Partakers Christian Podcasts

Psalm 85 ~~~~~ For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. ~~~~~ 85:1 Yahweh, you have been favorable to your land. You have restored the fortunes of Jacob. 85:2 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. ~~~~~ Selah. ~~~~~ 85:3 You have taken away all your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger. 85:4 Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease. 85:5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations? 85:6 Won’t you revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? 85:7 Show us your loving kindness, Yahweh. Grant us your salvation. 85:8 I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, his saints; but let them not turn again to folly. 85:9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. 85:10 Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. 85:11 Truth springs out of the earth. Rig

Words and the Christian Right mouse click or tap here to save/download this as a MP3 file Jesus speaking:"34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.’" (Matthew 12:34-37) Words Alive! Given all thats gone on since Friday here in the UK and the use of one person's words, it is self evident that our words matter! Words matter for the Christian as those words are of the utmost importance as the building blocks of communication. Whether by thought, written or spoken. One of the greatest sins of the twenty first century, that all Christian Disciples need to be wary of, is the use of words.  The power of th

God Comes To Town! Ezekiel 1:1-4, 24-28 to 2:2 Introduction I wonder if there anybody here that is 25 years old?  Anybody turning 25 this year?  How about those who wished they were turning 25 this year? Imagine you are a 25 year old and being trained for the family business.  Then suddenly your enemies invade your city and take you away to a foreign land.  That's what happened to Ezekiel 5 years before this passage of Scripture, when the Babylonians, led by Nebuchadnezzar in 597BC took 3000 Jews back to Babylon.  This was the first deportation. 1. Ezekiel - who was he and how did he get there? His name means "God is strong" He was training to be a priest Now 30 years of age, if he had been in Jerusalem, he would have been ministering in the Temple. He was married to the woman who is described as the "delight of his eyes". The reason that God had allowed His people to be taken into exile was because of their wickedness, utter disobedience and the dishonouring of His holy name.&nbs

Psalm 62 For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthan. A Psalm by David. 62:1 My soul rests in God alone. My salvation is from him. 62:2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress— I will never be greatly shaken. 62:3 How long will you assault a man, would all of you throw him down, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? 62:4 They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. 62:5 My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my expectation is from him. 62:6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I will not be shaken. 62:7 With God is my salvation and my honor. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. 62:8 Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah. 62:9 Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath. 62:10 Don’t trust in oppr

  Big Story - Act 5 Scene 3: The Church at the End of the Ages with Roger Kirby   There is a marvellous unity to the Bible story even though it was written by many different people over many hundreds of years. It began, after the Creation, with a garden; it ends with a garden city in Revelation 22: 1 – 4 : “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” There are two great differences between them: the garden has only 2 people in it; the city is full of people, all those whose names are wr

Psalm 81 For the choir director: A psalm of Asaph, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument. 1 Sing praises to God, our strength. Sing to the God of Jacob. 2 Sing! Beat the tambourine. Play the sweet lyre and the harp. 3 Blow the ram's horn at new moon, and again at full moon to call a festival! 4 For this is required by the decrees of Israel; it is a regulation of the God of Jacob. 5 He made it a law for Israel when he attacked Egypt to set us free. I heard an unknown voice say, 6 "Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks. 7 You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. Interlude 8 "Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you would only listen to me! 9 You must never have a foreign god; you must not bow down before a false god. 10 For it was I, the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide,

  Big Story - Act 5 Scene 3: The Church Today with Roger Kirby Yes, I know! The church today is not really part of the Biblical story in any direct way, but there is another chapter to come on the Church at the End of the Ages and it would leave rather a long gap to say nothing about the in-between times. All of church history could be here but that would be far too much so I will only say anything about one previous event: the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, of some 300 years ago that has affected so much of our present Western culture. More of that later. We live in an amazing and very exciting period of church history. There are more Christians of every sort alive today than ever before; in fact, more alive now than all that have ever lived and died; one third of all the people on the earth. This is mainly because of the recent huge growth of the church in Africa, South America and, to a lesser but increasing extent, in Asia. At the same time the old core areas of the Faith in Europe and North

Psalm 120   A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. 1 I took my troubles to the Lord; I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer. 2 Rescue me, O Lord, from liars and from all deceitful people. 3 O deceptive tongue, what will God do to you? How will he increase your punishment? 4 You will be pierced with sharp arrows and burned with glowing coals. 5 How I suffer in far-off Meshech. It pains me to live in distant Kedar. 6 I am tired of living among people who hate peace. 7 I search for peace; but when I speak of peace, they want war! Right mouse click to save/download this Psalm as a MP3 file

  Big Story - Act 5 Scene 2: The Church of the Ages - Temple and temples with Roger Kirby We traced through the story of the decline of Israel before Jesus appeared in terms of their loss of a place where God dwelt. If we now pick up the story of the great Temple in Jerusalem in the days of Jesus we find some fascinating things. John, in his gospel, tells the story of the cleansing of the Temple at the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry (the other gospel writers put it much later in his ministry which may be because Jesus cleared it twice or John was more interested in the theological meaning of the event than its timing). Mark’s account is even more interesting. He tells the story in the middle of another story, clearly relating the two. The other story is about the fig tree, which as Jesus and his disciples walk into Jerusalem they see is barren which is no surprise because it is the wrong time for figs. Jesus curses it, which seems a very odd thing to do unless it is for some ot

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