Dear Members and Friends of IBCZ, A few months ago, in a sermon I quoted the poem Life Is but a Weaving, that Corrie ten Boom often recited to audiences around the world. The poem pictures in a beautiful and insightful way how God is always at work, even in
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, When we lived in Malaysia (immediately prior to coming to Switzerland), we would sometimes get invited out to eat with friends from our church. On occasion they would take us to restaurants we could never enter on our own. These were private clubs, often
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, Last Sunday I began a new sermon series on the Book of Hebrews, this wonderful account of the supremacy of Christ in all things. In the introductory first three verses, we encounter an interesting phrase I did not have time to explain in the
Continue readingAfter Christmas is a good time to reflect on this event, especially this time when activities have been much reduced. In „normal“ years the main event – coming of Jesus – gets often submerged in the hectic activities oft the Christmas time. The old testament talks about the coming of
Continue readingIn John 15 Jesus uses the relationship of branches to the vine to illustrate our relationship to Him, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it
Continue readingDear members and friends of IBCZ, In the times of prophet Hosea, the people of Israel had started to worship the Syrian-Palestinian weather god (or gods), Baal, and were involved in various religious acts according to the worshipping habits “demanded” by this god. This came in strong contradiction with their
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, In a couple weeks, the year 2020 will come to an end. It has certainly been a year unlike any other. The Covid virus disrupted our lives in ways we would not have imagined. And yet, in the midst of whatever disappointments and hardships
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, This coming Sunday, Nov. 29th, is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent includes the four Sundays before Christmas, and so it leads us into the final days of the year. Probably many of us will be happy to see 2020 come to an end.
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, In the sermon last Sunday, I challenged us in one particular way relating to our use of time. I asked us to consider what the impact on our relationship with God would be if for every hour we spent watching television, we spent one
Continue readingDear Members and Friends of IBCZ, This past Sunday we considered the second half of the phrase from the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” We saw that the word “forgive” literally means “to release.” When we forgive someone who has hurt us or wronged
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