I believe that a crucial principle when applying God’s word to our lives today is that wherever we are in the Bible, we make the application in and through Christ. The temptation, especially with Old Testament literature is to take what happens with God’s people, what God says to them and what they do and… Continue reading Building work: Applying the post exile books to us today
Tag: application
What do I do with all that application?
I recently wrote about the dangers of over applying in a sermon. I said that I’d come back to the question of what we do with all the other helpful applications we want to make. So, here are a few thoughts about what to do when you’ve got more application to include than you’ve got… Continue reading What do I do with all that application?
You don’t have to look too hard for the application!
This is part two of a mini-series of articles on preaching application. In part one, I talked about the twin dangers of not applying a passage at all and over applying with a scatter gun approach, shooting off lots and lots of things for people to know, believer, repent of, start doing, stop doing etc. … Continue reading You don’t have to look too hard for the application!
Preachers – don’t over apply
Preachers tend to fall for one of two dangers. Either we can focus so heavily on the exegesis and exposition of a Bible passage, we make very clear what it means but we forget the application. It’s all very interesting but it doesn’t really land in a way that is practical and relevant to the… Continue reading Preachers – don’t over apply
Is it best to use a knife and fork?
I’ve enjoyed and appreciated the discussion that has followed on from my articles about note taking. Responses have ranged from those who find it helpful to have the pressure to make notes taken off them through to those who have found note taking helpful and don’t intend to stop. A lot of you really don’t… Continue reading Is it best to use a knife and fork?
Instead of sermon note taking …
Yesterday I wrote about why I prefer people not to take notes when I’m preaching. So, how do we encourage people to retain, remember and apply what we preach. Here are some alternatives to note taking. Active engagement: One of my concerns with note taking is that it places the focus on intellectual processing and… Continue reading Instead of sermon note taking …
Summing up the message of Isaiah
The message of Isaiah can be summed up as follows. First, that we are rebel sinners. We have been unfaithful to God and chosen idolatry over worship and trust in him. Isaiah warns us that we will become like our idols, impotent, hardened, powerless, ignorant. Secondly, the consequence of sin and idolatry is God’s righteous… Continue reading Summing up the message of Isaiah
Avoiding wrong turnings
How do we apply the book of Isaiah to our lives and context today? * Well, first of all, it’s important that we don’t attempt to pick it up and synthesise a set of principles straight from 700BC to 21st century life. Instead, whenever we pick up an Old Testament book, we apply it first to… Continue reading Avoiding wrong turnings
When patching up no longer works
Our previous car lasted us a good decade. Well, strictly speaking it lasted a good seven years. Then things started to go wrong. Every time the car went in for service, it would come back with a big bill to pay and a significant bit of work. Then there were the times when we had… Continue reading When patching up no longer works
The idols must go
The things that we fear and the things that we put our trust in are the things that become our idols. They become our idols because we give power and authority to them. We think that they have control and influence over our lives. We are scared that if we do not do what they… Continue reading The idols must go
Faithroots 