Category Archives: Christian Life

Prayer postures

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‘Hands together, eyes shut tight.’

That’s the way generations of children were taught to pray.

Curiously, many different prayer postures are described in Scripture, but not that one.

William Hendriksen (New Testament Commentary on The Pastoral Epistles) lists the following:

  1. Standing: Gen. 18:22; 1 Sam. 1:26; Matt. 6:5; Mark 11:25; Luke 18:11; Luke 18:13…
  2. Hands Spread Out or/and Lifted Heavenward: Ex. 9:29; Ex. 17:11, 12; 1 Kings 8:22; Neh. 8:6; Psalm 63:4; Psalm 134:2; Psalm 141:2; Is.
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What is sanctification?

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It is a principle of grace savingly wrought, whereby the heart becomes holy, and is made after God’s own heart. A sanctified person bears not only God’s name—but his image. In opening the nature of sanctification, I shall lay down these seven positions:

(1.) Sanctification is a SUPERNATURAL thing; it is divinely infused. We are naturally polluted, and to cleanse, God takes to be his prerogative. “I am the Lord, who sanctifies you.” Lev 21:8. …

Ten top tips for leading a time of prayer

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With thanks to Tim Chester:

  1. Say that anyone can pray, but nobody has to pray.
  2. Suggest people keep their prayers short, but don’t wait for others.
  3. Don’t get people praying in groups if unbelievers are present so they are not pressured into praying before they are ready.
  4. Suggest people pray for one thing at a time (but pray more than once) and encourage people to listen to others so the time of prayer has the feel of a conversation.
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The dangers and benefits of reading

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One verse in the New Testament suggests that reading is not without its dangers and pitfalls:-

Acts 19:19 – ‘Large numbers of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them up in the presence of everyone. When the value of the books was added up, it was found to total fifty thousand silver coins.’

Another verse points to the benefits and blessings of reading:

2 Timothy 4:13 – ‘When you come, bring with you the cloak I left in Troas with Carpas and the scrolls, especially the parchments.’…

Matthew 18:20 – ‘Where two or three are gathered…’

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Matthew 18:20 “Where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them.”

Christians regularly appeal to this saying in order to reassure themselves that, no matter how few their numbers when they gather for public worship or for prayer, Jesus himself will be present.

Matthew Henry:

‘Every believer has the presence of Christ with him; but the promise here refers to the meetings where two or three are gathered in his name, not only for discipline, but for religious worship, or any act of Christian communion.’

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Abide in Christ

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What does it mean to ‘abide in Christ’?

Sinclair Ferguson writes:

The exhortation to “abide” has been frequently misunderstood, as though it were a special, mystical, and indefinable experience. But Jesus makes clear that it actually involves a number of concrete realities.

First, union with our Lord depends on His grace. Of course we are actively and personally united to Christ by faith (John 14:12). But faith itself is rooted in the activity of God.…

Five types of gossiper

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From Paul Tautges (summarising part of Resisting Gossip, by Matt Mitchell):

#1: The Spy – In Proverbs 11:13, the Hebrew word translated “gossip” means “‘a peddler (of secrets), a huckster/hawker, deceiver, or spy.’ The English Standard Version uses the phrase ‘whoever goes about slandering’….We might use the word ‘informer’….Spies know how to wheedle a story out of us.”

#2: The Grumbler – Another Hebrew word commonly translated “gossip” refers to a whisperer. The Hebrew dictionaries say that this “is one who is ‘murmuring about another person behind their back rather than openly complaining about their behavior.’”…

Praying for unbelievers

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Tim Challies has helpfully drawn together some ways in which the Bible can guide our prayers for unbelievers.

Here’s a summary:-

1. Praying for them

We begin with prayers for salvation. Each of these prayers seeks the same thing, but in a different way or from a different angle or using different language. Each of them is grounded in a specific text of Scripture.

‘Pray that God would circumcise their hearts,‘ Deut 30:6.

‘Pray that God would give them a heart of flesh,‘ Ezekiel 11:19.…

Contending for the faith

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‘Contending for the faith’, writes Lee Gatiss in Evangelicals Now, is a phrase often used by Christians, but not always with a clear sense of its meaning.

Gatiss offers a helpful, if hard-hitting, summary of ‘the biblical doctrine of contending’:-

1. Contending is not a worldly exercise

  • We do not contend against flesh and blood, but against demonic powers.
  • We do not merely contend against something but for the faith, for the gospel.
  • We do not contend in a violent way for Jesus’s kingdom as if it were an earthly kingdom.
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Ex 14 – Baptised in the sea (sermon notes)

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Exodus 14

The crossing of the Red Sea is used throughout Scripture as a picture of what it means to become a follower of Jesus Christ.

1 Cor 10:2 – ‘They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.’

1. Behind them was a place of slavery

v5 – ‘We have lost their services’(!)

Jn 8:34, “Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”

“Sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom.…