Wednesday night is a highlight of my week.
Around about 7:30pm some 15-20 young adults descend on our place. (Actually, they’re all university students, so it’s usually a fair bit after the ‘official’ start time.) I fire up my coffee machine—I have an industrial-grade behemoth for just this reason—and we sit down together to share our lives around God’s word. (more…)
To help you do know what’s going on over here, we’ve come up with a variety of options to keep you updated with the latest and greatest from The Briefing. (more…)
I recently asked a group of young Christians to write a brief summary of the Christian gospel in a sentence or two. I called it ‘the crashing airplane’ conversation: you’re on a plane, it’s about to crash, and your neighbour leans over and says, “I saw you reading your Bible earlier… help!” (more…)
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”
Occasionally at a big event, take a football match for example, you’ll see someone in the crowd holding up a placard emblazoned with something along the lines of “God loves you: John 3:16”. If you’re going to hold up a Bible verse at a sporting event, it’s a good one to choose: someone prompted by your sign to look up the reference would read of God’s gracious love, Jesus’ sacrifice, and our reconciliation with our creator. Only a few words, but it says so much! (more…)
Not so long ago I was part of a church that regularly went and visited a local nursing home, and on occasion ran a church service in one of the lounge rooms. This was for the residents who were unable to get out and go to church on their own, or even accompanied. These occasional services consisted of a number of hymns, a short talk, some prayer, and afternoon tea. It was quite lovely, and there were a number of residents who obviously looked forward to it all month (we could only go every four weeks or so). (more…)
The Trials of Theology
Edited by Andrew Cameron and Brian Rosner
Christian Focus, Ross-shire, 2009, 192pp.
I never thought I’d go to theological college. In truth, I fancied the idea of studying theology as an abstract intellectual exercise, but had little inclination to put that learning to any practical use. I thought this a rather poor reason to go. Biblical scholarship for its own sake seemed to me to be a self-serving trap that was best avoided. This fear of the ‘ivory tower’ is one of the struggles and temptations that can accompany studying the things of God that is detailed in The Trials of Theology. This collection of wisdom, edited by Andrew Cameron and Brian Rosner, is a reader intended for those engaged in theological education: short pieces from Christians from both the past (Augustine, Luther, Spurgeon, Warfield, Bonhoeffer, and CS Lewis) and the present (DA Carson, Carl Trueman, Gerald Bray, Dennis Hollinger, and John Woodhouse). (more…)