Marriage rate at its lowest since records began
The proportion of Britons choosing to marry is at the lowest level since the figure was first calculated in 1862, according to The Times. Read the article here.…
Category Archives: Family & Society
The ‘Sluggard’ in Proverbs
The ‘sluggard’ in the book of Proverbs is, writes Derek Kidner, a figure of tragi-comedy, with animal laziness, Prov 26:14 (a bad habit solidifying into a trait) and preposterous excuses, 26:13; 22:13. He speaks of, and to, the lazy in any and every age:-…
Biblical teaching on war
One of the most common and serious objections to Christian faith is that the Bible (especially the Old Testament) is ‘full’ of bloodshed that has been carried out in the name of, or even at the express command of, God.
I don’t want to offer glib answers to this objection. However, it may be useful to try to summarise, as briefly and as honestly as I can, what the Bible teaches about war.
1. War is repugnant to God, 1 Chron 22:8f; Psa 68:30; 120:6f; Isa 10:13ff; Amos 1:11, 13.…
Christian missionaries – a story of oppression?
For many, the story of Christian missions is a story of oppression of other people and their cultures.
Colonialism
The activities of missionaries are often linked with those of colonists and criminals. As one 1990 children’s book has it, “The Europeans regarded the Aborigines as a heathen people who needed to be converted to Christianity, and put to work for the benefit of Europeans…Aboriginal lands were confiscated, their children taken away and put in Christian mission stations, their water holes poisoned, and many of their people massacred.”…
Evangelism and social action
Christians have often perceived a tension between evangelism and social action. Evangelicals have usually stressed the former, whereas liberals have invariably emphasised the latter. John Stott writes: ‘the evangelical stereotype has been to spiritualise the gospel, and deny its social implications; while the ecumenical stereotype has been the politicise it, and deny its offer of salvation to sinners. The polarisation has been a disaster.’
The Need for Holistic Mission
Speaking at the World Congress on Evangelism in Bertin in 1966, Carl Henry stated, ‘that evangelical Christians have a message doubly relevant to the present social crisis…For they know the God of justice and of justification…Whenever Christianity has been strong in the life of a nation, it has had an interest in both law and gospel, in the state as well as the church, in jurisprudence and in evangelism.’…
Prov 6:6-8, etc. – Work – sermon notes
Here are notes of a sermon on work, based on relevant passages in the book of Proverbs.
Work is, of course, a major part of most people’s lives. For many people, work (in the form of paid employment) takes up half their waking hours. And then there’s all the other kinds of work that people do – housework, school-work, voluntary work and all the rest. Many people – especially women – work long and unsocial hours caring for children and families, and this is surely one of the most valuable kinds of work of all.…
The Christian approach to other religions
I. The Challenge of Religious Pluralism
1. Only a generation ago, the following lines would have been sung enthusiastically in Christian gatherings, especially when thoughts were focussed on the theme of world missions:-
Let the song go round the earth,
Lands where Islam’s sway
Darkly broods o’er home and hearth,
Cast their bonds away.
Nowadays, however, the invitation to sing such lines would lead to puzzlement, embarrassment, or even anger. The sentiment contained in this hymn seems patronising, arrogant, and just plain mistaken.…
What Jesus did for children
In many cultures, children are not really recognised as persons in their own right. In Western society, it took authors such as Lewis Carroll to begin portray children as creative and playful.
In New Testament times, children were seen as relatively insignificant and unimportant. This is hinted at in the Gospels, where Jesus as a child is rarely mentioned by name (Matthew refers to his as ‘the child’ eight times, and Luke does the same for both John and Jesus – see Lk 1:76; 2:48).…
Friendship
I read somewhere of a man who was working in the garden of his new home, when his lawnmower had broken down. He tried fruitlessly for two hours trying to get it going again. Suddenly, one of his neighbours appeared with a handful of tools. “Can I help?” he asked. In twenty minutes he had the mower working beautifully. “Thanks a lot,” the newcomer said. “And may I ask you, what do you make with such a fine set of tools?”…
Children’s Letters to God
A bit of light relief. Here are a few of my favourites from Children’s Letters to God:-
Dear God…
‘I would like all the bad things to stop.’
‘My father is mean. Please get him not to be. But don’t hurt him.’
‘Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones why don’t you just keep the ones you’ve got now?’
‘Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up.’…