John Piper has been getting us all in the mood for his pastor's conference next week by speaking about the gifts of the Spirit in short videos shared online. Today I want to share the one on healing. Here are some excerpts from it: "I dont see any reason that any [of the gifts] should in principle be eliminated from present experience, at least the possibility of God giving it at any time. So I would say, yes there is a gift of healing . . . the Holy Spirit gives them according to his … [Read more...]
Did Karl Barth summarize his life message as “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know….?”
January 2, 2013 By 1 Comment
Roger Olson recalls a popular illustration: According to the story, Karl Barth was fielding questions from the audience after a lecture in Rockefeller Chapel on the campus of the University Chicago in 1962. A student stood and asked him if he could summarize his life’s work in theology in one sentence. According to the story a gasp went up from the audience–responding to the student’s perceived audaciousness. Also, according to the story, Barth didn’t skip a beat. He said … [Read more...]
50 Things the Holy Spirit Does
December 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Frank Viola lists 50 Things the Holy Spirit Does. "The Holy Spirit unites us to Jesus Christ and to His body. The Spirit reveals Christ to us, gives us His life, and makes Christ alive in us. The Spirit takes the experiences of Jesus . . . His incarnation, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension . . . and brings them into our own experience. Because of the Holy Spirit, the history of Jesus Christ becomes our story and experience Please don't let Franks's cheap shots at both … [Read more...]
Thanksgiving for God’s Family
November 23, 2012 By 1 Comment
This post is an extract of a guest post I wrote for my friend Kevin Brown, the pastor of The Perfecting Church. You can read the rest on their site. About a week ago I noticed it again. Over on my blog, out of nowhere once again a particular post sprung up again into my list of ten most popular posts. Actually, this week it shot into second place. This happens regularly about this time of year, and each time I find myself smiling when I notice. It’s almost like God playing a kind of joke on … [Read more...]
Chinese Calvinism flourishes
November 23, 2012 By 7 Comments
The Guardian has a fascinating report on the incredible progress of the Chinese Church, and calvinism in particular: Although Calvinism is shrinking in western Europe and North America, it is experiencing an extraordinary success . . .as an elite religion in China . . .There may be some parallels with the growth of Calvinism in South Korea, where the biggest presbyterian churches in the world are to be found, but it's absolutely unlike the pattern in Africa and Latin America. There, the … [Read more...]
Reformed support for Baptism with the Spirit
November 10, 2012 By 4 Comments
A friend of mine has recently published a free short e-book “The Promise of the Spirit: A Reformed View” by Peter Garner. This is available to download now. It is a very helpful read, and contains such gems as these: "To be born of the Spirit is one thing; to be baptized in the spirit is quite another. Moreover we should notice that the new birth is described in terms which mark out the Spirit as the Author leading to Jesus as the object of faith, whereas Spirit-baptism is by Jesus … [Read more...]
New Evangelical Archbishop of Canterbury – Justin Welby
November 9, 2012 By 8 Comments
Today they have finally confirmed that the current Bishop of Durham, Justin Welby will become the next Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican church worldwide. My Church of England Evangelical friends are no doubt very pleased, but we must not underestimate the challenge Welby has ahead of him. The phrase "Bishop of Durham" still sends a chill down the spine of older evangelicals in the UK like me. One of the previous incumbents was infamous, and was so liberal he would not have been a … [Read more...]
Rick Warren appeals for civility
November 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
With the American Election just tomorrow now, I think that Warrens words, quoted in a helpful post from Frank Viola entitled, "20 Reasons Why the Christian Right & the Christian Left Won’t Adopt Me" are well worth reading and considering carefully (along with the rest of Viola's interesting post). This notion of "disagreeing agreeably" lies behind my post on inter-faith and intra-faith dialogue. Whether we are talking doctrine or politics we must learn to be polite to each other at all … [Read more...]
God’s will: all we need even in the darkest times
November 1, 2012 By 3 Comments
I've been listening to a really good song part-written by an old blogging friend of mine. Its all about surrendering our wills to a higher cause, that of Christ and his plans for us. You can buy the song on iTunes or read the lyrics here: YOUR WILL (as recorded by Saint Lewis) (c.)2011 - Lewis, Durbin, Gilles, & Tucker I'm leaving my ambitions - I've given up my dreams Surrendered to the plans You laid for me I'm waiting for a greater vision of who I'm meant to be Nothing else … [Read more...]
Jesus, the liberator of women
October 26, 2012 By 5 Comments
I think that sometimes in our eagerness to debate we forget just how much we actually agree on. I really liked this post from Frank Viola here at Patheos Evangelical. In it he explains how Jesus liberates women. I may have written a complementarian spectrum, but I agreed with every word of the whole post and I predict almost every Complementarian I know would agree as well. In the spirit of Mary Magdalene — the first woman to set eyes on the resurrected Christ – women are free to … [Read more...]
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