What do you think it means to encourage someone? My immediate thought was that it meant to say something nice to someone. Perhaps that would be compliment their clothes or thank them for something. Perhaps it would be cheering on a child in a sporting match. While those are indeed good things to do, Christian …
Going to a church service every week is something that most Christians have historically done at a bare minimum. (There have been times when two services on Sunday, or even daily services at dawn, were the norm!) Yet the pattern for many Christians in our current age is to go to church much less regularly …
Our church had its annual church camp last weekend. It was, as usual, a really enjoyable and useful time in the life of our church. The majority of the regulars from our church spent Friday evening to Sunday afternoon together at a campsite in the suburbs of our city, hearing three great talks from Luke …
Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a wedding banquet a king is hosting for his son in Matthew 22. Through history, God had been preparing the way for his people to come to this big party. This was primarily the Jewish people through the covenants and prophets and patterns of the Old Testament. The …
Many people think of Christians as nice, clean-cut people. Those who are respectable, who are pillars of the community. There is a perception that Christians sometimes feel that they are superior to other people, looking down on those who have made different lifestyle choices. And – let’s be honest – sometimes that accusation has truth …
In an ideal democratic system, there is a political party in government and another one in opposition. This is far healthier than having just one person or party controlling everything with no checks and balances. In theory, the opposition is supposed to present an alternative view of what the government could be. They stop the …
I have read two short, simple books that have been greatly encouraging and helpful. I warmly commend them to you as worthy of your time. How to Talk about Jesus (Without being THAT guy) by Sam Chan I have read many books on evangelism. Some of them have been deeply theological, explaining our role and …
When Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem in Matthew 21, he did something very odd. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling pigeons. And he said this: “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” (Matt. …
A couple of weeks ago I spent two days at a conference with 170 or so other gospel workers. It was the Perth Gospel Partnership annual pastor’s conference. The PGP is an association between those who affirm a reformed and evangelical view of the Scriptures. (You can find out more about PGP here). Good conferences …
How much information do you receive every day? If you are anything like me, it is a lot. Much of it is kind of incidental; we learn things from speaking with people and going about our day. We absorb information from social media and the news; far more information than people of most previous generations …