(a) This has been described as one of the most beautiful books ever written. Do you agree? What makes it so beautiful?
(b) What do you think God wants us to learn from this book about love and loyalty?
(c) Look at what Boaz says to Ruth about her reputation (Ruth 2:11). What would a honest person say about your reputation?
(d) What does this book teach us about ‘learning to trust God in the dark’?…
(a) What, according to this passage (see especially Acts 3:13-26; 4:10-12), were the main things that the early Christians stressed when they spoke about Jesus?
(b) Can you think of any recent occasion when a celebrity has confessed publicly to some wrongdoing? How similar, or different, is the ‘repentance’ that Peter talks about in Acts 3:19?
(c) Do you think that Christians in our own country can expect more, or less, opposition to their faith in the future? …
(a) What hints are there in this passage that we are looking at real event, rather than ‘pious fiction’?
(b) If you could sit down today with the man who had been healed, what questions would you ask him?
(c) If you glance at the whole passage, from Acts 3:1 to Acts 4:31, you will see that ‘one thing leads to another’: what starts as an innocent healing leads to an opportunity for evangelism, which in turn leads to bitter opposition.…
According to John Owen (The Death of Death in the Death of Christ), a number of Bible passages ‘clearly and distinctly in themselves’ teach definite atonement (i.e. that Christ died for the elect and not for the everyone). Following is Naselli’s summary:-
(1) Gen 3:15. “Christ died for no more than God promised unto him that he should die for. But God did not promise to him all,” but only the woman’s seed, namely, the elect.…
Text: Luke 4:31-44
If in the previous passage Jesus publishes his mission statement, then in this passage we have a ‘day in the life of’ Jesus as he begins to fulfil that mission.
He’s in Capernaum. In the morning, he goes to church. At lunchtime, he visits the house of Simon Peter. At sundown, he meets the townsfolk. Early the next morning, he leaves.
Key theme: authority
v32 ‘They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority.’…
Text: John 12:1-11 (also Mark 14:1-11)
Who do you identify with? Mary? Martha? Judas?
Where? When? Who?
Mary approaches Jesus with a jar of expensive perfume.
She anoints not only his head (kingship) & body…
…but also his feet and wipes them with her hair – scandalous!
(Mary anticipates the servant-heartedness that will be taught in the foot-washing incident, Jn 13)
(Do we, like Mary, look for opportunities to express our gratitude to Jesus? …
Mysticism is notoriously difficult to pin down. It may briefly be characterised as seeking ‘an immediate link with the Absolute’ (Winfried Corduan). This would apply both to Christian mystics and to some types of Eastern religion.
Christian mysticism ‘seeks to describe an experienced, direct, nonabstract, unmediated, loving knowledge of God, a knowing or seeing so direct as to be called union with God.’ (D.D. Martin, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology)
Notable Christian mystics have included ‘Gregory of Nyssa, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, John Ruysboreck, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich, Therese of Lisieux, Thomas a Kempis, Teresa of Avila, St.…
‘Sense is the light of beasts, reason is the light of men, faith is the light of saints, and vision is the light of glory.’
(Thomas Manton, 1620-1677)…
Some months ago, I was asked by a Christian friend to read, and comment on, ‘The Divine Dance: The Trinity And Your Transformation’ by Richard Rohr (SPCK, 2016). We met, prayed together, discussed the book, and parted without really achieving a meeting of minds about whether this book is a reliable guide to a trinitarian spirituality, or is deeply flawed.
It gives me no pleasure to find fault with an affable Christian teacher, or to contradict a Christian friend who, along with many others, says that he has found Rohr’s teaching profoundly helpful.…
Ian Paul offers the following assessment criteria.
The are based on significant experience both of preaching and of training others in preaching.
Now, I have great respect for Ian Paul. But I hope it will not seem too cheeky if I make a couple of comments that are not wholly complimentary.
First, in the accompanying article, he suggests that the characteristics of a ‘good sermon’ transcend ‘the specific details of theological commitments on the part of both preachers and listeners’. …
