Thanks for everything

Resource Talk, Sola Panel

It was more than your average laid-back, phlegmatic Aussie could take: for about the 47th time in one day, an American pastor with a warm smile was shaking my hand and thanking me so much for the work I was doing and the valuable contribution Matthias Media was making to their ministry.

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The book and the vine

Resource Talk, Sola Panel

One of the more fascinating books I read last year had the ironic title The Book is Dead. Long Live the Book. It was a book seeking to persuade me that books are history. (more…)

Book review: “1 Samuel – Looking for a leader”

Review

1 Samuel

1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader

John Woodhouse

Crossway, Wheaton, 2008. 672pp.

 

The rise of President Barack Obama and the adulation he’s received says a lot about the way we view leaders. They inspire us. We look to them for hope and security. We believe that if we find the right leader, all will be well and we’ll be in good hands. (more…)

Teaching the Psalms to our children

Up front, Sola Panel

Picture my husband and I sitting side-by-side on the couch in semi-darkness, watching a DVD. There’s the patter of little feet on the floorboards. A plaintive voice says, “Mummy, I’m scared. I can’t sleep!” And as always, there’s the same response: “Do you want me to pray with you?” “Yes.” “Okay, snuggle up and we’ll pray.” (more…)

Holidaying with God

Up front

This half-term, my wife, Kirsten, and I (with our son Joshua happily in tow) were able to enjoy a fantastic break in Brittany with some good friends. Brittany is a lovely part of France, and we were with great company, enjoying great food and great weather. We had a fantastic time. (more…)

Bible brief: Micah

Bible Brief, Life

The opening verse of Micah indicates the prophet’s origin (“of Moresheth”), time of prophesying (during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah—about 750-700 BC) as well as the object of his prophecy: the people of Samaria (northern Israel) and Jerusalem (the capital of Judah in southern Israel). Less obviously, it also presents us with Micah’s main theme: his name means “Who is like Yahweh?”, a question that is paraphrased in 7:18: “Who is a God like you?”. While there are many great themes in Micah, such as judgement, hope and justice, the main theme is that Yahweh, Israel’s covenant God, is Lord.

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Sick of Bible study? Read on.

Resource Talk, Sola Panel

Are you sick of reading the resource talk column each month?

I know I’m sick of writing it. Here we are again with another 800 upbeat, encouraging words on some aspect of Christian ministry and the resources we produce to support it. It’s tiresome to write and (I feel sure) a bit of a drag to read. (more…)

Reading the Bible with your ears open

Up front

You read what you hear. Even with the Bible, you read what you hear.

Let me explain. Study leave got me to England in 10 inches of snow. Beautiful. Because it closed the airports, it almost got me to France. How would I have explained that to the college board? Then driving around a country not my own just confused me; there were so many signs supposedly telling me what to do, but I didn’t have the right framework to assimilate them so that they actually made sense. On the freeway: “Spray may be possible”. What, was I going to be ambushed by a tomcat? Coming into Colchester: “The oldest town in Britain. Please drive carefully.” If I don’t, will it break? In an alley way in London next to a huge dumpster: “Fly tipping will be prosecuted”. It’s going to take a lot of flies to fill that bin, for sure.

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Review: “Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament”

Review

It always bothers me when the author or editor of a book starts by telling me what their book is not. So it was with some concern that I began my reading of Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament—a book that, the editors say, neither surveys, summarizes nor takes a position on the debates over the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament. However, it was not long before I became pleased with it. (more…)

WordWatch: Professor

Word Watch

Today we tend to use the word ‘professor’ to mean “a teacher of the highest rank in a university department” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). Mind you, Americans often apply the title to any teacher at college level, and, in Aussie English, ‘professor’ can be used jokingly of anyone who either has, or pretends to have, a lot of knowledge. So today the word ‘professor’ is linked to this notion of having a great deal of knowledge. (more…)

The gospel and the quiet time

Life

Many years ago now I heard a sermon on Matthew 6—the section where Jesus tells his disciples to pray behind locked doors to ensure that they pray to God and not to men. It was, in many ways, an unremarkable sermon. It was clear, faithful and challenging, like much of the preaching that, in God’s kindness, I get to hear. But, like most sermons, it was destined for the dustbin of my mind. Except for one thing: it was the first time I had ever heard a preacher ask, “Have your deeds of righteousness become so secret that not even God can see them?” The question stopped me in my tracks. (more…)

The Swedish Method

Everyday Ministry

Want to read the Bible with someone? Go Swedish, says Peter Blowes.

Editor’s note: See this article on GoThereFor—The Swedish Method—for links to the Spanish and Italian translations. You may also like to read some new thoughts from Peter on the Swedish Method, or see how to use it with WhatsApp.

For 19 years, I worked in Argentina in a context where many university students were unaccustomed to reading. Bible studies in that country (with its strong Catholic influence and practices expressed in the current evangelical style) were often an exercise in glancing at a text and then using ‘authorities’ to prove a point. For example, a youth group would typically read a passage of Scripture, close their Bibles to discuss it, and then one student would then say, “My pastor says ‘X’”. Then another would reply, “But my pastor says ‘Y’”. The argument would then escalate as one and then the other would pull in higher authorities from around the evangelical world to justify their points of view. From rallies, television or radio programmes, they would cite evangelical ‘celebrities’ such as Yiye Avila, Carlos Annacondia, Luis Palau, and then, to clinch the argument, Billy Graham. What they were doing was a Protestant version of Catholicism: they appealed to a higher human authority to win an argument. (more…)

The slow death of Bible reading?

Up front

It’s official: it’s appeared in the secular media, so it must be so. Australian Christians are struggling to read their Bibles. Here are some of the less than encouraging statistics reported in a recent article in The Sydney Morning Herald:
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The stinger of death

Con Campbell contemplates a pointed little part of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

“The sting of death is sin”: that’s what 1 Corinthians 15:56 tells us. Appearing at the end of a wonderful discussion about the resurrection of Christ and the hope of resurrection for those who trust in him, this little phrase can cause Christians much confusion. In what sense is the sting of death sin? (more…)