Category: Faith
-
psalm 120… a pilgrim believer
Psalm 120 In my distress I called to the LORD,and he answered me.2 Deliver me, O LORD,from lying lips,from a deceitful tongue.3 What shall be given to you,and what more shall be done to you,you deceitful tongue?4 A warrior’s sharp arrows,with glowing coals of the broom tree!5 Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech,that…
-
depression and fatigue
Psalms 28:7-8 7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. 8 The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. I have struggled with depression for…
-
all israel saved
And in this way all Israel will be saved… 5 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be…
-
israel in the bible
Israel in recent history Israel is the focus of much of the world at the moment. The atrocities inflicted by Hamas and Israel’s response have captured the world’s attention. For some, Israel’s response in Gaza is disproportionate, while for others it is necessary despite the loss of innocent lives caught up in the war. At…
-
john (3) …that all might believe.
The first two parts of this trilogy of posts were written some time ago. 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been…
-
god is good
God is Good I struggle with a depressive illness and find it difficult at times to think. At such times, I often repeat to myself ‘God is good… God is good’. To repeat this gently inside my mind can be a real balm for my soul. Metaphorically, it lifts up my head. In this simple…
-
psalm 85… revive us again.
Psalm 85 ‘Will you not revive us again’ To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. LORD, you were favourable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. 2 You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah. 3 You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your…
-
israel past, present and future
This is a rather long post. I hope it rewards those who read it. Psalm 83 1 O God, do not keep silence;do not hold your peace or be still, O God!2 For behold, your enemies make an uproar;those who hate you have raised their heads.3 They lay crafty plans against your people;they consult together…
-
creation and evolution
Intro This post as a short and tentative interaction with the creation vs evolution debate. It is a debate I have generally avoided and in truth, not having a scientific bent of mind, it is not an abate that greatly attracts me. However, reading Genesis 1-11 has inclined me to engage a little with the…
-
patriarchy and christ
Patriarchy Patriarchy or male leadership has fallen on bad times. Across the political divide egalitarian views preside., at least ostensibly. Arguably, both misogyny and misandry both exist. Feminism, which has laudable intentions inevitably becomes divisive as partisan movements inevitably do. In fact, the rise of feminism has arguably created a society where men often feel…
-
lucy letby and the banality of evil.
A recent murder trial in the UK shocked the nation. Lucy Letby, a young personable nurse in her early thirties was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others. The nation’s shock is two-fold. Firstly, the murder of helpless babies, actually, premature babies, is unspeakable. Secondly, Lucy Letby does not fit our…
-
glory at the cross
Glory at the Cross God’s glory is his greatest concern. It is his pleasure to reveal his glory (splendour) God and our delight to give him glory (honour and magnify him). It is the revealing of his glory that stirs worship and produces in us our greatest happiness in the contemplation of his majesty. The…
-
unto us a child is born…
I don’t know about you but there are times I see the world as an increasingly hostile and threatening place. It can be threatening to non-Christians and is so for many in some deeply troubled places in the world. For Christians it is threatening too for it is at heart hostile to God. This has…
-
human arrogance and its end
Isaiah 9:8 The Lord has sent a word against Jacob,and it will fall on Israel;9 and all the people will know,Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:10 “The bricks have fallen,but we will build with dressed stones;the sycamores have been cut down,but we will put cedars in their…
-
great is your faithfulness
Lamentations 3:21- 26 21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in…
-
responding to trials… Coronavirus
Coping with our thoughts can be difficult in trying times. There are fears and concerns that can cross our minds that it is right to banish as unbelief. Our Heavenly Father knows our every need and we can trust him to meet it. However, when God brings us into trials, we should ask what he…
-
a new year confession… the lord is my helper
‘I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? A new year opens before us with its fresh prospects and challenges. Our world is a more dangerous place than it was even a year ago. How can we enter 2016 fearlessly and with hope? The answer is simple; we…
-
handling worry and anxiety
Many Christians struggle with worry and anxiety. I do, because I struggle from time to time with a depressive illness, the main symptom of which for me tends to be anxiety (triggered often by some apparent moral dilemma). So dealing with anxiety is something I know a little about. How do we overcome it? …
-
preaching about suicide
First of all, a further apology for such a time between posts. Productivity is likely to remain low over the next couple of months so apologies again in advance. On a recent Sunday past, a group of students from a nearby Bible College were responsible for our Morning Bible Hour. Their preacher was a young…
-
the psalms – experiences of ot faith realized and resolved in christ
The Psalms are the expression of faith in Israel. They reveal the complexity of thoughts and feelings that were the response of faith to the experience of life in the old covenant. Moreover, they gave individual Israelites the language and thought-forms to express and interpret their own experience according to faith. If they express the…
-
works of law and works of grace
In a recent blog I argued that Christianity is all grace. The OT Law, by contrast, was a covenant of works. It did not function on the premise of grace or faith but human achieving. Paul makes this crystal clear in Galatians. Gal 3:10-14 (ESV) For all who rely on works of the law are…
-
questions we must shelve
It has become quite trendy to assume asking questions in the Christian faith is a good thing. And of course by and large it is. However, not all questions are good. We saw in the last post that questions ostensibly asked to inquire can really be intended to subvert. Satan is a master at this…
-
learning to lean
An illustration About 30 years ago (can’t believe it is so long ago) I decided to learn to windsurf (or boardsail). I needed to do something physical for the good of my health and windsurfing seemed sufficiently edgy and ‘cool’ (though I don’t think the word existed then) for a dude like me. Anyway so…
-
eschatology precedes everything
In theology eschatology comes first. That is, in God’s plan, the End precedes the Beginning. Or, if you like, the End shapes the Means. God’s eternal plan to head up all things in Christ frames everything that goes before. Thus new creation precedes and explains creation; the New Jerusalem precedes and explains the Garden; Christ…
-
the trying of your faith… (3)
Faith faces testing. We are considering the testing of faith by troubles in life. Ill-health, difficult relationships, unemployment, and many other difficult circumstances test faith. We noted that we should not be dismayed by these as they are precisely what the Bible says life in this world will be like. Many, says the Psalmist, are…
-
casino faith
Christians have a right standing with God by faith. Faith is both objective and subjective, that is, it is as much about what we believe as believing itself. Who and what we trust is as important as the fact that we trust. Sometimes the ‘who and what we trust’ is referred to as ‘the faith’.…
-
should we question God?
For some Christians the very idea that any would question God is profane and impious. For other Christians questioning God seems almost to be a mark of Christian liberty, even maturity. Who is right? The truth is that it is not so much the questioning of God that is the issue, rather it is the…
-
the hope of righteousness
Gal 5:5 (ESV) For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. It is worth a comment or two on this text. Some, like N T Wright, suggest ‘the hope of righteousness’ refers to future justification. It may well do so, and I am not prepared to assert dogmatically…
-
sincerity the new saving faith
It appears that to many, including some evangelicals, God will open the doors of heaven to all who were sincere in life, even if they were sincerely and profoundly wrong. However appealing such an idea is at a disneyesque level, it is wishful thinking. The Bible never views sincerity as a basis for eternal life.…
-
the righteous shall live by faith (2)
Hab 2:4 (ESV) …the righteous shall live by his faith. Many scholars maintain that ‘faith’ in Hab 2:4 really should be translated ‘faithfulness. The reason given is twofold. Firstly, the Hebrew noun ‘emunah‘ used in Hab 2:4 is normally translated ‘faithfulness’ in the OT ; secondly, the OT doesn’t normally sharply distinguish between faith and…
-
the righteous shall live by faith (1).
Hab 2:4 (ESV) “… the righteous shall live by his faith. This short text, even part of a text, would be easy to miss while reading Habakkuk and the OT. Yet, to do so would be a mistake for it is a text that has key significance in the NT. It is cited no less…
-
is your gospel sufficiently antinomian?
A fellow blogger reminded me M Lloyd-Jones observed that the gospel, properly preached may lead to a charge of antinomianism (that it leads to lawless living): “The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as…
-
god’s women
It ought to be crystal clear to any who read Scripture (though I know it is not) that God has placed authority in this present world in the hands of men. In both OT and NT God’s model of order in society involves male leadership. Yet any who infer from this that women are either…
-
the blood of Jesus Christ god’s son…
At funerals we often catch up with folks we have not seen for some time. I met up with such a friend a month or so ago. Friendships with real friends tend to quickly get past pleasantries. Soon we were discussing our shared faith in Christ. One topic that arose was coping with past sins. …
-
the obedience of faith
In a couple of recent blogs I have tried to stress the ‘faith alone’ emphasis in Paul. However, all who stress ‘faith alone’ with biblical integrity must immediately add ‘but faith alone, is never alone’. Just as justification and sanctification are Siamese twins so too are faith and obedience. Indeed ‘faith and obedience’ are simply…
-
is faith for Paul really faithfulness?
Faith as ‘nothing in my hands I bring…’ is under concerted attack and from different directions. We have considered one or two. A further popular attack claims that the traditional perspective on Romans, that Paul juxtaposes ‘faith’ and ‘works’, is false. Paul’s antithesis is not, we are told, one of ‘trusting in grace for salvation’…
-
is faith meritorious?
Paul tells us that in God’s salvation plan we are considered righteous through faith, that is, ‘faith is reckoned as righteousness’ Rom 4:5 (ESV) ‘And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness’ Most evangelicals probably take it for-granted that a big…
-
not law works, not any works
Rom 3:19-20 (ESV) Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the…
-
faith vs works
Intense debate takes place in scholarly circles on the nature of C1 Palestine Judaism. Traditionally, C1 Judaism was believed to be largely legalistic; Jewish people generally, it was thought, believed they must earn God’s favour by keeping the Law of Moses. Through law-keeping they aspired to gain eternal life. This traditional view has come…
-
boasting excluded
Theologians spill a lot of ink (or hit a lot of binary codes) telling us about God’s Covenant of Works with Adam. What they don’t know about this covenant (if such a covenant existed) they are not slow to make up. Whole books are written about a Covenant that Scripture never directly calls a covenant…