Digging Deeper - Sunday 22nd March

Digging Deeper - Sunday 22nd March

I don’t always get the chance to do this but I wanted to post a few extra thoughts, and pointers to further resources, that link in to this Sunday’s talk which is scheduled to be on Daniel 9 vs 1-19.

There’s a very good book which I read a number of years ago. It’s called The Message of Prayer, it’s published by IVP and written by a bloke called Tim Chester. Tim Chester is a church planter, writer (and blogger) based in Sheffield. He combines a very down to earth heart with a very able mind. The reason I’m mentioning this particular book is because there’s a chapter in it which specifically looks at Daniel 9. In it he looks at ‘The Promise of God’ , ‘The Mercy of God’ and ‘The Glory of God’. There’s quite a bit of reading in this book, but if you want go deeper in understanding the link between reading the Bible and praying it is very very good. It is available from amazon.co.uk

Secondly on Sunday we see how Daniel 9 explores the theme of ‘covenant’. On Friday 20th there was a conference in PCI’s Assembly Buildings in Belfast. Entitled Close to Home, the main speaker was Stafford Carson (Principal of Union Theological College). I wasn’t at the conference but followed part of it on Twitter #pciC2H. I found one particular quote from Stafford very helpful: ‘If Jesus did not die every covenant breaker would have to die instead.’

That quote links Old and New Testaments. A final resource to point to is a short You Tube video by Gary Millar. Gary is also a Principal of a Theological College (in Australia). Gary actually grew up in Lisburn, and had a big influence on me as a young Christian. Gary has posted a short (but very helpful) video talking about how, if we read it right, ‘the Old Testament speaks of Jesus from beginning to end.’ You can see Gary by clicking here.

By the way – there is no evening service this Sunday (22nd) in Ballyhenry. Instead we are all invited to a special Mission in Ireland evening in Whiteabbey Presbyterian at 7pm. Guest speakers will include Andy Carroll (minister of Donabate Church Plant in North Dublin) and Sharon Heron (from the International Meeting Point in South Belfast).