Sandyknowes Blog

Living beside the busiest roundabout in Northern Ireland gives plenty of opportunity for watching the world go by. Sandyknowes Blog is the personal blog of Niall Lockhart (minister of Ballyhenry). Pull in and have a read…

Advent Journey - 24th December

24 December 2020

It is Christmas Eve. For today's Advent Journey we pull up a seat at the fireside with Dr John Woodside, as he opens his Bible, reflects on this past year, and explores why in the message of Christmas there really is good news for everyone. 

Click here to watch John's talk.

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Advent Journey - 23rd December

23 December 2020

Advent Journey – Day 25

Read: Luke 1 vs 1-4

Luke’s gospel contains some of the best known Christmas stories. It is in Luke that we watch on as the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary, it is in Luke that we read of Jesus being wrapped in cloths and laid in a manger and it is in Luke that we hear the heavenly choir of angels announcing good news to all people.

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Advent Journey - 22nd December

22 December 2020

Read: Mark 1: 1-8

Another day closer to Christmas. Today we open the second ‘Gospel’ on our Advent Calendar, the Gospel of Mark. Mark is the shortest of the four gospels. It is reckoned that Mark was friends with Peter (the disciple of Jesus) and that Mark wrote up his material having listened to Peter’s stories and recollections of time spent with Jesus.

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Advent Journey - 21st December

21 December 2020

Read: Matthew 1 vs 1-25

So it is Christmas … well almost. That’s the situation as the story of the Bible tips from Old Testament into the New. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each wrote a ‘gospel’, an account of the life of Jesus and each of them prepares us for the arrival of Jesus from their own unique angle. With four days to go until Christmas we hope this week to conclude our Advent Journey in the company of these four writers.

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An Advent Journey - 17th December

17 December 2020

Advent Journey – Day 19

Read: Zechariah 4 vs 6, 9 vs 9

Encouragement. The exiles who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon needed encouragement. Life had been tough for them and faced with the realities of a devasted city and the struggles of trying to hold on to a faith that was weak they needed to find courage to complete the rebuilding of the temple, the work that God was giving them to do.

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