None of us likes to think of God as being angry with us. For some, the idea of an angry God is an old primitive idea, and we really know that God is love. God loves us, doesn’t he? Well, yes. But God’s anger is a critical concept for us to understand; it is taught …
In the last blog post, we looked at the issue of the “missing verses” in the modern translations of the Bible compared to the King James Version. There are, however, two longer sections that need some explanation. They are the ending to Mark’s Gospel (Mark 16:9-20) and the episode of the woman caught in adultery …
Observant Bible readers sometimes notice that the verses in some passages skip a number. For example, in most modern translations, the text goes directly from Matthew 17:20 to 17:22. There is no verse 21. This can also be noticed in places like John 5:4 and Acts 8:37. In each case, there is a footnote that …
We can sometimes be paralysed by waiting for the perfect conditions to do something. I found myself in that position a week or two ago when I needed to put fertiliser on my lawn. The packet said that the fertiliser should be applied to wet grass, but it must not rain within 24 hours or …
The book of Psalms is a wonderful book for many reasons. It is the songbook of the Old Testament people of God, containing the full range of human emotions poured out to God. Many appreciate sections that speak of God’s love, his shepherding, and his protection like a fortress. And yet, amid these types of …
Sometimes you might hear someone say something like this: “I hope the sermon today is interesting; I hope the preacher uses funny illustrations and makes the Bible interesting”; or “I love that particular Christian blogger; they make the Bible relevant to me”; or “I think non-Christians won’t be interested in the Bible; let’s reduce the …
For a new believer, the way the Bible is laid out is a little confusing. Many expect that it is like a novel, that you start at the beginning and read through to the end. There are, however, all kinds of numbers and divisions in the Bible that need a little explaining. The books of …
The world is a messy, and often wicked, place. Just turn on the news. They never have to cancel investigative shows that reveal injustice because there is so much around. That’s nothing new. The Teacher of Ecclesiastes noted the same kind of things around 3000 years ago. In Ecclesiastes 8, he noted that governments can …
I have recently returned from the General Assembly of the World Reformed Fellowship. As I mentioned in my previous post, this was a wonderful opportunity to meet with like-minded people from around the world, to encourage one another, and to consider carefully the challenges we face in the modern world. The theme of the GA …
This past week I have had the privilege of attending the World Reformed Fellowship General Assembly in Jakarta, alongside an elder from one of our sister churches. The World Reformed Fellowship (the WRF) is an organisation that aims to connect people from the Reformed tradition together from different churches, denominations and organisations worldwide. The hope …