I have to say that the case of Arizona pastor Michael Salman who is currently in jail for running a Bible study in his home astonishes me. For all my life I have been involved with churches that also meet in homes for Bible Studies midweek. It seems that according to the state of Arizona that should be illegal. I suppose it is possible that part of the situation here is to do with the size of this person’s Bible study. Clearly... Read more
A German court has taken aggressive secularism and it’s attempts to establish an atheocracy a step further, and we should all be concerned. What happens in a single European country often spreads elsewhere in Europe and even to the USA. In a case involving a Muslim family who had opted to follow their religion and have their son circumcised, the court ruled that circumcision, ” . . even when done properly by a doctor with the permission of the parents,... Read more
Tanya Marlow was kind enough to allow me to post this email she sent me in response to my post about experiencing God. If you don’t already, follow her on Twitter. OH wow. I don’t really know where to begin… I was so moved by this post. I think you’re right – at least in the Christian circle that I move in – we rarely speak of our experiences of God. It is safe and easy to talk of our... Read more
We Christians today don’t often talk about our spiritual experiences. There are all kinds of valid reasons for that. However, as the following section of my book Raised With Christ shows, Packer and the Puritans disagree with us. Now when Packer and the Puritans would seek to correct us, we should sit up and at least take note: It is remarkable how infrequently experiences such as those described below are mentioned, either during preaching or in modern Christian books. Unfortunately,... Read more
I have been following my friend Peter Saunders series of posts based on 20 Questions Atheists Struggle to answer. It is an interesting series, and in it he attempts to engage with a group who simply don’t understand Christians. I am glad to see that the age-old craft of apologetics is far from dead. But there is one question he didn’t ask that to me at least is the most critical: “How do you live without hope?” I have lived... Read more
I was one of the interviewees for a piece entitled What is the Gospel Coalition? on Christian.co.uk. Here is the extract of what I said in response to the question “are some UK Evangelicals moving away from the gospel?”, the whole article is worth a read: “Definitely yes,” “There’s always been liberalism. What’s different about it now is it seems more reluctant to use the label. When I grew up in Christianity I spoke to people who would clearly say... Read more
I very much appreciated Terry’s latest sermon. In it he speaks of his conviction that God opens doors, and when he does it is impossible for any obstacle to successfully get in the way of His purposes. This is a good faith-building sermon that I encourage everybody to watch, especially if you attend a Newfrontiers church, but even if you don’t you should enjoy it. Almost 200 sermons and other audio by Terry Virgo are also available. Listening to him... Read more
This wonderful short account of the impact an extraordinary daughter has had on this Mum is worthy of a read. Some may want to eradicate people like this. But God allows their suffering for a purpose. Of course that does not remove all the pain. But it sure makes it more bearable. I am sure you will appreciate this testimony. Thank you My daughter, Megan, will be 18 this year. Over the last 17 years she has made me laugh,... Read more
My friend Kevin Brown, pastor of the Perfecting Church writes a fantastic piece called Put The Rocks Down! I wanted to share a few lines from it here to whet your appetite: “In the U.S.A eight out of ten people describe themselves as Christian but less than half of those people attend church. It’s not due to a shortage of churches, there’s an estimated 300,000 churches in our country. To put that number in context, there are only 31,000 McDonald’s restaurants... Read more
Jesus Christ is an important figure in Islam and Christianity. Today we see the areas where they disagree about him. Dont patronise both Faiths by claiming there's no difference between them. How they view Jesus is at the heart of this.This is with the goal of helping us to understand each other better. We previously listed Eleven things Muslims and Christians agree about over Jesus. Read more
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