At the Head of the Valley

Blessings for Obedience 28  “And  if you faithfully obey the voice of the  Lord  your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the  Lord  your God will set you  high above all the nations of the earth.   2  And all these blessings shall come upon you and  overtake you, if you obey the voice of the  Lord  your God. 3  Blessed shall you be in the city, and  blessed shall you be in the field.   4  Blessed shall be  the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.   5  Blessed shall be your basket and your  kneading bowl.   6  Blessed shall you be  when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7  “The  Lord   will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and fl...

18  This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about [ d ] : his mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.  19  Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet [ e ]  did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20  But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  21  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, [ f ]  because he will save his people from their sins.’ 22  All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet:  23  ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel’ [ g ]  (which means ‘God with us’). 24  Wh...

Romans 1 21  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  22  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools  23  and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24  Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25  They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is for ever praised. Amen. 26  Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.  27  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with o...

In the January 2017 edition of Christianity magazine a Christian comedian is quoted as saying, speaking of something called "The Thick of It", "I personally love the swearing in that , it's a high art form". (page 32) A high art form. There is something wrong here.

There was a lady vicar on BBC Breakfast programme the other day.  She was part of a discussion about Christmas.  For her, Christmas seemed to be about compassion for others, food banks, giving and receiving presents and the like.  Which is all well and good.  She did mention carol services. However, not once did she mention the real meaning of Christmas.  Jesus didn't seem to get a mention. This really is not good enough, especially from ministers in the church. Christmas is the time when we remember the birth of our Saviour  Jesus Christ.  God incarnate. God coming into the world. Praise the Lord.

Mere Humans (Isaiah 2:22 NIV). Do not trust in human power or ability.  (Scripture Union notes). Trust in God.