“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”1 Tim. 1:5 ESV Paul’s two letters to Timothy are gold, especially for any young person seeking strength and guidance for their Christian lives. I often read them. The above verse can be taken as a kind of program for the Christian life: love, issuing from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. Love: The word in…
NOW FOLLOWING ON! In my last blog I sought to show how Jesus’ life of humility, obedience and dependency on the Father could be seen as a paradigm, an example for how we should seek to live our own lives of faith. I want to pick up on one of the points I made there, and elaborate on it somewhat. That point is that in Jesus, like Jesus, we should make the Father our source for all things! MANY GODS…
WHAT IS A PARADIGM? Anyone who has studied a language, has been taught to conjugate verbs, set out for us in columns to be learnt by heart – paradigms, these tables are called. The word comes from two Greek words παρά/para meaning beside, and δεικνυμι/deiknymi, to show, A paradigm is the setting forth of examples side by side – a pattern if you like, to follow! WE LEARN BY EXAMPLE The idea of an example, is a powerful one. Many…
THE BEGINNING I became a Christian on December 2nd, 1974. I was a first year student at Durham University in the UK. The experience of coming to faith – the realisation that God was real, completely overwhelmed me. I simply had to tell everyone I met what had happened to me. This included of course my family, but also student friends and lecturers at the University. I was probably not the easiest to have a normal conversation with at that…
6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. 7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” 8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.10 For whoever…
A RECAP This is the last blog in a series of 3, focussing on healing and the work of the Messiah. I have been looking at Isaiah 61,1-3, Luke 4,18, and finish off today with Acts 10,38. I wrote a blog in December 2019 entitled “The Good Works of Acts 10,38”, which you can access here https://bibleandfaith.com/the-good-works-of-acts-1038/. This will be a continuation of that blog. The idea I wanted to communicate in my last text “What is the Gospel?”, is…
In this blog, I want to pick up the story again from my blogpost called ‘The People of the Messiah’. I explained there why Paul chose that word εκκλησία/ekklesia, and what it means. Before we discuss the term “body of Christ”, I need first to mention two ways in which εκκλησία is used: The εκκλησία is both the universal church, as in Eph. 3,10, and the local church as in 1 Cor. 1,2 – where the local church in Corinth…
DURHAM UNIVERSITY UK, AUTUMN 1974 Before I went to Durham to study in the autumn of 1974, I can with hindsight see that God had started to speak to me. I was in search of answers. I was filled with the desire to find compassion for other people in my own heart. I said to myself, “When I get to Durham I’m going to attempt to find out if God is real or not.“ I got installed in Grey College,…
I cited Romans 11, 32 in my last blogpost: “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” Rom. 11,32 That he may have mercy on all, means that ALL may be elected in Christ – for salvation on the basis of grace. God wants ALL to be saved (1Tim. 2,4), and his mercy extends to ALL. That does not mean that all will be saved – each of us must respond with faith…
My blog up until this point, has predominantly been about the Christian´s relationship with God. As I recently stated, I want now in a few blogposts to look at the Christian fellowship; the fellowship of believers, the church. It is the church as a theological entity in the New Testament which interests me, not church buildings or denominations (e.g. the Lutheran Church) To a degree several New Testament writers have thought about this question, but it is Paul and John,…
In my recent blog posts, I have been approaching the subject of sanctification by an indirect route. This was certainly true with 1 Corinthians, and to a lesser extent with Romans chapter 8. I know that the words ‘law’ and ‘obedience’ can evoke sometimes traumatic emotions in people; often dictated by the kind of atmosphere in the home we grew up in – by the relationship we had with our father, or our parents. Such traumatic emotions can become effective…
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12,2 is an important verse which I intend to come back to. I want merely here to draw attention to it. Our minds matter so very much! I want to start this time by telling a funny story: I was talking to a great…