Pastoring a largely elderly congregation has shown me how old age can bring new challenges for the Christian. When your physical and mental strength are waning you can feel frustrated and even depressed about not being able to serve the Saviour as actively as you did before. Take heart! You remain a soldier of…
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Like a swift flowing river, progressive culture seems to surge forward, sweeping all with it. Like dead branches, liberal churches are caught up in the stream. Sometimes evangelicals feel battered by the torrent, barely clinging to the bank. We need renewed confidence in the Spirit’s power. GK Chesterton stated ‘a dead thing can go…
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Last month we contrasted who we are (God’s image bearers) with how we are (scarred by original sin). Rather than defining ourselves and others by the (often sinful) strongest urges we experience, we must embrace the gospel hope of the master restorer. The Spirit of God patiently restores fallen image-bearers to the glorious original:…
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Struggling for the right words, the prop forward tried to answer the question. Talking about his feelings obviously didn’t come easily. ‘I really loved my wife and children’ he said, ‘but then I started to have these urges – and I had to be true to my urges’. The BBC interviewer obviously approved –…
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In different ways the Christian has been set free. Supremely, we are free in relation to sin. Sin made us debtors to divine justice, but Christ has paid the price. Sin made us incapable of godly behaviour, but Christ has renewed our hearts. This liberation from sin is the heart of the gospel. But…
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Different parts of the Bible affect us in different ways. Reading Isaiah 6, we tremble before the majesty of the transcendent Lord. Studying the New Testament passion narratives, we are moved by the sight of our suffering Saviour. Poring over the book of Revelation, our minds reel at this kaleidoscope of lurid imagery. But…
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In previous articles we have been looking at the importance of balance in the Christian life, following the lead of William Williams, Pantycelyn (1717-91) who wrote a letter at the end of his life in which he said, ‘I have come to see that true religion consists of three parts: first true light respecting…
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Christianity is to affect the whole of life, and one of the great dangers Christians face is that of imbalance. They must always be on the lookout not to overemphasise some things and underemphasise others. Church history teaches us that imbalances not corrected can lead Christians away from the faith altogether. If Christianity is…
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When you are weak in your faith, where do you go for strength? When you are discouraged, what are your sources of encouragement? When you doubt, struggle and need God’s help, when and where and how do you find it? Our world, and even the church, offers many and varied solutions to our problems:…
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Have you met with God recently? Did you enjoy his presence and bask in his glory? Was your faith strengthened as Christ himself ministered to your needs? Would you even know where to go to find these things? Or perhaps you have given up looking for that elusive experience of God that evangelical Christianity…
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In the two previous Guest Columns, I extended C. H. Spurgeon’s famous caged-lion allegory by suggesting that freeing the lion (the Bible) to defend itself involves three steps. We must: (1) find the key to the cage door (adopt a biblical doctrine of Scripture); (2) lubricate the door hinges (employ biblical apologetics and argumentation,…
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C. H. Spurgeon famously likened the Bible to a caged lion. To defend it, he said, all we need to do is let it out. But this requires us to open the cage door, and that is no trivial task. Last month (extending Spurgeon’s allegory) I suggested that to open the door involves three…
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