We must pray for an audience of One, not to look good in front of others. God is listening when we pray. He is watching our hearts to see our motives. Are we praying to impress others, or even him? Or are we praying out of our love for him, and our sense of need for him. What this all means is that multiple words are not necessary. Flamboyant expressions are not needed. Sometimes all that is needed is that... Read more
What you think of when you hear the word faith? I think there’s lots of different things that come into our mind, you know, obviously we think of our salvation. Maybe we think of the word trust we think of God’s grace to us, but I suspect for many of us. We also think of certain things we hear perhaps on the TV and all sorts of other places that promote the so called “faith teaching”. Which seems to us... Read more
Jesus didn’t say “just ask”, he said “keep on asking”. Today I want to draw our attention to a passage which you could argue is mistranslated in almost every Bible version. Check it in your favourite and it will probably sound like an instant slot machine promise. Just ask the once and God is almost obligated to instantly answer your prayer the way you want him to. And certain wings of the modern church teach it exactly that way. If... Read more
Life is a marathon not a sprint. In fact we should probably characterise it as walking rather than running. Many people start of following Jesus in a hurry. Everything seems to change over night. There is great enthusiasm. But perhaps the roots have not gone deep enough. What Jesus is really looking for is a slow continuous walk with him. Step by step. Day by day. Decision by decision. Time of prayer followed by time of prayer. What is better?... Read more
Weeping is actually a command of Jesus, at least in some situations. Not only does Jesus allow us to weep, he encourages us to do so. He actually ordered one group to weep: And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming... Read more
Trust Him and Pray. Even when you don’t feel like it. This is the only way to survive and even thrive in the significant suffering. In yesterdays blog post I spoke about the intersection between the series on the Commands of Jesus and the work I am doing on suffering, in particularly reviewing Tim Keller’s book backwards (see parts 1 and 2). Well today those two series completely collide. There is an old hymn whose words I initially remembered wrong.... Read more
Doctrine can be life-saving. As we think about the Truth it leads to thankfulness, and greater love for God no matter what we are facing at the time. I feel like I am juggling a couple of plates on here at the moment. One is the series on obeying Jesus commandments, and the second is the theme of suffering. They might seem unrelated. But they are not. For when we are suffering it is then that our foundation is tested.... Read more
This is a meditation based on Psalms 46:10-11 You can hear it read above via Spotify or on other podcast tools. Be still, And Know, That I am God. Stop, Pause, Sit down, Kneel. Or even lie down. Rest a while, Be still. Or, as you calm your mind, Come walk with me. Unplug the internet, Come meet with me. Put down your phone, Gaze upon my throne. And as we wander together, Just as I did with your first parents,... Read more
In an age of soundbites podcasts are striking back. I learnt recently podcasts are surging at the moment having gone through a phase of looking like they might die out a few years ago. Where they seem to work best it turns out is in producing relaxed long form interviews that get behind carefully honed communication messages. Perhaps people are yearning for more than pithy key messages. The recipe seems to be to take two people who get on reasonably... Read more
Airpool Karaoke with Kanye West immerses James Corden and his huge audience in the phenomenum that is the Sunday Service. What is there not to like about mainstream culture talking about Jesus and listening to gospel music? This is the very same popular culture which has been becoming increasingly Christophobic. Also on board the airplane were more than 100 members of a gospel choir who break into powerful unacompanied singing. James is clearly impressed and drawn in by the... Read more
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