Category Archives: Bible insights

Bowels

Life, Word Watch

|

As a young Christian, I was torn between bafflement, amusement and embarrassment when the good old King James Version was read aloud in church, and we heard Paul telling the Philippians that he longed after them “in the bowels of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:8). I mean, it almost sounds blasphemous, doesn’t it? Or, at the very least, an invasion of privacy. Did we really need to hear that in church? And then a bit later on in the same letter, Paul is at it again: “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies …” (Phil 2:1).

(more…)

Partner

Life, Word Watch

|

In current PPC1 English, the words ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ have been banned and replaced by the single word ‘partner’. I would like to be able to mock this in loud derisive tones as being part of the modern corruption of language. Sadly, the facts get in the way.

(more…)

The servant’s paradox: Part III

Life

|

The last of Al Stewart’s columns exploring the tensions in Christian life and ministry.

Here’s one more paradox for those living to serve Christ and to grow his kingdom. It’s one which has been taxing my mind, because it goes to the heart of what Christians believe. We live in the time that gets called ‘the now and not yet’—the period of history after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, but before the revelation of his lordship to the entire universe. It’s an in-between time, so we have the blessings and securities of the eternal age, and yet we don’t see them all, experience them all, know them entirely or enjoy them fully.

(more…)

The servant’s paradox: Part I

Life

|

A paradox is where two things seem to be opposite, but you know they are both true. It’s a tension, a contradiction, an antimony (according to my thesaurus), a mystery. It’s the fact that too many cooks spoil the broth, but at the same time, many hands make light work. It’s the truth that he who hesitates is lost, but only a fool wouldn’t look before he leaps.

(more…)

On the trail of the Spirits in prison

Thought, Sola Panel

|

No part of the New Testament is more puzzling to modern readers than Peter’s enigmatic reference to the ‘spirits in prison’. Tony Payne is the latest in a long line of interpreters claiming to have the answer. Read on and see if you agree …

(more…)

Raising the stakes: Why the resurrection matters

Thought

| |

In this article, we explore the meaning of the resurrection. Too often evangelicals speak of it as if it were just tacked on to the end of our doctrine of the cross. But the Bible speaks of the resurrection as the event upon which faith stands or falls. This first of two articles on the resurrection examines what the resurrection achieved; the second article will consider what it means to live as those who are ‘raised with Christ’.

(more…)