God
Thirsting after God
Psalm 42:1-2 (ESV) As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. What is the ultimate difference between duty and delight within the realm of Christianity? How is it that there are times in our Christian experiences where maintaining a [...]
From Fire Insurance to Love Story
The initial and primary motive drawing me to Christ was ‘Fire Insurance’. When the reality of hell and judgement sunk in, I quickly began taking Jesus seriously. If we are honest, this motivation is a driving factor in most of our conversion experiences. I call it the ‘Sinners in the Hands of [...]
Grace-Based Confession
Bobby Emberley is in his last year of his bachelor’s degree programme at Bible college in the US. As a “pastor’s kid” brought up in a fundamental church and Christian school, he is well acquainted with fundamentalism as an insider. When he shared this story with me a few weeks ago, I asked him to [...]
The secret things belong to God
‘Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.’ Rom.11:18 In our day and age a plethora of information and articles are being written on the subject of God’s sovereignty and how it harmonises with the Freewill of man. Every so-called scholar is writing a thesis or dissertation [...]
Broken Cisterns: The Distorted Theology of Spiritual Addiction
Halloween season has just come and gone in the US. It’s a time where ghosts and zombies and other other-worldly bad guys get their airtime and are erected on stakes in town centres across the country. Creepy! Horror shows and haunted houses proliferate, daring us to be lured into their self-created world of the supernatural. [...]
Feeling Guilty, Feeling Good: The Twisted Self-Tortures of Spiritual Addictions
Her stricken face is etched in my memory. An out-of-town visitor to our church, the troubled woman approached us in anguish after the service. Her problem? Our church’s failure to have an invitation at the end of the service so she could “get things right” with God. Spiritual addiction. It’s the idea that I can’t [...]
God’s Forgotten Attribute – Holiness
‘But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, be ye holy; for I am holy.’ ~ 1 Peter 1:15-16 INTRODUCTION TO HOLINESS Most believers today are genuinely willing to engage themselves in discussion surrounding the nature and characteristics of God. [...]
Doubt: A Self Examination
This quote from Tim Keller’s The Reason for God has really challenged my thinking over the past two weeks: “A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do [...]
Jim Berg On Godliness
I’m taking a break this week. Here’s five thoughts from Jim Berg on godliness: “Godliness is a vibrant, personal relationship with God that manifests itself in actions consistent with Who God is and with what He is doing in the earth.” “Nothing erodes progress toward godliness more than today’s entertainment mindset and the modern church’s [...]
The Beginning of Sorrows
At our ladies’ Bible study, we recently had a stimulating discussion about why God sends natural disasters. The text for the morning was from Psalm 39 where the troubled Psalmist pleads desperately, “I am mute; I do not open my mouth for it is you who have done it.” The implication here is that God [...]
Spiritual Fathers Understand the Mysteries
In 1 John 2, the Apostle deals with stages of spiritual maturity. There are the ‘little children’ or new believers who are rejoicing in the knowledge of forgiveness and the fatherhood of God. John next addresses the ‘young men’ who are growing in Christ and making spiritual advances against the kingdom of darkness. Finally, there [...]
When Pain Gives Way To Pleasure
Without a doubt the hardest thing about moving from ‘obesity’ to ‘healthy’ was changing the kind (and no doubt quantity) of food I consumed. No amount of weights, running, exercise or sports will make up for a person who has an appetite like the whale that swallowed Jonah. So when my health campaign began, I [...]
