Seven things the Holy Spirit does for us
It seems to me that Christians today either make too little or too much of the work of the Holy Spirit. In this post, I want to consider seven ways in which the Spirit has communion with us (with thanks to John Owen for pointing them out in his book!).
Signals of transcendence
Os Guinness, in his new book, defines a signal of transcendence as a life-event or experience that transcends you beyond the normal, material world revealing something deeper which causes you to stop and think on the big questions of life and death, meaning and purpose, or the prospect that there is something more — a reality beyond physical matter.
Fight the good fight of faith
‘Fight the good fight of faith.’ Those words written to Timothy could not have been timelier. The young Ephesian pastor and his fledgeling congregation had to flee many things whilst living in a city dominated by pagan religion.
This Christmas don’t forget the wonder of the Incarnation
What is the greatest event in the history of the world? What is the most amazing thing to happen across the entirety of the cosmos? What story lies at the centre of absolutely everything, past, present and future? God coming as a man. That’s what.
Critical Theory and the Reformation
Today’s Reformation Day, so we thought we’d do something a bit different. We’re going on an exploration of sorts, looking at this great historical event to see what it can teach us about how we should approach one of the philosophies that most shapes our lives today. Critical Theory The Dutch theologian Hermann Bavinck once […]
Praising God
Billy Bray was an eccentric preacher of old. He was known for spontaneously breaking out in song and dance (not unlike David, 2 Samuel 6:14). A lot of people didn’t know what to make of him, was he a raving loony or was this genuine joy in the Lord? When people complained of his over-enthusiasm, […]
On the death of the Queen
I write with the shock of the news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II still fresh in my mind and heart. She was 96 years old, of course. But, like most of the people of this country, she was the only monarch I’d ever known, so much so that she seemed immutable, […]
Surviving the trenches: killing sin before sin kills you
The first day of the Battle of the Somme, in 1916, was the worst day in the history of the British Army. It was meant to be the big offensive that would end the vicious stalemate of trench warfare and win the Allies the war. Overnight the British artillery bombarded the German positions, and in […]
Let’s talk honestly about pornography
Pornography has been with us a very long time. Since people first started scrawling pictures on cave walls, there have been words and images designed to offer an easy physical climax. Now the internet age has made the most explicit content available at the merest click of a button or swipe of a finger. However, […]
Making sense of the war in Ukraine
Words can’t do justice to the horrors of the war in Ukraine. Seeing the carnage and devastation play out in real-time on the news and on social media can’t fail to cause even the stiffest upper lip to quiver. We can’t avoid it, we don’t really want to… Large-scale war on the European continent in […]
What is wrong with celebrity Christianity?
The Israelites were fed up. They wanted a king to lead them and fight their battles. They were bored of living in a theocracy. They wanted a celebrity leader to look up to, a body to see and idolise. They wanted to be like the other nations. The tragic reality was they were bored of […]
Assisted suicide, anti-vaxxers, environmental protests, fuel and energy crises
In the news this week: Assisted suicide, Covid-19, anti-vaxxers, environmental extremists, climate change, fuel and energy crises. We can be forgiven for sometimes feeling that the world is going to pot… but what do all the above have in common? Our God is (capital S) Sovereign over all of them. Tune in to our latest podcast to hear some […]