It’s too bad Genesis 1-2 has become a battleground for the creation/evolution debate. Christians use this section of Scripture as ammunition against unbelievers who claim the world was not created or that there is no God. We’ve turned it into a textbook, teasing out words and phrases that provide a ‘biblical science’ for our side of the debate.
In Luke 4:16, Jesus comes to Nazareth, to the synagogue in the town where he’d been brought up. He stands up to read, someone gives him a scroll, he unrolls it and finds a particular verse, gives the scroll back to the attendant, and sits back down.
A number of my friends were recently ‘priested’. They took part in a sacred ceremony while wearing strange garments and, standing before the bishop of the land, were consecrated as priests in the church of God.
Sandy Grant's links on the start of the US election, growth groups, expository preaching, and attitudes towards finances.
Never has the wisdom of this proverb been more urgently needed than in our society’s current conversation about Islam. Tensions are running high. The threat of Islamic terrorism is now a real and daily reality in the West.
It’s a brand new year and everything is starting up again, including home group. Off you go, expecting what you got used to last year… but new people are there now. And because there are brand new people, the group feels different. The old dynamic that you quite liked last year (or at least got used to!) isn’t the same.
Currently the Christian blogosphere is abounding in pieces about Christians and their secular work. The majority of these articles are written in order to help the Christian think deliberately about their day-to-day work and how it fits within God’s plan for their lives. While these pieces can be helpful (and others theologically questionable!), it seems to me the majority of them are overly positive about work.
Sandy Grant's links on racism, Islam's conception of God, prayer when weary, evangelism, labelling differences, book Simply Good News, and sexuality.
People tell me they’re “taking every thought captive” (2 Cor 10:5). I think they mean they’re trying to ignore the plaguing thoughts that arise out of emotional or spiritual sin and weakness. Thoughts born of worry, lust, despair, fear, and doubt. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
There’s a classic story about a parent separating two fighting children. Trying to get to the bottom of things, they ask: “So what’s the problem?” Utterly incensed, one child blurts out, “It all started when Jimmy hit me back!”