Christian
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What is an ‘Evangelical’?
For those outside the church, the label ‘evangelical’ may have a connotation of rainbow guitar straps, the Alpha course, happy-clappy dancing and so on. Inside the church … well, it all depends. It’s a label which somewhat resists definition: it’s not ‘owned’ by anyone, and these days it seems everyone wants to define themselves as…
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Comedy and Christianity
I watched an interesting programme on TV last night called “Are you having a laugh? Comedy and Christianity” (still available to watch on the BBC iPlayer at the time of writing). I didn’t agree with everything in the programme but I think it raised some interesting points: things do seem to have changed in the…
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The Trinity: What’s the Point?
The theologian Robert Letham once wrote: For the vast majority of Christians, including most ministers and theological students, the Trinity is still a mathematical conundrum, full of imposing philosophical jargon, relegated to an obscure alcove remote from daily life. (Source) I wonder if that’s something you can identify with? Is the Trinity something which you’ve…
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The Woman at the Well
And by ‘the woman at the well’ I mean the ‘woman of Samaria’ of John 4. You know, the fattest woman in the Bible (the “woman of some area”… geddit? GEDDIT? HAHAHAHA! Sorry.) Anyway, we were studying John 4 in our class a couple of weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it. In our class…
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Sermon: Genesis 42-45, Joseph and his Brothers Reconciled
On Sunday night I preached at the evening service of Christ Church Cockfosters. I haven’t got the audio available just yet, but if you’d like to read the approximate text of what I preached, I’ve attached the script. If I get the audio too I will update this post. You might want to have the passage…
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Knowing God: Children of God
This is the final part of my lent series on J.I. Packer’s ‘Knowing God’ – first post here. I’ve now finished reading ‘Knowing God’, and I found it to be an excellent book! I’d like to blog on just one more chapter – although all of them were helpful. The chapter in question talks about being…
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Knowing God: God’s Wrath
This is part of my lent series on J.I. Packer’s ‘Knowing God’ – first post here. A few years ago we went to New Word Alive (you may remember me blogging about the experience … but probably not). Anyway, I recall thinking in one of the main meetings, “every song we’ve sung tonight so far…
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Knowing God: God’s Love
This is part of my Lent series on J.I. Packer’s ‘Knowing God’ – first post here. “God is Love” has to be one of the most famous statements about God in the Bible (1 John 4:8, 16) – it’s in the passage which is often read out at weddings. But, it is also one of…
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Knowing God: God’s Wisdom
This is the third part of blogging my way through “Knowing God” – see the intro post here. Yesterday I read the chapter “God’s Wisdom and Ours”, which I really needed to hear! One thing which I found particularly helpful was Jim Packer’s analogy about a railway station. Allow me to explain. If you go…
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Co-workers with God
This is the second of my lenten reflections on Knowing God (see the first post here). I’m not going to be blogging my way through every chapter, but only bits and pieces that strike me particularly. Well, I was especially struck when reading the chapter ‘Knowing and Being Known’: What happens is that the almighty Creator,…