What changes the heart?

Tim VB put me onto this 9 week course about Gospel Centred Living which is freely available here.  It looks great.  They draw on material from World Harvest Mission – their Gospel Tranformation and Sonship courses.  To give you a flavour of these, here is the blurb about the Sonship course:
Sonship: Live the theology you [...]

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Israel’s Tribal Deity 3

We’ve been considering the logic of the OT arguments for the true God.  The argument is not: Think about who the true God is – the true God is actually Yahweh.  The argument is: Think about Yahweh (encounter Him, see Him at work, trust Him) – Yahweh is the true God.
The former argument assumes we [...]

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Israel’s Tribal Deity 2

Where is the decisive revelation of the name of Israel’s tribal deity?  Mount Sinai:
12 [The Angel of the LORD] said, “But I WILL BE with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” 13 [...]

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Israel’s Tribal Deity

This week I was reading Jeremiah 10 on the difference between Yahweh and idols.  It struck me that the prophet doesn’t argue the way we often do.  We usually say ‘There are idols that are tribal deities of the nations, but the living God is not like that.  The living God is the uncreated Creator.  [...]

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Sin is not the problem

I was once in a preaching seminar with 15 other young guns.  We were being taught by someone you might call a living legend.  One session I remember was on how to preach Romans 3:21-30.  The point came when the living legend asked us what we thought the application should be.  Now aside from my various [...]

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Means of Grace not the end of our work

The means of grace (things like preaching and sacraments) are meant to be just that.  Means by which the grace of God reaches down to us.  I’ve been reflecting recently that often we try to absolutize the means of grace so that they become not means but ends in themselves, and not grace (i.e. His [...]

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Amen Amen

If you ever say Amen it’s usually a response to what someone else has said or prayed, right?
And it’s usually after what they’ve said, right?
And only if it’s really good do you repeat it: ’Amen, Amen!’, right?
So it’s an affirmation that someone else has just spoken truth (Amen is straight from the Hebrew for truth).
But when [...]

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Five Smooth Stones – Reward

This is the last in our series looking at various doctrines through the lens of the David and Goliath story. (The other four stones were: preaching, grace, faith and election)
Here we consider why it is that the concept of reward is not counter to the doctrines of Christ alone, grace alone and faith alone.
So let’s ask: [...]

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Light Shines in Darkness

Recently I was reading John 1:1-18 with some international students who knew next to nothing about Christianity.  I was bracing myself for all sorts of questions about the trinity and the incarnation.  Actually they understood these quite easily. (After all how difficult is the sentence “God is a loving relationship of three Persons” or “the [...]

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Church – Jacuzzi or Waterfall??

What is church like?
Is it a jacuzzi? 

Cosy? Relaxing?  A chance for you and your nearest and dearest to recharge the batteries?
Or is it…
A waterfall?
 
 
 Scary?  Exciting?  Expansive?  Never safe?
Or is it… and here’s my new word for the week…
A jacuzzerfall

Here we see the blessings of our close fellowship in Christ flowing out and blessing the whole [...]

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Now that’s funny

Ok so you’ve probably all seen this a million times but I’ve only just stumbled across it.  And oh how I did laugh…

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Plenty more hilarity from Adam Buxton here

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Four Bishops, Four Pearls

I was reflecting today that in the last fortnight I’ve received four pearls of wisdom from four Anglican bishops.  That’s right, I said Anglican bishops.
The first pearl came from retired Bishop John Taylor who spoke at our ordination retreat.  He told the story of a pastoral visit to a very ill woman in hospital.  It [...]

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Bobby’s Back!

One of my very favourite blogs from one of my very favourite bloggers.  Back after a break with some thought provoking stuff, especially considering our discussions of faith and election here.
Go say hello.
.

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Wordled Bloggage

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Five Smooth Stones – Election

Israel did not elect David.  Not even his nearest and dearest wanted David as king.
In 1 Samuel 16 we see the choosing of this king.  Yet it is not man’s choice but God’s. 
The LORD said… “I have chosen one of [Jesse's] sons to be king…”
Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before [...]

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Tom Wright on GAFCON

This is pause for thought…
 
Central to these questions is the puzzle about the new proposed structure. I am sure the GAFCON organisers are as horrified as I am to see today’s headlines about ‘a new church’. That doesn’t seem to be what they intended. But for that reason it is all the more strange to [...]

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