Your gentleness made me great: reflections on Psalm 18
‘Your gentleness made me great.’ Sometimes a line in God’s word really strikes you. This one did me. But number eighteen in the divine songbook is not a nice, lovey-dovey psalm. David was on the run from many enemies. He wasn’t exactly enjoying a quiet, easy life. Psalm 18 is a psalm of war, not peace.
Give God the whole orange
Are you or have you ever been a glory thief?
Spurgeon says glory thieves are like those who suck all the goodness out of an orange before giving it to God. Instead, we need to give the Lord the whole orange, juice and all.
William Bagshawe: preaching the word in season and out of season
It’s a gloriously starry night. The moon lights up the countryside in an eerie silver light, revealing tree lines, gorges and valleys. Perched on the side of a craggy moor, inside the ruins of an ancient chapel, a group of peasants, men and women, huddle around a number of small lanterns. Lookouts are posted. All around there is an air of nervous expectation.
Mr Cynic and Mrs Spiritual: two approaches to Christianity and politics
Christians are often unsure about involvement in politics. Throughout history, church and politics have never mixed particularly well. Once again mutant forms of Christian nationalism are on the rise. So you might think we can be excused if we’re a little standoffish.
The H word
Hell. It’s probably the topic that Christians, myself included, least want to talk about. But is there a more needful topic in our day? Jesus spoke of hell more than any other person in the Bible.
To death with respectable Christianity
There is a form of Christianity that is very respectable in its own eyes.
It doesn’t swear or make rude jokes.
It wears a nice shirt on Sundays.
It’s quite middle class and quite comfortable.
But is it right?
Are you sure you really want revival?
There seems to be a stirring in certain parts. Something’s happening out there. Whispers of a ‘Quiet Revival’ are getting louder. Perhaps God is on the move? We might pray vaguely for revival, but have we thought that revival might not mean what we think it does?
Hark! the herald angels sing
The group of scruffy shepherds on the hillside huddled closer around their campfire. It would be a long, cold night, keeping watch over their flocks of sheep and goats. But their night was about to take a fateful turn.
Tips on reading Christian books
Things happen when people pick up books and read them. Books fire up the mind and awaken the imagination. When we put down our phones and pick up books, especially good books, our lives are changed.
Seeing the Psalms as the songs that Jesus wrote
The Psalms are the songs that Jesus wrote. You might think that an incongruous notion–after all, don’t the Psalm superscriptions name other authors? And yet I have the cheek to suggest that Jesus wrote the Psalms?! What about David, ‘the sweet psalmist of Israel’?
Seeing the Psalms as the songs that Jesus sung
Songs connect with us emotionally in ways that no other form of expression can. Songs reverberate around our heads more than plain words do. In this post, I want to argue that if we want to be more like Jesus and live more like Him, then we need to sing the Psalms just like He did.
Seeing the Psalms as the songs that speak about Jesus
It’s staggering to think that as we read, sing and pray the Psalms, we use the same words Jesus Himself would’ve used during His time on earth.