Hell is a sphere of separation and deprivation, of pain and punishment, of darkness and destruction, and of disintegration and perishing. The vocabulary of the New Testament includes: darkness outside, weeping and grinding of teeth, destruction of body and soul, eternal fire, fire of hell, condemned to hell, forfeiting eternal life, the wrath of God, everlasting destruction away from the presence of the Lord, perishing, separation, blackest darkness. Sinclair Ferguson, 9Marks e-journal
The God of the nobody
Life, Sola Panel
Hannah is a nobody, the insignificant wife of an insignificant member of an insignificant tribe. Compared to Eve, mother of all living; Sarah, mother of God’s people; or Deborah, judge of Israel—who is she? Just a barren women loved by her husband but jeered at by a younger, fruitful wife (1 Sam 1:1-8).
Does God feel our pain?
Thought
Does God feel your pain? For many of us the question is a bit odd, like asking ‘Is God good?’ or ‘Does God love?’ We turn to John 11 and its description of Jesus being moved at Mary’s weeping, and his own weeping at the site of Lazarus’ grave. It is common to use this as proof that God is affected by our suffering, mourning, and death: that he shares it and does not stand aloof from it. “Don’t blame God,” we implicitly say, “He’s going through the same pain and suffering you experience. He cares.” (more…)
Thinking about emotions
Thought, Sola Panel
I’ve been thinking a lot about emotions recently. This, of course, may be precisely my problem. I shouldn’t be thinking about emotions; I should just be feeling them. (more…)
The dangers of oversharing
Life
Integrating newcomers into the life of your congregation
Everyday Ministry
Most people would agree that if you don’t identify, connect and care for newcomers they are likely to either never return, or to stay on the fringe and eventually drift away feeling disconnected, unwelcomed and perhaps disillusioned. Everyone would agree that this is not the outcome the community of Christ wants for those that Jesus brings to our doors. (more…)
On target
Resource Talk, Sola Panel
I still remember the first time I heard Phillip Jensen preach. It was in February 1981, and I was a fresh-faced, charismatically-inclined young Christian, just down from the country, eager to learn and grow, and ready to take on the world.
Jars of clay: Being a Christian parent
Everyday Ministry
I’m glad this article is in the Jars of Clay series. It feels like an appropriate metaphor, because there are few areas where I feel as weak and inadequate for the role God has given me than when it comes to parenting my two children. And I don’t think I’m alone in that. I suspect most Christian parents feel that inadequacy keenly. (That’s probably why over the years most people we have asked to write for The Briefing on parenting have baulked at it.) (more…)
10 in 2
Everyday Ministry
In January 2010 I set myself a goal that has transformed my diary, my thinking, my reading and the way my home operates.
In January 2010 I pledged to work at the goal, prayerfully and dependently, of bringing ten people into the Kingdom of God by 31 December 2011.
Taking ‘crazy’ one step closer to ‘can do’
Pastoral Ministry
Jai and his wife Jay-Ellen are planning to plant a church in Mackay in 2011. Better them than me! It’s a huge task. But that’s the exciting thing about The Geneva Push: having a chance to rub shoulders with all these different people, with all these crazy plans, and being able to play a part in helping them on their way. (more…)
Top 10 Tips for Sleep Deprived Prayer
Life
There are so many reasons for losing sleep it’s not really worth listing them. You’re either getting enough sleep or you’re not. And if you aren’t, an awful lot of the Christian life can feel very difficult indeed. Shorter tempers, less self-control, sense of life being out of control, feeling sorry for oneself, irritable, unkind, not listening… Sleep is such a good gift from God if only because it makes so many, many things easier. Prayer is one such thing. What can we do when we aren’t praying because we aren’t getting the sleep we need?
Stress-throwers and stress-absorbers
Life, Sola Panel
Are you a stress-thrower or a stress-absorber?
A stress-thrower blames things on others and expresses stress in anger; a stress-absorber blames things on themselves and expresses stress in anxiety (I think I’ve got that right!). This useful distinction was taught to me by Tom Cannon, a chaplain I used to work with in university ministry. In our family, we have both stress-throwers and stress-absorbers.
‘Missional Lifestyle’: Education
Everyday Ministry
In this series I’ve been working my way slowly through various facets of life (home, education, work, sport, etc.), talking about the opportunities that each presents for being involved in the lives of others for their good and their salvation, and the idolatries that have the potential to destroy us and our witness by luring our hearts away from Christ. In this post, having set out a general framework and taken a brief look at the opportunities and idolatries of the home, I want to turn to the topic of education (our own and our children’s) and the opportunities that it provides for mission.
Why do we pray for others?
Life
Learning to pray for others is one of the first things we learn as Christians: we see it commended on every other page of the New Testament; we see it modelled in every other meeting of Christians we participate in; and Christian parents model it to their children from birth.
Have you ever stopped to think about why we pray for others, however? Or why we ask prayer from others? I was made to really consider the question when I first read through 2 Corinthians 1. And what the Apostle Paul says there continues to provoke me to thought and wonder every time I read it.
Forgiveness and repentance (part 8): Does God only forgive us when we repent? (ii)
Thought
(Read parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.)
Does God forgive us based upon our repentance? We covered a couple of problems with such an idea in our previous post. This time around, I want to canvass what I would suggest is the real killer to the whole idea: it overturns justification by grace through faith alone. (more…)