What does it mean to receive the grace of God? What does grace provide? The most familiar confusion I come across is that grace is principally (or entirely) provision for the forgiveness of sins. For me this mixes up grace and mercy, which are different expressions of the love of God, with explicit purposes. We need them in different moments, to meet specific needs. Sometimes, the most familiar Biblical concepts are the least understood, made nebulous by assumptions we’ve carried... Read more
You might have heard it said that worship takes many forms – that cleaning the toilets is a form of worship, as much as, or perhaps more than, singing and praising. I take issue with that – not because toilets don’t need cleaning, but because I think we’ve confused worship with service. There are several words for worship in the New Testament. Proskuneo is the most common, used for example when Jesus prophesied about those the Father sought, who... Read more
At the hardest point of my life, when my mind had been shattered by self-imposed pressure, I could barely pray. I had worked myself to the bone through ministry, never pausing to have fun, until my mind gave way and I was reduced to a shadow of my former self. Trauma took hold, and I couldn’t return to the activities which had led me to such a pass – praying, ministering, studying the Bible, preaching, leading worship, prophesying and sharing... Read more
Jesus was pretty stern in his treatment of the pharisees. In contrast to his usual gentleness, he rebuked them in the hardest, most offensive terms, on more than one occasion. Matt 15, 7-9: “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘“These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” Matt 23, 15-33: “Woe to... Read more
The story of Zacchaeus will be familiar to anyone who went to Sunday School, as will the cheerful little ditty this post is named after. Stories that become familiar in childhood can lose impact, and are worth revisiting with adult eyes. Personally I love this story, because the miracles contained are all of the human heart. First, the story, from Luke 19: ‘Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name... Read more
The word breakthrough might conjure images of a dramatic moment, perhaps of a person smashing through a barrier. It might look sudden and absolute, even inevitable, but breakthrough only comes after putting in the hard yards. Inevitably, there will be mental and spiritual distance between where you are now (position A) and where you want to be (position B). The greater the change we seek, the greater that distance is. Inspiration might arrive during worship or prayer, and in... Read more
I was brought up in a strict, evangelical setting. To my eyes, at least, God was primarily concerned about monitoring my behaviour, rather than loving me. If I did hear of his love, in church, it was in the context of how awful human beings are, and that our only value lies in his inexplicable devotion. There was nothing innately lovely about us, or so I believed. That’s not a great message for a child in their formative years,... Read more
Subtitle: In About an Hour Readers from my generation might remember a 1980s TV advert for a well-known photo developer, who proudly boasted they could produce a set of prints ‘in about an hour’. This post is about one of the most extraordinary hours of my life, in which I was privileged to witness what the Lord can achieve, if given room to move. It was early 1997 and I was in Cebu City, serving as a... Read more
In the first three instalments of Would The Real Jehovah Please Stand Up, we’ve established a foundation of God’s fundamental nature, as stated by David in Psalm 145, 8-9: ‘The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.’ We’ve examined how the goodness of God found expression, and at times was temporarily obscured, in the Garden... Read more
Hebrew Law. In parts one and two of this series, I’ve examined the interaction and nature of God as seen in Eden and the time of Noah – whether historic or allegorical stories, the message is the same. It would take half the post to recap what was discussed, so I’ll leave a couple of links here and here, for parts 1 and 2, and move on into the interaction between God and his people in the time... Read more
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