In our second look at what it means to be “sealed with the Holy Spirit” we look at the wider context. To understand what a phrase means we need to see how it fits within a passage and a book. So have a read of Ephesians 1:1-14. God the Father is worthy of praise and… Continue reading The Holy Spirit guarantees the promises of God
Category: pastoral-care
Why talking about virtual church is unhelpful
My friend John was in the later stages of Motor neurons disease. Each Sunday he would come to church and each Friday to our home group. He’d had surgery on his throat and so was no longer able to speak. He relied on one of these voice synthesizers made famous by Stephen Hawking. Several of… Continue reading Why talking about virtual church is unhelpful
Sealed with the Holy Spirit
Sealed with the Spirit A few articles back I began an in depth look at the work of the Holy Spirit. This was prompted by a provocative article by Matthew Mason where he argued that Conservative Evangelicals suffer because they lack a functional doctrine of the Holy Spirt and a meaningful experience of him. I’ve… Continue reading Sealed with the Holy Spirit
Prayer when praying is hard
We are called to pray, prayer can be a great help in our daily life, but sometimes prayer feels like hard work, we find our minds wander, we don’t know what to say, we struggle to get the right words or sometimes because of guilt and sometimes other emotions we struggle even to start praying,… Continue reading Prayer when praying is hard
If it feels like excommunication, you are probably doing it wrong
At the start of the Coronavirus lockdown when we began discussing what we should do as churches, one of the main areas of debate was about whether or not we could and should still share the Lord’s Supper (communion). All sorts of reasons were given on both sides of the debate. As you know, I… Continue reading If it feels like excommunication, you are probably doing it wrong
Learning the wrong lessons: virtual church and remote pastoring
What happens to church during lockdown? There are essentially * answers to that question Option 1: Physical gathering never mattered much, the spiritual was always what mattered and therefore virtual online church is great. It is at least the equal if not better than physical gathering in buildings. Option 2: It is impossible to physically… Continue reading Learning the wrong lessons: virtual church and remote pastoring
Assurance and Security – Can I be sure I am saved and can I lose my salvation?
In today’s “Afternoon Tea” session we were talking about assurance. We had a couple of questions about salvation. “Can I know that I am genuinely saved?” and “Is it possible to lose your salvation.” When we are talking about these questions we tend to use two terms. Assurance is about knowing for certain that I… Continue reading Assurance and Security – Can I be sure I am saved and can I lose my salvation?
Rest: Sabbaths, cycles, recessions and plagues
I remember listening to a lecturer at University argue that you could track world economic activity against 50 year cycles. Each cycle would include a period of growth and a period of decline. He argued that in fact there was little that government intervention could do to change the overall direction of things. In his… Continue reading Rest: Sabbaths, cycles, recessions and plagues
How to be safe from wolves
There is a lovely little meme doing the rounds on twitter. A sheep has been found wandering in the wilds. Over time it has grown a thick coat of wool. It has been attacked many times by wolves who have attempted to devour it but none could bite through the wool. The lesson, to defend… Continue reading How to be safe from wolves
Have we lost the Holy Spirit?
Matthew Mason has set out the provocative suggestion that conservative evangelicals in the Church of England have neither a functional doctrine of the Holy Spirit nor a meaningful experience of the Holy Spirit and that has led to a number of deficiencies in their churches. I intend to interact with his proposition over a number… Continue reading Have we lost the Holy Spirit?
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