There was an old apocryphal tale of little Calvinistic churches that didn’t put up notice boards with service times because if you were part of the elect, then you were predestined to be at church at the right time. I am not sure if anything like that has ever really happened. However, this has been… Continue reading If God predestines, why bother with evangelism?
Tag: Doctrine of God
How important exactly am I – when we demand too much in friendships
And now to Precosia. In some respects, I find this the saddest of all the scenarios we have looked at. Why do I say that? It’s not to diminish the seriousness of the other situations. However, I think that generally speaking we are more likely to get what is stake with the other ones.[1] When… Continue reading How important exactly am I – when we demand too much in friendships
Learning to Enjoy God – An Alcoholic meets the good God
When we came to Methuselah, the alcoholic, we intuitively went to Ephesians 5:18: “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Here we see that being filled with the Spirit is contrasted – not compared – with being drunk on wine. I think that one… Continue reading Learning to Enjoy God – An Alcoholic meets the good God
The doctrine of God and a marriage on the rocks
Now we return to Tom, Gladys and Ethel. Tom had been giving Ethel lifts to home group whilst his wife Gladys stayed at home. When we first met their situation, we talked about a gut instinct that things were wrong and that we weren’t getting to hear the whole story. Tom had admitted that his… Continue reading The doctrine of God and a marriage on the rocks
Love, holiness, relationships and rivalry
Remember Juliet? We met her at the coffee shop where she was looking longingly into the eyes of Romeo, her work colleague. In conversation, it comes out that When you talk with Juliet, she defends her relationship as follows. By the way, I’m not suggesting that she presents the following points in a neat, structured,… Continue reading Love, holiness, relationships and rivalry
God, work and rest
Friends Reunited Back some time ago when we were looking at the Doctrine of the Trinity, we introduced some people to provide some case studies. These helped us think more carefully about how the Doctrine of the Trinity applied practically to real life. You may remember them: Albert, a 45 year old man who seems… Continue reading God, work and rest
Why does what we call God matter?
Throughout our look at who God is, we’ve kept coming back to the point that what we believe affects how we live. This means that when we talk about The Doctrine of the Trinity, belief that God is Sovereign or the question of Predestination, we’ve not just been engaging in an intellectual exercise. These beliefs… Continue reading Why does what we call God matter?
What is God called?
What’s in a name? Different names have different meanings. My name means “loved.” My wife’s name, Sarah, means “princess.” Generally speaking, though, we don’t tend to pick names primarily for a specific meaning associated with the child. Names are given based on how they sound or because there is a family tradition. For example, I… Continue reading What is God called?
God creates, sustains, judges and redeems
We follow on from saying that God wills and decrees to look at some of the specific things he wills and decrees. We are going to look at these in far more detail later on when we come to look at Creation, Humanity and New Creation. However, I want to just highlight those three things… Continue reading God creates, sustains, judges and redeems
The goodness and greatness of God: Implications for spiritual warfare
If God is completely sovereign and knows all things, past present and future, then is spiritual warfare real? Or to put it the other way round, given that the Bible talks about spiritual warfare and given our experience in life of an ongoing struggle between good and evil, doesn’t this challenge our understanding of God’s… Continue reading The goodness and greatness of God: Implications for spiritual warfare
Faithroots 