Reading the Bible with kids – even the hard bits

Everyday Ministry, Life, Sola Panel

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flickr: Wikipedia Commons: Michelangelo, Sistene Chapel ceiling

The first chapter of Ezekiel (let’s be honest) is some kind of weird. A wind drives an immense storm cloud from the north; four glowing creatures emerge from the cloud, each with four different faces, with two wings covering their bodies and two spread out, darting to and fro with a sound like roaring waters; wheels within wheels, one for each creature, their rims covered in eyes, move in a straight line wherever the four creatures go; and above the creatures’ wings is an expanse like crystal, surmounted by a sapphire throne on which sits a human figure, glowing like metal in a furnace. (more…)

TWIST Reaction 3

Everyday Ministry, Life, Sola Panel

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So was it important that the excellent things that Bob Kauflin was saying at the TWIST pastor’s conference were being said by a ‘Reformed charismatic’? (more…)

After the NIV: Appendix 1—Gender

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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The NIV11’s approach to gender—variously described as gender neutral, gender inclusive or gender accurate—has been its most controversial aspect and deserves a special comment.

A starting point is to observe that all recent translations, including the ESV and HCSB (e.g. 1 Tim 2:1, 4), are more gender inclusive than the NIV84, when it wasn’t an issue. As Rod Decker suggests, “The issue involved is not if some form of inclusive language should be used, but what specific types of language are legitimate and how extensive should they be.” (more…)

TWIST Reaction 2

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

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From all that he said, from what others have told me, and from my brief personal conversation with him, Bob Kauflin seems like a thoughtful, humble, godly man, who loves Jesus and the gospel, and is conservative and Calvinist in his theological convictions. My second reaction to the TWIST pastor’s conference was simply one of appreciation: the material that Bob Kauflin presented was insightful, well-delivered, and stimulating. (more…)

After the NIV, then what?

Pastoral Ministry

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Sometime soon every church that uses the NIV for their public reading and preaching of Scripture will have to decide on a new English version. Sandy Grant looks at the options, and the implications. (more…)

Speech and salvation 4: Saved by the mouth

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

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“I’m not really a ‘speaking’ Christian.”
Maybe you think that you’re not the kind of person to speak the gospel to others because you’re not really the kind of Christian who talks about the gospel. You prefer to keep it in your heart.

But salvation isn’t just a matter of the heart. It’s also, fundamentally, a matter of the mouth. (more…)

An unexpected TWIST

Life, Sola Panel

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If you had told me 10 years ago when I was on the Board of Emu Music that in 2011 we’d be putting on a TWIST music conference for pastors and inviting the ‘Director of Worship Development’ from a major charismatic US church to be the keynote speaker… well I’d have been a little surprised, to say the least. (more…)

The truth that dare not speak its name (3)

Life, Sola Panel

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Why do we find it hard to say out loud that same-gender sex is wrong and perverse, even if we know it to be true?

The obvious answer is that no-one wants to be a pariah, for that is what voicing such a view will quickly make us in our culture. A narrow-minded, homophobic, bigotted pariah—because hardly anyone believes any more that gay sex is wrong and perverse. Quite the reverse. The mainstream view is that gay sex is just sex like any other sex, and should be accepted, validated and even celebrated.

But do they really believe that? (more…)

Two love stories – or three

Life, Sola Panel

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flickr: kelsey_lovefusionphoto

‘Every adult life is defined by two great love stories,’ writes author and philosopher Alain de Botton. On the one hand, there is our well-charted quest for romantic love, and on the other, our quest for love from the world (‘a more secret and shameful tale’). In his book Status Anxiety, de Botton argues this second love story ‘is no less intense than the first…and its setbacks are no less painful.’

-From Candice Chung’s article Finding success later in life in Sunday Life magazine, July 10th, 2011.

(more…)

The truth that dare not speak its name (2)

Life, Sola Panel

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If same-gender sex is not the natural consequence of an innate homosexual essence or identity (as I suggested last time), then why do people do it? What leads them to this sort of behaviour?

The shocking answer of Romans 1 is that God does. (more…)

Creatures of habit

Life, Sola Panel

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“I really should be more disciplined…”

How often do you experience that gaping chasm between ‘should be’ and ‘is’ in your regular daily habits? Most of us can think of good habits we’d really like to develop, but somehow have never got around to it. If you’re a Christian, some of those habits you wish to develop possibly include things like regular prayer and Bible reading; intentional care for others; disciplined consumption; not spending too much time online, etc. You may have heard countless times that these things are important; you’ve probably nodded sagely in agreement; you may even have spoken about them many times out loud in sentences that begin, “I really should…”. But you’ve just never got around to turning them into lasting habits. Maybe that’s because your desire to develop these habits has never been anything more than a vague wish. Or maybe you don’t know where to start. Or maybe you’ve tried repeatedly to develop these habits and failed miserably. (more…)

Working out work

Life

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For most people, work is tough. I write this in the United Arab Emirates, where the great majority of labourers from the subcontinent work 10 hours a day, in 40 degree heat, to earn just enough to service their needs and remit a small surplus back to their families at home. They are not slaves, they don’t have to be here, so the obvious question arises: if they choose to work under these conditions, then how limited are their options back home? There are hundreds of millions of people on this planet working at survival levels in the slums of the megacities or out in the fields, scratching to make a living in the face of war, drought, and flood. (more…)

The truth that dare not speak its name (1)

Life, Sola Panel

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We were reading the second half of Romans 1 in Bible study the other night, and I asked the group what they thought would happen around the water cooler at work if they actually expressed out loud what Romans 1 says about gay sex.

There was an awkward silence. (more…)

Biblical and Systematic Theology

Thought, Sola Panel

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My last three posts are examples of a church-history long debate. One on the merits and primacy of systematic theology verses biblical theology. (Being trained at a liberal seminary, I also recognize it as the way liberals pit bible passages against others) (more…)