bible – Page 36

Redeeming Radicalisation

The Miracle of Soft-Heartedness: Escaping Our Hate

There isn’t a greater healing possible than that of the human heart. Not a healing from angina, leaky valve problems, left ventricular hypertrophy or some other kind of disease, but healing from the unbelieving, human spirit condition of hard-heartedness, common to us all.

Masquerading Messengers of Light

In Matthew chapter 10, we read Jesus sending out His sheepish yet hard-core company of followers into a dangerous world with the gospel and an express set of instructions that are particularly interesting – particularly interesting because He usually didn’t prescribe formulas for miracles. There was no Visa, no North Face apparel, no weekending bagContinue reading “Masquerading Messengers of Light”

Carried Along (5 minute study of 2 Peter 3)

I was reading 2 Peter earlier this morning in the ESV as I leaned in to God for a cuddle. A phrase struck me that I found immediately vivid and helpful: Right at the beginning of the letter in 1:21, Peter refers to the human writers of Scripture who were “carried along” by the HolyContinue reading “Carried Along (5 minute study of 2 Peter 3)”

Ready: The No. 1 Hallmark of a Healthy Christian

Your Spiritual Spring Clean “I will agree with something Godly, righteous and true, nod my head, allow my heart to rise, even say ‘amen!’ out loud and then…do nothing.” Last week I encouraged you to go away, get alone with God and begin a conversation with Him about how you might begin to convert thoughtsContinue reading “Ready: The No. 1 Hallmark of a Healthy Christian”

Ready: Living Prepared For The Coming Storm

Living urgently, alertly and appropriately replete in the 21st Century has been the focus of this blog series so far. Thomas, Andy and Joshua have kindly helped us to honestly consider our Christian lifestyles, provoked by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and to what extent we’re living with urgency or lethargy, with alertness or sleepinessContinue reading “Ready: Living Prepared For The Coming Storm”

Ready: Living Full in a Bloated World

The Need For Learning The early church exploded from a small group of misfit disciples into the most dynamic and cohesive movement within the Roman empire in just three hundred years. They were the new kids on the block and they were taking over the place. One early critic was claiming that they had ‘turnedContinue reading “Ready: Living Full in a Bloated World”

Ready: Living Alert in a Sleepy World

Are we asleep to this gospel? Am I really living as if this is true – that Jesus is coming back – maybe later today – to punish rebels and reward his waiting bride? Have we replaced the bracing realities of the gospel with “evenings without number obliterated by television, evenings neither of entertainment nor of education, but of narcotised defence against time” (Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, p. 227)?

The Places We Call Home

Space When you’re relaxed and at peace, when things are sweet between you and God, (currently not just fundamentally), you tend to notice things. This is because the spaces that you need in order to hear, and the discipline that you need in order to listen, are too often rammed with the traffic fumes ofContinue reading “The Places We Call Home”

The Cinderella Gift of Discernment

An Unlikely Bride The Disney fairytale Cinderella is a story about an unlikely bride mistreated at the hands of her guardians but who eventually rises from the doldrums of her slave labour to become the star of the ball and the stunning wife of Prince Charming. The tale is a love story of redemption, beauty,Continue reading “The Cinderella Gift of Discernment”