Christians should not be hiding their faith. We should not become spiritual chameleons: desperately trying to fit into the culture of this world to remain camouflaged and safe from predators who might expose and condemn our faith. But many of us are under immense pressure to do just that.... continue reading
The London Marathon serves as a metaphor for the Christian life. For, while it’s an incredible privilege to know God through Jesus, Christians get weary, face opposition and feel discouraged. We certainly want the everlasting satisfaction, triumph and joy of the finish line in heaven.... continue reading
Why is belonging to a church such a challenge? As Christians, we need to overcome at least four obstacles to live out the biblical vision of a gospel-centered, Spirit-filled community in the church... continue reading
I have the privilege of talking with pastors from around the world on a weekly basis. Every context is dealing with Covid differently, but very many pastors have described to me the need to “re-launch” or “re-boot” their churches. After so many months of restrictions on church gatherings, they want to call people to re-engage. In my own context, too, we’re preparing to do a sermon series on the local church which will explore what the church really is—and emphasize its glory.... continue reading
This is an extract from 5 Things to Pray for Your Parents by Chelsea Stanley to help you pray for your parents, that they would find their joy in our everlasting God rather than the temporary things of this world. Below are five prayer prompts based on Psalm 16 v 8-11.... continue reading
To say that there’s not enough evidence that the stories in the Bible actually happened is a little unfair. If you applied that same degree of historical assessment to other events in history, you’d have to wipe out virtually everything and everyone we know from the ancient world.... continue reading
This is so important to keep hold of in a culture that prizes the things we can see with our eyes—namely, youth and beauty. Most ageing happens pretty gradually—we go grey one hair at a time. But one of the reasons why the menopause can be so upsetting is that it feels so final: so definitive. It is an undeniable and unignorable physical declaration that you are getting old. Our culture says that’s a bad thing—perhaps especially if you’re a woman.... continue reading
Idolatry—in your life and more broadly in society—precedes immorality. If we would understand why immorality is tolerated or even promoted, we need to look behind the behavior to the worship—to the idol. Of course, the idols change; few people in the West bow down to golden images today. But the idols have no less a hold, and our reasons for bowing to them are no different—they look impressive, our peers are worshiping them, and our society threatens us with penalties if we do not join in.... continue reading
Refusing to eat the special diet assigned to them seems a strange place for Daniel and his fellow young Jewish exiles to draw a line. But in the Old Testament, one of the distinguishing features of God’s people was the rules they followed about what they would and would not eat and drink. Dietary choice for God’s people was not just an external manifestation of nothing much; rather, it was an external outworking of their deeply held convictions about what it meant to belong to God.... continue reading
Maybe you’re going through something awful and heartbreaking yourself—or maybe someone you love is. Or maybe it’s just that the constant stream of horrible stuff on the news is making you feel anxious and scared about the world, and you don’t know how to make sense of it all. Maybe you wonder where God is in the middle of all this.... continue reading
