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"Bible"
It was a surprising realisation to me: that it’s good to think of public prayer as a performance.
It came from reading the apostle Paul’s letter to Corinth. In Corinth, church members used their gifts. Wonderful!
Not wonderful, according to Paul. The trouble was that they used gifts selfishly, for their own benefit. Gifts without [...]
Romans 7 is astoundingly moving. Paul speaks of an awful internal conflict: loving right while doing wrong.
Romans 7 is also a bit tricky. Exactly who is the person feeling this internal conflict? Is it a Christian? Perhaps it’s a Jewish person who loves the law but does not yet trust Jesus. Or someone else [...]
Good Friday is the end of the world
As Jesus went to the cross on the first Good Friday, it was more than simply an injustice. It was God doing his ‘end of the world’ work. According to the Bible’s unfolding narrative, at the end will be the judgement of God – often pictured as [...]
Gideon is famous for testing God.
In the book of Judges, while Israel was under Moabite oppression, Gideon was frightened enough to hide in a winepress to beat out wheat. (I bet there was not much breeze for winnowing in there!) In the winepress, the Lord appointed Gideon as the man to save Israel.
Gideon [...]
Sometimes I am convinced that Christians promoting ‘good works’ do not think that the works they promote are good. How bizarre!
Here’s why …
As a minister, I hear people explain the reasons they get involved in good things: local charities, caring for people, volunteering, etc. As a minister, I receive many glossy mail-outs from [...]
Reading the book of Acts, I have always been intrigued by Acts 1:12-26. It’s where the eleven surviving apostles, with the aid of the other disciples, appoint Matthias to be twelfth man.
For a start, why not move straight from Jesus’ departure to the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost? Surely Luke needed a good editor [...]
This is the very unauthorised version of Ephesians 6:10-20. If the apostle Paul were a modern Australian, even a church-goer, it might run like this:
10Finally, be strong when you grab what you want. 11Put on the whole casual wardrobe of God, that you may be able to chill with style despite the attacks of [...]
Believe it or not, this is the Lord’s prayer – the form for prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. In this image, it kind of looks familiar and kind of draws attention but we kind of don’t really get what it’s about.
And perhaps that’s just like prayer: as easy [...]
Analytics can tell me what was most clicked in 2012. Analytics cannot tell me why these were the ones at the top of the click-list.
But here are the top three.
Believe + {preposition}
This was number three in 2011. I do not know why it crops up each month. [...]
So many conversations involve looking inside someone’s head. Amateur psychologists are everywhere.
In Bible study: “Moses was probably conflicted”; “It must be that Joshua was feeling vulnerable”; ‘Paul’s upbringing made him overly dogmatic.”
In a planning team: “I don’t think she has the right personality to do that job.”
In disagreement: “He must have had [...]
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