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Healing – The Hard Questions
Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation …lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. Mark 16:15-18. In spite of a universal desire to have good health, the sum total of human illnesses does not diminish. Infectious diseases may be decreasing, but emotional illness is on the […]
Tough Love, Tender Love
He was a burning and a shining lamp. John 5:35. Jesus’ life both burned and shone. Sometimes he was tough, sometimes tender… Just yesterday our family had to ask a homeless, dollar-less person to leave, after being with us on-and-off for a month. She’s been a friend for twenty-five years, and has regularly stayed in […]
Word And Deed
Conduct yourselves… so that… they may see your honourable deeds and glorify God. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you. 1 Peter 2:12, 3:15. The Dutch theologian Johannes Blauw has written: ‘There is no church other than the church sent […]
Accept One Another
Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. Romans 15:7. In the New Testament the Greek noun koinonia simply means ‘sharing’, and is translated variously as ‘communion’, ‘communication’, ‘community’, ‘fellowship’, ‘partaking’, ‘contribution’, etc. An ancient inscription put up by a husband in memory of his wife said: ‘I […]
Ethology And Boundaries
Then he began to speak to them in parables. ‘A man planted a vineyard, [and] put a fence around it…’ Mark 12:1 Ethology is the study of the comparison between human and animal behaviour. Animals and humans are ‘territorial’ – they mark a piece of ground and defend it against intruders. Fish, worms, gazelles, and […]
Holiness
MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people… 1 Peter 2:9. Who of us – in our more honest moments – doesn’t wish to be a better person? Who of us doesn’t want to know what we could be if only we lived up […]
Difficult People
No one should wrong or exploit a brother or sister… you have been taught by God to love one another. (1 Thessalonians 4:6,7,9) Jesus met ‘difficult people’ from time to time. He didn’t get along with everybody. He condemned injustice and godlessness and if you do that you’ll get crucified by the unjust and the […]
God’s The Judge, Not You!
Do not speak evil against one another… Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge… So who, then, are you to judge your neighbour? James 4:11-12. Spiritual power cannot […]
Success
SUCCESS ISN’T THE ABSENCE OF FAILURE! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits… Psalm 103:2. God sees ‘success’ and ‘failure’ more in terms of relationships than of achievements, more in ‘being’ than in ‘doing’… Noah got drunk, Moses got angry and Gideon became scared. Peter could be inconsistent, Paul […]
Law And Love
Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Psalm 119:1. Five left-handed thoughts about guilt and sex: * ‘He has never done anything to be guilty of. What sort of man feels no guilt?’ (one Australian politician about another). * ‘I don’t want to forgive myself. That’s why […]
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