Severn's All You Can Eat Buffet

What does love from God mean for us? Jason Whiley shares experience of receiving, living in and sharing love from God, and looks at passages from the Bible including Psalm 139 which show how others have seen this too.

What do we expect from God’s kingdom and Jesus as King? In this Palm Sunday talk, Dan Green looks at what the crowd who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem hoped and believed might happen, and how they would have been shocked by Jesus and what would happen next. Similarly, when crowds gather today with faith, flags and the nation in mind, does Jesus fit expectations? What do we expect from Jesus?

We’re going through Lent spending time every day, not alone but with Jesus in the desert, not empty but full of his Spirit, not resting but wrestling with the things that get between us and God, not relying on ourselves but trusting in God to win every battle thanks to what Jesus did.Matthew 4:10-11Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”’Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.Jesus’ answer about worship is straightforward - only worship and serve God.What does this mean for us, though? Is it just about religious activity?How broad a role does worship have in our lives?What does it mean for us to worship God while working, talking, doing everyday things?How does this connect with our senses of identity, purpose and value?What might happen if we choose to deepen our faith in God, worship more and serve him only?We’re inviting you to reflect on this as Easter approaches.We hope you’ve enjoyed this series - thank you for listening!

What is so important about rest? Owen Lynch looks at what it meant for God’s people to be told and shown how to rest together, and what might be good for us to learn from this too. What difference would it make for us to create space for our own ways of practising a Sabbath rest, and how could we make a start?

We’re going through Lent spending time every day, not alone but with Jesus in the desert, not empty but full of his Spirit, not resting but wrestling with the things that get between us and God, not relying on ourselves but trusting in God to win every battle thanks to what Jesus did.Matthew 4:8-9Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’What if someone offered you a shortcut straight to something you’ve been working to achieve for ages?What if it wasn’t just an obvious scam, but a real, tempting offer with just one string attached - it would get written up as an achievement owned by someone you didn’t trust and didn’t think was good for the world?In Jesus’ time, popular stories which weren’t written into the Bible described widespread beliefs that God had given Satan power to rule the world, which explained its painful, broken state.What if Jesus could do a deal with this power, brokenness and evil personified?What if that is similar, in any way, to how we might let our good intentions and righteous ends justify any means of getting what we want?How would we answer the call to do a deal like this?We're inviting you to spend a few days reflecting on this before we look at Jesus’ reply in our final episode.

We’re going through Lent spending time every day, not alone but with Jesus in the desert, not empty but full of his Spirit, not resting but wrestling with the things that get between us and God, not relying on ourselves but trusting in God to win every battle thanks to what Jesus did.Matthew 4:7Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’Tempted to use the Temple as a platform in a way it was not designed for, Jesus could have argued this out, but instead quoted from a well known Jewish story about a famous place named “testing”.What did it mean for God’s people to put God to the test there?What did it mean for Moses to fail there? What did he do wrong? (There might not be a simple answer to this - scholars have lots!)Can we picture Jesus as succeeding where Moses failed?How would he know how to do that? Where would he get the wisdom and strength?And how can we follow Jesus here? What do we need to more of, or less of, to do this faithfully?Can it help to have God remind us about who he says we are?We're inviting you to spend a few days reflecting on this before we look at another trial in our next episode.

What is the Bible, how did we get it, and what is it for? Claire Lynch looks at how the different genres, stories and conversations in the Bible fit together into something which has conveyed truth to people for thousands of years - as long as they knew how to interpret it. How can we do this today?