I want this T-shirt

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Audio Bibles

For the next 48 hours the Listener’s Bible’s having a sale. . You can get the entire NIV, ESV or KJV read by Max McLean on mp3 CDs for $40 (£25).  .     Or how about this for a nifty little product.  The GoBible is an mp3 player with the NIV preloaded on it.  [...]

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Humility, Trinity and Daniel 4

For thawed-out Thursdays.  First posted in Jan 2008… How should we attain humility?  Determine to think low thoughts of yourself?  You’d be defeated before you began.  Self-deprecation is still self-deprecation.  No, to be humble we need to be humbled.  Daniel 4 gives us a great picture of this.  Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man in the [...]

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Bible by the bys #1

I’m starting a new intermittent series.  Just some incidental acts or assumptions in the bible that make you think…   Here’s the first: Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk. (1 Sam 1:13) The expectation was that Hannah would pray [...]

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Daddy’s rich

Maybe your earthly father had short arms and deep pockets.  Or long arms and shallow pockets.  Or crossed arms and closed pockets.  Your Father in heaven is different. He’s rich beyond your wildest imaginings.  6 times Pauls says it in Ephesians (1:7,18; 2:4,7; 3:8,16).  He’s rich – rich I tells ya.  And it’s just the [...]

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I am in Christ AND Christ is in me

Something I think the Lord has been teaching me recently is to prize both these truths: I am in Christ  and Christ is in me I am clothed in an alien righteousness but also filled with an outworking Power.  My standing before God is entirely outside myself – in Jesus.  Yet my walk in the [...]

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Successful and troubled

Thinking and preaching through 1 Corinthians recently, it’s so stark what a mixture the Corinthian church was. Successful and troubled.  Their congregation contains former male-prostitutes, idolaters, thieves, drunkards and swindlers (6:9-11).  What a work of grace to convert this lot from their dark past.  As this motley bunch meet together, called saints by the Father [...]

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What grace is not…

‘Isn’t it wonderful that we’re now under grace?’ they enthuse. ‘Sure is,’ you say. And then they explain what they mean by ‘grace’ and you wonder what it is they’ve really found themselves ‘under’.   Here are 8 common misconceptions. 1. Wahey!  Isn’t it great that God has lowered the bar?  He used to care about [...]

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God is waiting for you to despair

From Watchman Nee’s Sit, Walk, Stand. “An engineer living in a large city in the West left his homeland for the Far East. He was away for two or three years, and during his absence his wife was unfaithful to him and went off with one of his best friends. On his return home he [...]

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Sometimes the smart-assed answer is the best

The Sunday School teacher asked: What do you need to do in order to be forgiven by God? Billy piped up: Sin   Got it in one Billy. Are you a sinner?  That’s all you need to bring.  Jesus will do the rest.  

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Luther v Cranmer on Lord’s Supper

Given discussion about Lutheran influence on the UK, here’s a Thawsday repost… John Richardson (whose excellent blog is here) adds his voice to this discussion on Stand Firm in Faith.  He writes about the place of repentance in the communion service.  It chimes with a lot of what I wrote here:  I have long felt Anglicanism [...]

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Where are all the Lutherans?

Are you aware of Mike Reeves’ new book on the reformation, The Unquenchable Flame?    Mark Dever says about it:   ‘With the skill of a scholar and the art of a storyteller, Michael Reeves has written what is, quite simply, the best brief introduction to the Reformation I have read.’   How about that?!  You [...]

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Subterranean terror

The first human emotion after the fall was fear – Gen 3:10 The first human emotion after birth is fear. The most common biblical command is ‘Fear not’. Which gives you the idea that fear is a major part of our emotional life as fallen creatures.  But of course, we hide it under a thousand [...]

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You’re a very pretty princess!

The church says “we need to man up, we need to appeal to men”; the Scripture says “if it helps, He does think you’re a very pretty Princess”. Go and read Daniel Blanche’s post NOW.  .

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Bless me Vader I have sinned

Dan’s worried about wearing Anglican garb.  Don’t worry Dan, there’s a lot of cool clerical wear out there.  I think the guy at the back is Archdeacon or something.     .

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How He has loved us

For Thawed-out Thursdays – this one from 18 months ago Three pictures of how we are loved from the upper room. The waterfall, promotion, God’s compass. They all deserve reflection as we immerse ourselves in the love of the triune God. . First, the waterfall: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved [...]

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Not receiving it – receiving Him

Enquirers into Christianity often have difficulty with the concept of appropriating grace.  And given how we often present it, that’s understandable.  Often we tell the enquirer simply to receive grace as a free gift. They, naturally, wonder what on earth that looks like. So we reply with greater vigour ‘Just receive the free forgiveness and [...]

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The New Birth

My great friend (and regular commenter here) Will Mackerras recently preached a cracker at Farm Fellowship (where Paul Blackham ministers). Do we really believe that a person in Christ will naturally and organically produce righteous fruit – just as someone in Adam will naturally and organically produce wicked fruit?  Do we have a proper understanding of our [...]

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