My friends think that people are fundamentally good and that society is to blame for evil. What can I say to them?
The Gift of Suffering
Everyday Ministry
All we card-carrying evangelicals know the doctrine—suffering is good for us! We don’t go looking for it, but we know it will happen, and we know that when it does happen God gives us peace and perseverance in the midst of it. We hang in there, read Job a few more times and wait for the light at the end of the tunnel. We also know that the gospel of health and wealth promoted by people such as Benny Hinn and his mob is right off the deep end of delusion. What looked like a healing of back pain was really a warm fuzzy glow which came from turning down the air conditioning in the Sydney Entertainment Centre. (I sat through five hours of the rubbish, so you can trust me here).
Not keeping up with the Joneses: The Christian practice of becoming poorer
Everyday Ministry
Few people enjoy being poor. Even fewer people choose it. Many people in the world are born to it. And while we Christians may not seek poverty, in a material sense, following Jesus is costly and may require us to become poorer.
The Christian and money
Life
Money figures largely in our thoughts. We occupy a lot of time thinking about it, about how much we have got, how much we need, how much we earn, how much we spend. The New Testament also has a lot to say about money, and what it says is quite remarkable because it is the opposite to what we normally think about money.
Unmasking greed
Thought
With many Western economies showing strong and continued signs of growth, the outlook has never been better for our standard of living. Christmas retail sales are at record highs, the property market is strong, Wall Street marches on in triumph. What do we have to worry about? Plenty, says Brian Rosner.
Overcoming the darkness: An interview with Philip Mitchell about depression
A black and white view across La Perouse Bay on a gloomy evening, the sea vast and incomprehensible, the shoreline harsh. The old photo on Professor Philip Mitchell’s wall in his office at the School of Psychiatry, Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney, reflects something of the experience of being depressed. The future seems bleak, dark, vast and unreachable; the situation seems hopeless; loneliness presses in.
Devotions and dads
The talk no-one wanted to give
I asked several men in our church if they were willing to speak on the topic of ‘leading your family spiritually’, and I got the same reaction from everyone: “Why me? I don’t know if I am qualified to speak on that. Our family Bible reading and prayer times are well, er, erratic. I need to come and listen, not talk on it!”
The Spirit’s illumination
Thought
The garden and the bush: Two ways to read the Bible
Life
So which would you prefer? A pleasant bush walk through a national park or a leisurely stroll through an extensive botanical garden? (more…)
The devil you know
Life
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us (1 Jn 2:18).
The view from here: How the resurrection changes your life
Thought
Raising the stakes: Why the resurrection matters
Thought
Dancing with wolves: When false teaching is too close for comfort
Thought
The novelty of words … becomes especially useful when the truth is to be asserted against false accusers, who evade it by their shifts. Of this today we have abundant experience in our great efforts to rout the enemies of pure and wholesome doctrine. With such crooked and sinuous twisting these slippery snakes glide away unless they are boldly pursued, caught, and crushed. (John Calvin, Institutes I.xiii.4)
Then shall the lame man leap like a deer: God and the Disabled
Life
28 years ago, my wife Gaye gave birth to our second daughter. After a very long labour and a breach birth, Leah was born four weeks early. We suspected that something was wrong with her quite early on. She was misdiagnosed at 18 months with cerebral palsy, but Leah never seemed to be like other children with that condition. At the age of 15, Leah was correctly diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome, a fairly rare genetic condition where there’s a small deletion in the 15th chromosome. Having a 28-year-old severely disabled daughter who doesn’t speak and who has the understanding of a three-year-old has brought many difficulties, frustrations and disappointments. But she has also brought our family a tremendous amount of fun and laughter.
Doing what works (part 2): The Bible’s marching orders
Thought, Sola Panel
In the first part of this article (in our last Briefing), we looked at the pluses and minuses of pragmatism. We saw that ‘doing what works’ is a quite legitimate path to follow in one sense, because God has created an orderly world. Yet pragmatism has its limitations, as a result of the complex and flawed nature both of the world and of ourselves. We ultimately need a revelation, a word from outside, to guide us.
But how does the Word guide us? In our last article, we looked at one approach, the so-called ‘Hooker Principle’. Let us begin Part II, by looking at a related but much more recent way of using the Bible.
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