Author Archives: admin

50 politically incorrect thoughts for men – 1

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Eggs are Expensive, Sperm is Cheap, by Greg Krehbiel.  Crowhill Publishing, 2014.

Subtitled ’50 politically incorrect thoughts for men’, this little book aims to unsettle modern assumptions about women and men.  Krehbiel invites us to consider that the ‘traditional’ way of understanding the two sexes may not be as oppressive as we have been told it is, and that today’s ideology may actually be very harmful to us all.  He develops this in a disarming, amusing, and gently outrageous way.…

Delivery – 20 questions

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Peter Mead has posted a checklist of 20 questions (well, 88, actually, but they boil down to 20) about a preacher’s delivery.

I summarise:-

  1. What do your tone and manner communicate to your hearers?
  2. Does your speech flow smoothly?
  3. How is your eye contact?
  4. Are your notes working for you, or against you?
  5. Does your preaching furniture get in the way?
  6. What are your feet doing while you preach?
  7. Do your gestures complement what you are saying?
…

Mk 10:52 – “Your faith has healed you” – sermon notes

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Text: Mark 10:52

An effect: ‘healed’

‘Sozo’ = to save.

We tend to think of salvation as

  • accepting Jesus into our hearts
  • experiencing the love of God
  • going to heaven when we die

Clearly, salvation for Bartimaeus involved physical healing.  But there is a hint in the word itself that something more than physical healing is going on here: he received his sight; and he became a disciple (v52)

Mark 10 – ‘to inherit eternal life’ (v17), ‘to enter the kingdom of God’ (vv23-26), and ‘to be saved’ (v26) are used synonymously.…

Mark 10:46-52 – An unlikely candidate (sermon notes)

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Text: Mark 10:46-52

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.  There he would suffer many things.   He must be killed and after three days rise again.  But what of the people travelling with him, and those he meets on the way?

In 10:13-16 the disciples rebuked those who brought little children to Jesus, but he said, “Let them come to me, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

In 10:17-31 a wealthy young man asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” …

Psa 32 – Forgiven! – sermon notes

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Text: Psalm 32

Happiness is ‘…an unexpected piece of chocolate’, ‘…Friday’; ‘…being married to your best friend’.

Here is the biblical answer.

1. Problem confronted, 3-5

‘Don’t be negative’.  ‘I know I’m not perfect’.  ‘Don’t go to church to be told I’m a sinner, I go to to be comforted, to be uplifted’.

Synonyms: rebellion, wandering away, twistedness.

How ridiculous to think that we can hide our sin from the all-seeing eye of God.  Yet ever since the days of Adam and Eve people have been trying to do precisely that.…

Who is Christianity for?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Christianity is not for the self-sufficient, but for those who know they are needy.  Jesus takes the poverty-stricken, and makes them rich.  He takes the foolish, and gives them wisdom.  He takes the weak, and gives them strength.  He takes mourners, and gives them comfort.  He takes nobodies, and makes them somebodies.  He looks for the lost, and finds them.  He takes those who have not, and gives them all they need.  He doesn’t call those who think they are good, but those who know that are bad.  …

Cultural commentary: what, why and how?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

It is all to easy for Christians either to ignore contemporary culture, or to demonise it as ‘bad’ without even trying to understand it.

Trevin Wax says that ‘examining a cultural artifact is not a statement on the spiritual state of an artist; neither is it a blanket endorsement or condemnation of a product.’  Rather, ‘cultural commentaries are an exercise in cultural literacy, what Kevin Vanhoozer describes as “discerning the meaning of cultural texts and trends in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”’…

Assurance to be desired

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Although one can have faith without assurance, belief without confidence, nevertheless assurance of salvation is much to be desired.  It provides comfort and strength in challenging times.  So writes J.C. Ryle:-

1. Assurance will help a man to bear poverty and loss. It will teach him to say, “I know that I have in heaven a better and more enduring substance. Silver and gold have I none, but grace and glory are mine, and these can never make themselves wings and flee away.

…

The case of the rotting fisherman

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Richard Bauckham offers vivid demonstration of how reliable eyewitness testimony can be.  I was particularly drawn to this pair of accounts relating to the same incident, because it took place in my home county of Norfolk, England.

In June, 1901 a local newspaper carried the following report:

STRANGE TRAGEDY AT WINTERTON - Body Found in the Sandhills
Late on Tuesday, a gruesome find was made on the sandhills at Winterton, a large fishing village eight miles north of Yarmouth.
…

Do I make myself clear?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Clarity in oral communication comes naturally to some gifted communicators.  The rest of us need to work at it.  The following is based on this post by Andy Naselli, which is itself based on Millar & Campbell’s book (details at the bottom):-

  1. Less is more. . . . Say less, and people will remember more.
  2. It’s all about the ‘big idea’. . . . It’s easier to catch a ball than a handful of sand.
  3. Use simple, ordinary words .
…