It is easy to slip into thinking of God as owing us something. We can get upset if we have worked hard to be faithful, we have been generous, we have served God, and then we don’t get something we prayed for or wanted. We can think that we have a right for God to …
Religion can be described as doing the same things over and over. We often use it in the context of spiritual matters, like praying every day or going to church religiously. Yet we can do other things religiously as well. We might eat dinner at the same time every day, or always go shopping on …
Many people think of Christians as people who like to follow rules. There are a range of things Christians do that others do not, like going to church and praying. There are also things Christians avoid doing that many others think as normal, like drunkenness and lying. It sure looks like rule following or religion! …
God works in mysterious ways. We know that. There are so many things that happen to us and around us that we would never have predicted and which we do not understand. Yet sometimes we are privileged to see a series of events that reveal a little of God’s unexpected kindness to us. I can …
Occasionally someone calls me a priest. I have been given all kinds of labels, from pastor to minister to teaching elder, and I can live with most of them. Yet the word ‘priest’ is not appropriate. The task of a Christian minister after the time of Jesus is not to be a priest in the …
The Old Testament says a great deal about sacrifices. The people of God had to do so many of them, some at set times, and some in response to things that happened. Sometimes they brought a lamb or a goat, sometimes a bird, sometimes grain or wine. There would have been a permanent BBQ smell …
I’ve just finished reading a thorough and very interesting historical account of China’s Great Leap Forward in 1958-62. The book is called ‘Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe’ by Frank Dikotter. It’s a harrowing read at times. In an attempt to bring China’s industrial output in line with the developed countries …
The local church should be a radically united group of people, the kind of community that cannot be found anywhere else. We have such unity because of Jesus that this should flow into real unity between diverse people in our churches. It is not always like this. The Galatian church was deeply divided. It was …
One of the wonderful benefits we have as Christians is to be sons of God. Trusting in Jesus is not only a matter of having our sins forgiven, though it certainly includes that. It also means that we are adopted as sons of God. We are in God’s family, loved, secure, and with a certain …
Everyone wants to express their opinion. Everyone wants to get their views across. We want to be heard and valued and noticed. All of this is perfectly natural. What has become less natural is to listen. To really listen. It is incredibly difficult to listen well to someone else. There are two broad reasons why …