Review: "The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment" by Tim Challies

  • 1 March 2009

The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment Tim Challies Crossway Books, Wheaton, 2007, 208pp.   Here is an exercise for you: open your purse or wallet and remove a bank­note. Now rub it between your fingers. Look closely at the various markings. Hold it up to the light. Is

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Preaching the gospel from Ruth

  • Gordon Cheng
  • 1 March 2009

Five Festal Garments: Christian Reflections on the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther Barry Webb Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, 2000, pp. 192. The book of Ruth is an unlikely love story, but it is also much more. Gordon Cheng speaks to Dr Barry Webb, Research Fellow

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Engaging with Barth

  • 1 March 2009

Engaging with Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques Edited by David Gibson and Daniel Strange UK edition: Apollos, Nottingham, 2008, 416pp. US edition: T&T Clark, New York, 2009, 408pp. www.engagingwithbarth.com While reading this selection of essays, I've also been reading the prophet Jeremiah. Both are stretching, edifying

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Worldly passions, holy affections: How to cultivate a discerning mind

  • 1 March 2009

In Briefing #366's first feature article "Do not judge", Stephen Liggins points out that while judging others is condemned in the Bible, discernment is encouraged. But how do we go about gaining it, and how can we encourage our fellow Christians to grow in it too? With a little help

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Prosperity teaching without the bling

  • 1 March 2009

Reading through Beyond Greed in the lead-up to Christmas last year made me think again about ‘prosperity teaching’ and whether I’m as immune to it as I like to think I am. I can spot the Joel Osteen variety a mile off, but when it comes without those trappings, I’m not

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The ethics of a balanced life

  • 1 March 2009

Should we be extreme or should we be balanced? You know what I mean by ‘balanced’: be generous, but not too generous; take Christ seriously, but don’t be a religious fanatic; tell the truth, but not to a fault, and so on. This approach is as old, at least,

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Redundant prayer?

  • 1 March 2009

The Church of England in the UK has released a prayer for those who have been made redundant (along with other prayers for people affected in other ways by the financial crisis).[1. http://www.cofe.anglican.org/prayers]. It has been fascinating to hear various clergy on the radio here in the UK answer the question

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Bible resistance

  • Lionel Windsor
  • 1 March 2009

This is a public health warning for the attention of all those involved in the cure of souls. A particularly insidious threat to spiritual wellbeing has been identified, and we need your help to eradicate it. The phenomenon has been dubbed ‘Bible resistance’. Those most at risk are Christians who

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Do not judge!

  • 1 March 2009

What do you think is the best known verse in the Bible? Without a second thought, most of us would say John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”. Almost every Christian

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