As some of you reading this post are aware, I left the ministry that I had been involved in for seven and a half years at the end of August. I look back on that time in my life with great fondness and thankfulness to God, even though I had come to the point of moving on because of certain personal struggles and weaknesses that I have not enjoyed being forced to face. It will suffice it to say that I have learned all sorts of things about myself and others in the process of leaving.
Author Archives: The Briefing
The new principalities and powers #2: The mythical generations
Astrology has its mysteries, but at least it makes life nice and simple. There are 12 signs in the zodiac, and so, depending upon when you are born, your life is somehow determined by your sign.
Why pray?
The new principalities and powers #1: Picturing ‘big evil’
The language of ‘principalities and powers’ confuses me. Sure, the New Testament uses it, and it is very clear that whatever lies behind the language has been trounced by Jesus’ death and resurrection. And whatever anyone might mean by ‘principalities and powers’ has been defeated at the cross, so there is no need for anyone to fear whatever it is any more. They are safe ‘in Christ’: they have found a permanent resting place, secure in the Father’s hand. Nothing—nothing at all—can separate them from the love of God found in Christ Jesus.
Motherhood and humble pie
The role of motherhood can often seem like a joyless, thankless task. It’s a vocation that is losing popularity in our society. But, as Lesley Ramsay shows us, motherhood lies at the very heart of God’s rescue plan for humanity. (more…)
Generation Ex
Life
Discipline, grace and the godly family
Review
Grace-Based Parenting
Tim Kimmel
Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 2004, 240pp.
Disciplines of a Godly Family
Kent and Barbara Hughes
Crossway, Wheaton, 2004, 256pp. (more…)
A preacher’s guide to sermon illustrations
Joshua Bovis explains how and why sermon illustrations can be a valuable aid or a distracting hindrance.
Imagine this: a Bible college student is about to preach a sermon in his expounding Scripture subject. His eyes scan the hall and notice the faculty with their poker face expressions. He takes a breath and begins: “I am going to make something disappear before your very eyes, and you shall never see it again!” Reaching into his pocket, he brings out a banana and proceeds to eat it before the students. The man who told me this story laughed as he recalled it, but he had no recollection of the sermon. (more…)
A house divided
Word Watch
Over the centuries, the Bible has contributed many familiar, everyday expressions to the English language—far more than most 21st-century unbelievers would be prepared to credit. For example, there’s the expression ‘a house divided’. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the Republican State Convention in Illinois in which he said, (more…)
One Land, One Saviour
One Land, One Saviour: Seeing Aboriginal lives transformed by Christ
Peter Carroll and Steve Etherington (eds.)
Church Missionary Society, (www.cms.org.au)
Sydney, 2008, 246 pp. (more…)
Bus evangelism
Up front
I couldn’t help but eavesdrop. The speaker was a tall, retired man in a suit, addressing a younger bearded man who may or may not have had some religious interest, but who had a great deal to say about the Pope, the Roman Catholic church, and the recent Roman Catholic World Youth Day (WYD). They were talking about the re-enactment of the route to Jesus’ crucifixion that happened as part of the WYD celebrations. The older man, who spoke broken English with a heavy Armenian accent, had this to say about it: “Jesus say after he die, three days later he wake up. I say, ‘Why you no show the wake-up?’” (more…)
Is God boring?
Up front
I was struck the other week when a friend spoke to me about the hard time he was having drumming up interest in a sermon series on God. It seems it is so much easier to grab people’s interest if the sermons are recognizably about us in some way or other. This is, of course, simply another form of the age-old concern about relevance. In a consumer-oriented age, those who listen to sermons want to know the cash value up front. (more…)
Where’s your ministry ‘AT’?
Up front
Christians and soldiers have a lot in common, or at least they should (2 Tim 2:3-4). Firstly, they both know that submission equals survival. The wise infantryman always awaits the order to advance—especially when the machine gunner next to him is laying down cover fire. Secondly, both Christians and soldiers know that suffering is par for the course (2 Tim 3:12). Members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), on exercises in the outback, don’t get up in the morning, stretch and declare, “Man, I really miss my flannel pyjamas”. (more…)
The duties of parents (Part 2)
7. Train them to habits of diligence and regularity about public means of grace
Tell them of the duty and privilege of going to the house of God and joining in the prayers of the congregation. Tell them that wherever the Lord’s people are gathered together, there the Lord Jesus is present in an especial manner, and that those who absent themselves must expect, like the Apostle Thomas, to miss a blessing. Tell them of the importance of hearing the Word preached, and that it is God’s ordinance for converting, sanctifying and building up the souls of men. Tell them how the Apostle Paul enjoins us not “to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is” (Heb 10:25), but to exhort one another, to stir one another up to it, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.