It seems that the Christian world is in flux right now. Old alliances have already dissolved. New ones are being forged. But still there is some uneasiness in many. Unexpected events can suddenly seem to threaten to bring this new house crashing down as if it was made of cards. How do we determine who we are going to associate with? How do we decide who to listen to? Now that many conferences do not seem to exclusively invite speakers... Read more
At New Word Alive next week you can join us for a meet-up for others who write blogs, tweet, or use Facebook like a blog. We will have an informal meet-up on Saturday at 1 PM. Why not facebook, tweet, or blog about it over the weekend to spread the word? And if you are able to, please do drop me a line to let me know if you can make it. This year, I promise to have a piece of... Read more
One of the central arguments of the book is that we Christians often spend a lot of time talking, singing and preaching about the death of Christ, without carrying on to talk, sing and preach about the vindication which followed. He demonstrates from the Bible how the two concepts of ‘death’ and ‘resurrection’ go together, and notes how much more air time ‘resurrection’ gets in New Testament preaching than ‘death’. As such, this is a really timely reminder (in fact... Read more
A very dapper looking Terry Virgo shows that as a young charismatic he was very much already reformed. This idea that reformed charismatics are a “new breed” is shown to be wrong by this video from Downs Bible Week alone. Now if only someone could find me some video of my dear departed friend and mentor Henry Tyler, or at least an audio recording. I still miss him sometimes, but thank God for the deposit he left behind in so... Read more
UPDATE – I have now written more about why I think John Piper was right to invite Rick Warren. A few months ago I posted on “why I love Rick Warren” and I have been impressed by his Twitter feed ever since. So it was a real delight to hear that having met up with Warren at a funeral and discovered he loves Jonathan Edwards, among other things they share, Piper has invited him to speak at his conference. One... Read more
I REMEMBER TRYING TO explain grace to a room full of children. Without warning, I took a large chocolate bar and gave it to the child who had been misbehaving the most all morning. The look of sur- prise and pleasure on the child’s face told me he understood that this was far from what he deserved. A chorus of howls from the other children of “That’s totally not fair!” told me they had grasped it too. “Exactly,” I said.... Read more
Our biggest problem is that we do not see Jesus as he is. If we could desire him, treasure him, delight in him, be satisfied in him, cherish him, savor him, value him, revere him, esteem and admire him as much as he deserves, we would want to follow him as our Lord in every area of our life, and sin would instantly lose its appeal. One of the most important ways for us to deal with sin in our... Read more
The following quote from Theology for Women inspired me this week as I have been thinking about the events of the Easter Sunday and beyond: The image of Jesus coming to Peter after the resurrection means much to me. As someone who has denied Jesus in my own heart enough to know the turmoil Peter must have felt in that moment, I love the thought of Peter’s eyes meeting Jesus’ for the first time after the resurrection. And I praise... Read more
Jesus met with people when they were alone, with a small handful of people, in a group of twelve or more, and in an assembly of hundreds. He met them in a formal gathering, over a meal, in a home, in secluded countryside, at work, and in the middle of a busy city. Jesus can still meet people today in all these situations. Although he no longer meets us face-to-face, the reality of his presence remains through his Spirit and... Read more
The following quote from Raised With Christ was shared on Crosspointe’s blog and surely is something worth getting excited about this Easter! Jesus was so full of merit that not only did he have enough righteousness to cancel out our sin and enough that he deserved to be raised from the dead, but he still had abundantly more credit remaining in his account. As a result, our justification consists not just of a canceling of our debt, but also of... Read more
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