Posts by admin (Page 17)

What value the Bible? I have a friend who collects rare Bibles. He owns a wonderful collection, with one Bible dating back to the fourth century. But my favourite is a Bible from sixteenth century England, one of the earliest printed copies of God’s Word. The top third of this Bible is covered with the blood of its original owner. My friend let me hold it in my…

Jesus is everything that we are not When Paul wrote about love in 1 Corinthians 13, he was not trying to give people something nice to read at weddings (although it is nice to read at weddings). Instead, he was trying desperately to show a church full of self-centered Christians that there is a better way to live-not just on your wedding day, but every day for the rest of…

Praying the Bible, using Psalm 23 You read the first verse—“The Lord is my shepherd”—and you pray something like this: Lord, I thank you that you are my shepherd. You’re a good shepherd. You have shepherded me all my life. And, great Shepherd, please shepherd my family today: guard them from the ways of the world; guide them into the ways of God. Lead them not into…

God is Good (part 2) Last week we noted Eric Alexander’s understanding of God’s goodness highlighted in Romans 8:28, showing that God is personally at work for us, God is ceaselessly at work for us, and God is universally at work for us and in us. But that leaves us with a question. What type of person is able to say that God is working in all things for my…

God is Good (part I) Eric Alexander writes of telling a friend who was hurriedly leaving, “Do remember that Romans 8:28 will always be true.” He then reflects on this. I hope our friend did read Romans 8:28 before that day was done. We lost contact, but I do want to tell you what he might have discovered from that verse. It reads, “We know that for those…

Seeing Glory through suffering “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:16–17) The Bible teaches about different kinds of suffering. • There is suffering…

The difference between Morality and Holiness Morality is principally a negative concept in that it almost always defines itself by what refrains from doing, more often than not its preoccupation is with externals. Holiness is a much more positive concept and like its related term it is holistic. It too embraces the externals but doesn’t stop there, it is far more…

THE CALL TO HOLINESS But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16) I think holiness needs to be seen in a Trinitarian framework where we think of imitating the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When God says “be holy for I am holy” I think He wants us to imitate…

Where is our focus? I read an amazing quote from Joni Eareckson Tada. What she says transcends her own personal struggle with quadriplegia and chronic pain, and applies to every circumstance in our lives – whether painful or joyful. She said, “I realised that the stakes were far greater, far more immense and cosmic than merely my satisfaction with a wheelchair and its…

Pursuing greatness in the kingdom of Christ “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” (Mark 10:37) James and John requested to sit at the left and right hands of Jesus, places of honour in the glory of the kingdom of God. Their question reflects their failure at that point to understand one of the key points of Jesus…