A few years back I was thinking about the nature of church life. I came up with a brilliant phrase to describe it “Messy Church.” “Brilliant,” I thought, “I’ve even got a potential best-selling book title there!” There was just one problem -someone had already coined the phrase to describe midweek children’s and families outreach. … Continue reading What is peace? (Ephesians 2:1-14 and Matthew 8:23-27)
Category: Bible Study
Home (Proverbs 14)
One of my favourite places to visit is Blenheim Palace. It’s an impressive tourist attraction, an elegantly designed building set in acres of beautiful parkland. As well as being a tourist attraction, it’s actually the home of the Marlborough family. However, a number of commentators have observed that it wasn’t so much designed to be… Continue reading Home (Proverbs 14)
Exploring Forgiveness and Repentance
I’ve been writing a little recently about forgiveness. It arises out of our recent studies from the Sermon on the Mount. It also relates to some other things I have written recently about our pastoral responsibilities to victims of abuse and to those accused. So, I was interested to see the other day that my… Continue reading Exploring Forgiveness and Repentance
Grace Culture – the importance of swift repentance and forgiveness
I believe that a grace culture is one where we are quick to seek forgiveness, express sorrow and repentance, to offer forgiveness and to seek reconciliation. This reflects the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount which is all about what it means to be saturated in God’s love and grace so that we enjoy… Continue reading Grace Culture – the importance of swift repentance and forgiveness
Truth (Proverbs 13)
Pinocchio is a puppet who just wants to be a normal boy. You’re probably familiar with the story. Whenever he tells a lie, his nose grows a little longer. Most of us probably wish that this would happen to the people we were dealing with. Then we’d be able to tell if they are telling… Continue reading Truth (Proverbs 13)
Discipline (Proverbs 12)
How do we respond to the challenges of circumstances around us? During COVID-19, I believe I’ve seen three unhelpful responses to circumstances. The first is to leap in and announce that this is a plague and therefore judgement from God. Usually, such firm pronouncements come with an opinion on the specific sin we have committed.… Continue reading Discipline (Proverbs 12)
Notes on teaching through Proverbs
I’ve been posting some talks and articles on Proverbs recently. A few years back we did a teaching series through the book and it was highly enjoyable. Many Christians find it helpful to learn individual proverbs. However, we tend to shy away from running expository series through the book because the literary style is very… Continue reading Notes on teaching through Proverbs
Why did God test Adam with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?
“If God knew that Adam would fail the test and eat from the Tree, then wasn’t it unfair of him to set the test in the first place?” This is one of the questions we often get asked. The simple and short answer is “ He didn’t set a test” at least not in the… Continue reading Why did God test Adam with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?
The narrow gate
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few[1] We have been thinking about what it means to be part… Continue reading The narrow gate
The Golden Rule
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” I must admit, I am not that great a fan of the way that Matthew 7:12 has become known as “The Golden Rule.” It sounds like one of those mechanistic laws for life. Almost as… Continue reading The Golden Rule
Faithroots 