Do you enjoy magic tricks? Are you left amazed by how the magician manages to get the right card every time, pull the rabbit from a hat or make his assistant disappear. Of course, no one really thinks that it’s real magic. We know that the magician relies on slights of hand and diversion tactics… Continue reading Bewitched
Posts
Does God care particularly about special places?
The other day, I wrote about the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer. One of the things I picked up was that there were claims of a special experience of God’s presence at the site. One of the questions that has come back in discussion is whether or not God does show concern for specific places… Continue reading Does God care particularly about special places?
Terms and conditions
Paul reminds the Galatians in chapter 3 of what they’ve seen, heard and received, They’ve seen the Gospel clearly presented, that Christ was crucified for them. They’ve received the Spirit. They know that their new life in the Spirit is founded entirely on Christ’s crucifixion and has been received by faith. So how can they… Continue reading Terms and conditions
What is contemporary complementarianism responding too?
One of the reasons why we might see both continuity and discontinuity in a thought is because we see contextualisation at work. This means that we react to and engage with the thinking of the world around us. This can work for both good and ill. We contextualise for good by considering how to shape… Continue reading What is contemporary complementarianism responding too?
We don’t need “the world’s largest Christian land mark” in Birmingham
“We’re one step closer to building the world’s largest Christian landmark” reports Richard Gamble about the building of an “Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer”. There’s a lot going on in the report in Premier Christianity from the association of a physical place with spiritual presence to odd hubris of declaring this an “eternal wall.” Then… Continue reading We don’t need “the world’s largest Christian land mark” in Birmingham
Exclusion
It is unlikely that we are going to find ourselves in exactly the same boat as the Galatian church. The issue of circumcision is unlikely to come up in our churches. So, what does the application of Galatians 2 have to do with us? I asked the question at our Life Group one evening and… Continue reading Exclusion
Favour
The next part of our #WhatMatters series In Chapter 13, we’ve seen the Ark of the Covenant stay at Obed Edom’s house and he is blessed. Will the absence of the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem and David’s care deny him blessing? Rather than move to the conclusion of the account with the ark… Continue reading Favour
Infiltration
One big question that comes up as we read through Galatians is “How were the agitators able to be so successful?” It seems that they had already managed to infiltrate the Jerusalem church quite significantly when Paul and Titus visited (2:1-10). They also were able to get Peter to cooperate with them, even though it… Continue reading Infiltration
Saving Titus
One of the striking things in Galatians 2 is the pivotal role that Titus plays in the drama. Titus is part of Paul’s team and he goes to Jerusalem with him. Paul tells us that Titus is not compelled to be circumcised. We can skim read it as an incidental extra but actually, the point… Continue reading Saving Titus
Building church planting and multiplication into your DNA
These notes are based on a workshop I recently ran with the Birmingham Collective, a group of churches committed to encouraging and supporting one another in church planting, re-planting and revitalisation. One of our aims is to plant churches that go on to plant churches. So how do we encourage that? Well, one way is… Continue reading Building church planting and multiplication into your DNA
Faithroots 