71:8 My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all the day. 71:9 Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails. 71:10 For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together, 71:11 saying, “God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.” 71:12 God, don’t be far from me. My

  Big Story - Act 1 - Creation with Roger Kirby Question: which is your favourite television programme? Very probably your answer is either a “soap” (a series of episodes telling the story of a family or a group of people) or a series of linked episodes solving various crimes, containing the same central characters. Both of these are stories – and we love stories. When a girl meets a new fellow she may well ask “ tell me about yourself”, by which she does not mean the sort of list of accomplishments that would be appropriate in a job application. She wants to hear about things he has been involved in, people he knows or has met, strange things that have happened to him. Quite how we come to understand someone on the basis of disconnected small stories like that is not at all obvious. In His wisdom God has told us about himself through stories, some connected, some disconnected, some big, some small. Quite how we can come to understand something about God this way is not clear but we do. By story I do n

Jesus Crucified and Dead ~ Welcome back to our series, AGOG – A Glimpse of God. We are now on Day 31 of our adventure, looking together at the life of the most amazing person in human history - Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Today is the last in this series and we look at the events after Jesus’ death! John 21:25 “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” ~Have you asked Jesus to be your Saviour yet? Jesus – the God-man who conquered sin and death who died and was raised to new life again by God. When you allow Jesus to be your saviour and rely on him for your salvation, you become spiritually alive! Until then, you are spiritually dead. But you can have spiritual life! What are you waiting for? Again, I ask, who do you say the Jesus is? But further, what are you going to do with this Jesus and let Him bring you to life spiritually? It is not too late! Today can be the day of your s

Psalm 139   For the choir director: A psalm of David. 1 O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. 2 You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I'm far away. 3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. 4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. 5 You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! ~ 7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. 9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. 11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night- 12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to y

Cross Events   Welcome back to our Easter 2013 series, AGOG – A Glimpse of God. We are on Day 29 of our adventure, looking together at the life of the most amazing person in human history - Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Today we look briefly at events surrounding Jesus' death. 1. Mockers and scoffers - Matthew 27:38-40  2. Testimony and tearing - Matthew 27:50-54 3. Dead and Buried - John 19:38-40 ~ 4. On Guard - Matthew 27:62-66  Come back tomorrow for Day 31 of our series AGOG, as we continue to look together at that extraordinary man, Jesus Christ, through the Gospel accounts! We shall see together some of the events surrounding Jesus’ death! See you soon at Partakers! Right Mouse click or tap here to save this as an audio mp3 file

Jesus Crucified and Dead ~ Welcome back to our series, AGOG – A Glimpse of God. We are on Day 29 of our adventure, looking together at the life of the most amazing person in human history - Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Today we look briefly at Jesus crucified and dead. So far, we have seen that Jesus has been betrayed by a friend, Judas, who later killed himself. We know also that Jesus was denied three times by a close friend, Peter. Upon that third denial, a rooster crowed and Jesus gave Peter a look of love. Jesus of course, had predicted that Peter would deny him three times… Even when being denied by a close friend, Jesus loved that close friend. Jesus Crucified Jesus Dies Jesus - condemned, crucified and died. Where were the others disciples and other followers of Jesus? Peter had been interrogated about Jesus so was still in the city somewhere. The other disciples had fled and were probably in hiding, wondering why their Master had to die such a death – even though Jesus told them many times it

Jesus Betrayed, Denied and Condemned Welcome back to our  series, AGOG – A Glimpse of God. We are on Day 28 of our adventure, looking together at the life of the most amazing person in human history - Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Today we look briefly at Jesus being betrayed and denied by two of his closest friends and then condemned by both the religious and political authorities. Jesus Betrayed Luke 22:1-6 Jesus Condemned Jesus knew that his work of bringing people back to God in a loving relationship did not rest on the actions of a mere Roman governor. Overall, we see that Pilate was more concerned with his own position than he was for justice. Jesus is publicly rejected by the masses and by the religious authorities who proclaim publicly that Caesar is their only King, while forgetting that in reality, God is their King! Jesus is led away to die on his cross as a common criminal. ~ Come back tomorrow for Day 29 of our series AGOG, as we continue to look together at that extraordinary man, Je