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From the tale of a garden to the city of gold. From prayer to predestination. From Puritans to Pentecostals. From angels to Zionism. From book reviews you can read to blogs you can visit. From the theology of animals to the theology of extraterrestrial life.

This website gathers thoughts and insights from a wide range of Christian writers, and offers comment and reflection on the Bible, and on issues facing God’s people today.

Ever since I became a Christian back in the 1970s, I have been passionate about the Bible as the word of God.…

Implications of the Lord’s Prayer

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See Matthew 6:5-15

  • I cannot say OUR if I live in a watertight spiritual compartment; if I think a special place in heaven is reserved for my denomination.
  • I cannot say FATHER if I am not one of his family, through faith in his Son.
  • I cannot say WHO ART IN HEAVEN if I am so occupied with the earth that I am laying up no treasures there.
  • I cannot say HALLOWED BE THY NAME if I, as a Christian called by his name am not holy.
…

No ‘I’ in the Lord’s Prayer

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See Matthew 6:5-15

You cannot pray the Lord’s Prayer and even once say “I.”
You cannot pray the Lord’s Prayer and even once say “My.”
Nor can you pray the Lord’s Prayer and not pray for one another.
And when you ask for daily bread, you must include your brother.
For others are included … in each and every plea,
From the beginning to the end of it, it doesn’t once say “Me.”‘

(Anon)…

Discussion starters, Mt 6:9-13, Lk 11:1-13

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Read Matthew 6:9-13.

What does the Lord’s Prayer tell us about who God is, and who we are?

Why not pray the Lord’s Prayer slowly, stopping at the end of each phrase to allow each person in the group an opportunity to offer a short prayer of their own?…

How the Lord’s Prayer defines us

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Matthew 6:5-15

  • “Father” – we are sons.
  • “Hallowed be your name” – we are worshipers.
  • “Your kingdom come” – we are subjects.
  • “Your will be done” – we are servants.
  • “Give us each day our daily bread” – we are recipients.
  • “Forgive us our sins” – we are sinners.
  • “Lead us not into temptation” – we are wayward.
  • “Deliver us from the evil one” – we are conquerors.
…

Discussion Starters, Mt 1:1-17

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Genealogies, such as the one found in Matthew 1:1-17, are often thought to be deadly boring. I disagree!

(a) In Matthew’s list of 46 names, spanning 2,000 years, you will find non-descripts, heroes, women (each with an interesting story to tell!) and villains. See if you can find three examples of each of these types.

(b) What does this genealogy tell us about Mary and Joseph and their son Jesus? And what does it tell us about God’s purposes for the world?…

Caution: Bible stories at work!

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When we read a narrative from the Old Testament, we want to honour it as God’s word written, and yet we may be unsure how to do so.  So we end up – all too often – mistreating and misapplying it in one or more of the following ways:-

  1. Allegorizing.  We neglect the shape of the story itself, and discover (or rather, invent) meanings that seem more relevant and more spiritual.  Graeme Goldsworthy writes of the way in which the five stones that David used to kill Goliath are identified as ‘obedience’, ‘service’, ‘Bible reading’, prayer’, and ‘fellowship’ (Gospel and Kingdom, p10)!
…

How to read a story

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No, this isn’t advice for parents reading The Chronicles of Narnia to their children at bedtime.

It is, rather, a set of tips to help the preacher get inside a piece of biblical narrative in order to find out how it is put together and how it works as a story.  This is the preliminary work that a preacher needs to do in order to preach from the story in question.  It is specific to narratives: letters, poems, proverbs, and parables required other approaches.…

On the historicity of the exodus

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When John Loftus (God or Godless, chapter 5) claims that ‘archaeologists have shown us there was no…exodus by the Israelites from Egypt’ I believe that I can easily show this to be mistaken and misleading.

Of course, if I were to point to the standard Christian reference works, then my assertion that most or all of them accept the historicity of the exodus might be met with the response, “Well, they would, wouldn’t they?” …

Jesus and the future of Israel

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Did Jesus predict the return of Israel to their own land?  R.T. France replies that when our Lord alluded to Old Testament predictions of such a return, he applies them not to the Jewish nation, but rather to the people of God gathered from all nations.

Matthew 8:11-12 uses the language of Ps 107:3; Isa 43:5-6; 49:12 (which speak of the return of the exiled Jews to their land) and applies it to the gathering of Gentiles into God’s kingdom, even declaring that the (Jewish) sons of the kingdom will be excluded.…