What does it mean for Jesus to be Redeemer? What does it mean that He is Saviour of the world? You see many people have a gospel that depicts the Son of God swooping down to snatch a lucky few from damnation. Souls are saved and saved out of the world into another realm. The […]
What lies beyond death? The Hindu might claim reincarnation. The Muslim seeks a paradise, with Allah conspicuous by his absence. The atheist asserts there is nothing. What is the Christian hope? In words that are read out at funerals the world over, Jesus says this: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, […]
The gospel according to Jesus is a little different to the gospel according to me. The gospel according to me tells of a God who is, generally, far off but when he does involve himself it mainly concerns me, my loved ones and the success of Australian sports teams. Therefore when Christ announces His news […]
We’ve seen the danger and the opportunity of “talents“. Whether it’s the monetary unit or the God-given ability, we’re tempted to abuse our talents in one of two ways – self-indulgence or cowardly retreat. We either show off our talents in self-promoting ostentation or we bury our talents and keep them from the world. Neither […]
When “wars and rumors of wars” hit the headlines, Christians will often proclaim, “This must be the end.” And often they will point to Mark 13 as proof. Yet in this chapter Jesus says something quite different: 7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such […]
…So the handsome prince married his beautiful bride and they all lived happily ever after. Do you believe in fairytales? I say “fairytales” – it’s a bit deeper than that. It runs in our cultural bloodstream. It courses through our literature, our music, our films, our deepest values in life. We have this belief that […]
The new birth is absolutely critical. That was Jesus’ teaching in John 3 – “Ye must be born again!” But often, when we think of the new birth, we imagine that it is only individuals who need regeneration. But in Matthew 19, Jesus had something much bigger in mind: 27 Then answered Peter and said […]
To Peter it seemed that “the things of God” should involve glory and fame (see yesterday’s post). He therefore shunned the way of the cross. But Jesus insisted – it’s the things of men that are focussed on comfort and honour now. Such a preoccupation is in fact Satanic. On the other hand, “the things […]
It sounds like the sort of saying we should use at Christmas. It has that ye olde yuletide ring to it: “Be of good cheer!” But when Jesus used this phrase there was nothing cheery about the circumstances. There was no earthly reason to ‘cheer up.’ Yet that didn’t stop Jesus from saying it. One […]
Everything is relative. By which I mean that all things correspond to God. Even God corresponds to God and has His existence relative to God. That is the doctrine of the Trinity. Therefore how much more ought the creature to properly relate to its Creator. So the vital question arises, how should we correspond to […]
