I’m sure you’ve been told before that, as a Christian, you are to ‘be salt and light’ to the world. Because you’re aware of Jesus’ sermon given on the mount, you understand that this means to love your neighbour, forgive your brother from your heart, avoid sin, and love God.
You’ve reached the end of a fantastic study. The group has been engaged, asking good questions; you feel like you’re seeing a group of people keen to apply the word of God to their lives. You reach the application questions. And nothing. No one comes up with anything.
Vine Journal features longer articles and essays that convey the best of cross-centred theological thinking, applied to real-world evangelical ministry.
There are at least seven very good reasons why your church should be getting gospel books ready to give away to Christmas visitors.
The New Testament calls believers to counter-intuitive and unnatural activities. Perhaps one of the hardest is this: rejoice in suffering (Rom 5:3).
“The pen is mightier than the sword”. Rubbish, absolute rubbish.
Prayer from God’s children to our heavenly Father is never wasted. Every prayer is heard, and we “ought always to pray” (Luke 18:1-8). Throughout Scripture, though, I have noticed that, whilst individual prayer is vital and significant in the life of each believer, it’s when Christians gather together to pray that God chooses to intervene.
This is the first book I'm aware of since Vatican II that looks at Roman Catholicism as a system (rather than just a set of isolated beliefs) and then critiques that system. The advantage of this is that it helps us Protestants understand how all the different bits of Catholicism fit together, and as a result be wiser in the way we speak about it.
Sometimes we take good advice. Sometimes we don’t. What about biblical exhortations? Take the following, for example: “always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet 3:15). This instruction makes a lot of sense to a Christian.
We know the apostle Peter’s reputation as the biggest and best disciple because he shows moments of true greatness. He is the first disciple named in Matthew, Mark and Luke’s gospels.