Text: Isaiah 37:9-20
Someone once said: ‘If I wanted to embarrass a fellow-Christian, I would ask them about their prayer life.’
Well, I’m not looking to embarrass my hearers this morning! (After all, preachers who live in glass houses should not throw stones!)
In any case, there will be some here whose sails are unfurled and are being driven forward by the wind of the Holy Spirit in this matter of prayer. But there will be others whose prayer life is need of at least a mid-course correction. …
This is the title of a recent post by Ian Paul. What follows is based on that article.
We might well think that prayer, if it is to be regarded as distinctively Christian prayer, should be Trinitarian.
But what, then, are we to make of the Christian’s model prayer, which does not mention the Holy Spirit at all.
Ian Paul suggests that the Holy Spirit is indeed ‘present’ in the Lord’s Prayer, even though not mentioned.…
Dr Paul Sullins (a retired professor of sociology from the Catholic University of America) has recently published research on the harm of SOCE amongst those for whom it has not had the desired effect.
The overall conclusion of this research is:
…‘Despite higher exposure to factors predicting behavioral harm—minority stress, childhood adversity, and lower socioeconomic background—sexual minority persons who had undergone failed SOCE therapy did not suffer higher psychological or social harm. Concerns to restrict or ban SOCE due to elevated harm are unfounded.
Once again, the involvement of the Church of England in the slave trade is being referred to in simplistic and misleading ways.
This time, according to the BBC, it’s Labour peer Lord Boateng, chair of the Archbishops’ Racial Justice Commission:
‘He referred to the church’s missionary organisation, the Society of the Propagation of the Gospel, which owned a plantation in the 18th Century – and which branded the word “Society” on the skins of the people they enslaved.’
Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
A ‘ransom’ is the price paid for delivering someone or some thing from bondage.
Redemption is costly. The price paid for our salvation is Christ’s own death (Rom 3:24f; Eph 1:7).
But many of the ancient theologians (such as Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory the Great, and Peter Lombard) pushed this idea by enquiring as to whom the ransom was paid.…
‘The LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: “‘”The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face towards you and give you peace.”’ (Numbers 6:22-26, NIV)
The Aaronic Blessing is very ancient. ‘In 1979, two small silver scrolls from the seventh century BC were unearthed in Jerusalem.…
In its early years, Christianity Today ran a series entitled ‘Bible Text of the Month’. These comprised pithy extracts from classic sources (Fathers, Puritan, and others).
Here are links to those I was able to track down. Full access requires a subscription to CT.
Mt 1:22f, Mt 5:3, Mt 5:4, Mt 5:5, Mt 5:6, Mt 5:7, Mt 5:8, Mt 5:10-12, Mt 6:33, Mt 28:18-20
…
1 Corinthians 3:15 – ‘If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire.’
Does this verse support the doctrine of purgatory?
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
…1030 All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
2:1 Therefore you are without excuse, whoever you are, when you judge someone else. For on whatever grounds you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.
Who is this judgemental person?
Some think that Paul is directly addressing some in the Roman church:
…‘When Paul’s letter was read in the Roman church, no doubt many heads nodded as he condemned idol worshippers, homosexual practices, and violent people. But what surprise his listeners must have felt when he turned on them and said in effect, “You have no excuse.
