Tag: Spirit
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Bethel, Jesus, and Dove Dung
Bethel’s highly disturbing book The Physics of Heaven seeks spiritual truths in New Age spirituality and pseudo-scientific quantum mysticism
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The doctrine of God in Ephesians
Here are the key reflections on the topic of The doctrine of God in Ephesians in my series Lift Your Eyes: Reflections on Ephesians
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Gentleness: a crucial virtue in stressful times, with Peter Orr @ Moore College
As measures to contain Covid-19 are put into effect, many of us find ourselves in stressful situations. Some need to live in close quarters with others for long periods of time; for others, social contact is almost exclusively online. As a result, the Christian virtue of gentleness is more important than ever. I have an…
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Gentleness: a crucial virtue in stressful times, with Peter Orr @ Moore College
An in-depth discussion with Moore College lecturer Dr Peter Orr about the virtue of gentleness—a crucial virtue in these stressful times.
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What’s wrong with drunkenness? (Ephesians 5:18)
Believers in Christ have a profound reason to avoid drunkenness. That’s because believers in Christ have a reason to live, hope, and act wisely.
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Become who you are (Ephesians 4:22–24)
The gospel teaches us to change—to put off the old and put on the new. This change doesn’t save us, but it matters. It’s all about becoming who we are.
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Christ: Up there and down here (Ephesians 4:8–10)
In these verses, Paul makes a big deal of Christ going up (to heaven) and down (to be with us by his Spirit). Why? to encourage believers as we face all the ups and downs of living for Christ.
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This unity (Ephesians 4:2–3)
In the classic film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the King of Swamp Castle issues an appeal for unity: “This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let’s not bicker and argue about who killed who!” It’s become a classic line used to poke fun at people who are trying to bring peace and…
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The Holy Spirit: Our security (Ephesians 1:14)
The Stanford Marshmallow Experiments are a favourite illustration of motivational speakers. The lesson is this: If you can learn how to delay gratification early in life, you’ll do better in later life. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? But unfortunately, like many popular conclusions drawn from famous psychological experiments, it doesn’t stand up to closer scrutiny. The…
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Speech and the Spirit
We’ve got to move beyond the question, “Is every Christian an evangelist”? I had a go at moving the issue forward in my series of articles and talks entitled “speech and salvation,” focussing mainly on Paul’s letters. Tony Payne in a recent Briefing article addresses the same question in a more comprehensive and practical way. He asks: How…
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Doctrines Under Threat 2: Union with Christ
Outline (Reading from Romans 6) Intro: Faith and Works Union with Christ in Philippians 3 Righteousness by law is rubbish (2-7) Knowing Christ (8a) Gaining Christ (8b) Being in Christ (9a) Righteousness through faith in Christ (9b) Living in Christ (10-11) What is Union with Christ? Fundamental To be loved by God as Sons For…
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Keeping the Solas Together
From the Sola Panel One of the aims of the Sola Panel is to go back to basics, to remind ourselves of the importance of the ‘solas’ (i.e. scripture alone, faith alone, Christ alone, grace alone, glory to God alone). This post will look at one way in which these solas all fit together. I’m…
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Word and Action
On the Sola Panel: How do you react when you notice that you or your church has a dull, dry, inactive faith, even though you are committed to God’s word? Elvis, in his song, A Little Less Conversation, gives us a model for one way that we could try to solve the problem: A little…
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The ratification of the covenant in Galatians 3:17
We have seen that the “seed” of Galatians 3:16 is referring to Genesis 17:8. In Galatians 3:16, Paul is explaining to the gentile Galatians that the “seed” of Genesis 17:8 is the “one” nation Israel, not the “multitude” of nations who will also have Abraham as their father (Genesis 17:5). In Galatians 3:17, Paul goes…
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Silence about the Spirit
From the Sola Panel: I’ve been enjoying Paul’s series on lousy arguments. At the risk of stealing Paul’s thunder, I’ve got another argument to add to the mix: the Argument from Silence. The Argument from Silence is rather simple, often wrong, but sometimes spot-on. The Argument from Silence happens when you listen to a speaker,…