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The world’s favourite Bible verses

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The YouVersion Bible app has been installed on 250 million devices worldwide.

Which Bible verses form within this app have been most highlighted, bookmarked and shared?  Here’s a list of all the verses that were favoured by more than one country:-

  1. Jeremiah 29:11 (27 countries)
  2. Zechariah 14:9 (9 countries)
  3. Romans 8:28 (9 countries)
  4. Joshua 1:9 (4 countries)
  5. Philippians 4:6-7 (3 countries)
  6. Isaiah 41:10 (3 countries)
  7. Luke 24:25 (2 countries)
  8. Philippians 4:13 (2 countries)

It is perhaps surprising that John 3:16 does not feature at all in the list (i.e.…

The Bible and same-sex relationships

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When advocates of same-sex relationships seek to build a biblical case for their point of view, what are the main arguments they advance, and how might we respond to these?

1. ‘It’s different when you get to know gay people personally’

Some people change their views about homosexual behaviour when they get to know gay people personally.  Now it’s very important to us to get to know fellow-sinners of all stripes.  And we are much less likely to demonise people once we find that they too are human beings and not just ‘objects’.  …

How many commandments?

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The Talmud records the saying of one of the rabbis that ‘Moses gave Israel 613 commandments, David reduced them to 10 Psa 15, Micah to three, (Mic 6:8) Isaiah to 2, (Isa 56:1) but Habakkuk 2:4 to one: the righteous shall live by his faith.’…

Preaching Christ from every theme of the Bible

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How can we preach Christ from all the Scriptures?  Tim Keller outlines how each of the major themes of the Bible gives an opportunity for pointing to our Lord and Saviour:-

  1. Kingdom.  Jesus is the true King and he claims the whole world as his rightful domain.  In serving him we find perfect freedom.
  2. Covenant.  We were made for relationships that are intimate yet binding.  God claims us for his own, so that he can be our God, and we his people.  
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Jesus, the true and better

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‘All the major figures and leaders of the Scriptures point us to Christ’, writes Tim Keller.  Consider the following:-

Jesus is the true and better Adam, who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us (1 Corinthians 15).

Jesus is the true and better Abel, who, though innocently slain, has blood that cries out for our acquittal, not our condemnation (Hebrews 12: 24).

Jesus is the true and better Abraham, who answered the call of God to leave the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void “not knowing whither he went” to create a new people of God.

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Christ is Isaac…Jacob…Joseph…

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Tim Keller, in his recent book, Preaching: Communicating Faith in a Sceptical Age, has this fine quote from Calvin, showing how the great characters of the Old Testament point forward, in different ways, to their fulfilment in Christ:-

He [Christ] is Isaac, the beloved Son of the Father who was offered as a sacrifice, but nevertheless did not succumb to the power of death. He is Jacob the watchful shepherd, who has such great care for the sheep which he guards.
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The ‘perfect preacher’?

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Tim Keller, in his recent book, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Scepticism, p50, notes:

Theodore Beza was a younger colleague and successor of John Calvin, the founder of the Reformed branch of Protestantism during the Reformation. In his biography of Calvin, Beza recalled the three great preachers in Geneva during those years— Calvin himself, Guillaume Farel, and Pierre Viret. Farel, said Beza, was the most fiery, passionate, and forceful in his sermonic delivery.
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Hallowed be your name

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Matthew 6:9

Notes for a short group Bible study.  They were going through the Lord’s Prayer, one line per week, and I was asked to take this line with them.

Names

Share something about your name

Names in Scripture

Deborah (Bee); Jonah (Dove); Esau (hairy); Benoni (Son of my sorrow); Ichabod (The glory has departed)

Change of name – Abram/Abraham; Jacob/Israel; Simon/Peter; Saul/Paul

Names of God

Ex 3:13-15 (“What is his name?” … ” ’… The Lord, the God of your fathers…has sent me to you.’” …

A world without Down’s Syndrome?

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In England and Wales between 1989 and 2012 almost 20,000 babies were diagnosed pre-natally with Down’s Syndrome.  Of these, 92% were aborted.

Recently, the UK government has decided to roll out a new pre-natal test (NIPT test) for Down’s Syndrome.  It is thought to be 98% accurate.  It is likely to lead to over 100 Down’s Syndrome babies being identified each year, with the expectation that most of these, too, will be aborted.

In a TV programme this autumn, actress Sally Phillips (mother of an 11-year-old son, Olly, who has Down’s Syndrome), asked, ‘What’s so dreadful about Down’s Syndrome?’  …

The Day the Revolution Began

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I’ve been going through Tom Wright’s important new book The Day the Revolution Began: Rethinking the Meaning of Jesus’ Crucifixion (SPCK, 2016) with a fine tooth-comb.  Here I offer a synopsis of what I think Wright is saying.

Part One: Introduction

1. A Vitally Important Scandal

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