Articles (Page 75)

By Not Known Faith works! That’s a simple statement to make after walking through the ‘portrait gallery’ of faithful men and women in the era before Jesus (Heb 11). Christians have long discussed the relationship between faith and works. Technically, it’s a discussion about justification and sanctification. The modern discussion has been running…

By Not Known Someone has identified loneliness and social fragmentation as a feature of our times. We busily pursue our own agendas and make only passing connections with others – and many of these are electronic and fragmentary anyway. This can also happen in church. Let’s face it, church gatherings are sometimes dull and church people sometimes…

By Not Known Have you ever been in a plane during a hard landing? It’s uncomfortable and even frightening. The end of a journey can be a time of fear and uncertainty as the era of the familiar yields to a new unknown. It was like that when Jesus came. Each Gospel makes that point rather forcibly in the introductory section. The coming of Jesus was a decisive end to…

By Not Known God’s will is sometimes clear. Thus, when Jesus was in his garden agony he knew full well that it was the father’s will that he go to the Cross (Lke 22:42). The only question was whether he would obey this revealed will. It’s the same when we have a temptation to sin. If we know our Bible, we know God’s will. The only question is…

By Not Known Where is our sense of belonging and who are our ‘kin’? Many of us will point to our earthly family or maybe to a tight-knit workplace, club or such like. For Christian people, that sense of belonging is expressed in a phrase ‘the communion of saints’. We affirm our belief in this every time we say the Apostles’ Creed. However,…

By Not Known Consider the sounds of the Passion …. Glad shouts as the king came to his crowd’s acclaim Rustling as branches and cloaks were strewn Secretive mutterings as the conspiracy was tested and refined to evil’s perfection The breaking of bread and pouring of wine 30 clinks as silver poured to the betrayer’s hands Clash of swords as the…

By Not Known The champion is a popular theme in books and movies. A champion is someone who acts on behalf of a whole group of people to overcome opposition, to win the day and to bring peace. There’s a current movie example of this theme as Alice faces Jabberwocky in ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It is her unlikely and unwanted destiny to face the dreaded…

By Not Known The Lord’s Supper should be an occasion of spiritual delight and a rich reminder of the generous grace of God. It’s an occasion when we can all face our sinfulness with a sense of the burden that is lifted from us by the cross of Christ. However, the Lord’s Supper can be a perilous occasion. Thus Paul speaks of people falling ill and even…