Paul has argued that relying on ethnic pride does not work. Your genes will not save you, nor your knowledge of The Law. We are judged by our actual righteous, the good that we do or don’t do. Therefore Jews and Gentiles alike face judgement day. So, if a Jew cannot claim an exemption, is… Continue reading God in the Dock (Romans 3:1-8)
Posts
Wake Up! (Ephesians 5:1-14)
Today we are talking about following examples (in a Trinitarian way), waking up from sleep, exposing sin and being people who love God and each other.
The thing I hate most about the response to COVID-19
As we move towards the first anniversary of lockdown, I’m taking a little bit of time just to reflect back on the past year and share some observations. At this stage back in 2020 we had not gone into full lockdown but we were increasingly seeing strict measures introduced. Those with symptoms and their families… Continue reading The thing I hate most about the response to COVID-19
“Have a bath and change your clothes” (Ephesians 4:17 -32)
It has been vital during the pandemic to take off clothes as soon as you get home and have a shower or bath. It would be ridiculous to put the old contaminated clothes back on again. Similarly, the imagery of Christian faith is a bath (baptism), don’t put your old clothes back on again!
Thoughts on re-planting as a form of church revitalisation
Replanting is a little different to church revitalisation. There is a sense in which any church of any size could need and probably at some point will need a form of revitalisation to breath fresh life in. That might involve changes to personnel, culture and to teaching to enable renewal and/or reformation depending where the… Continue reading Thoughts on re-planting as a form of church revitalisation
A year in lockdown – was it worth it?
What were you doing this time last year? I was running a temperature and fighting a dry cough. That’s right I’d gone down with COVID-19. The result was that I was going to stay at home. I’d hoped initially that it was just a cold but through the day, it became clearer that it wasn’t.… Continue reading A year in lockdown – was it worth it?
Gifts (Ephesians 4:11-16)
#TheDailyDose
More thoughts on urban planting
As you know, one of my concerns is to see churches planted into our less fashionable areas and to see them established and multiplying. Moving from what we desperately want to see to actually seeing it, is the challenge though. We’ve been looking to see if it would be possible to get involved in pioneer… Continue reading More thoughts on urban planting
Coming soon – “The Pastor with a thorn in his side.”
Over the past few years, I’ve heard more and more stories about pastors who have battled with depression. I was aware of one or two guys that had suffered in the past but it wasn’t really talked about much. Then guys like Steve Kneale began to write publicly about their experience which encouraged others to… Continue reading Coming soon – “The Pastor with a thorn in his side.”
How can you help a wounded Christian?
Last week, I wrote two articles about wounded Christians. The first was a book review. The second engaged with the possibility that wounds might not heal, not immediately and perhaps not at all in this life. I wanted to follow this up with an article suggesting things you can do to help another Christian who… Continue reading How can you help a wounded Christian?
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