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Spiritual Disciplines of the Early Church: Ancient Practices for the 21st Century

...B) The Bible is replete with instruction on living simple and being content in what we have, see the following for a handful of examples: Matthew 6:3–4; Acts 20:35; 1 Timothy 2:1–3, 6:6–8; Hebrews 13:5; Philippians 4:19; Proverbs 11:24, 23:4; Deuteronomy 16:17. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and [money]. Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Matthe...

Power Cuts and the Fear of God

... in the Bible. It wasn’t exactly what I expected to find. 2 Corinthians 5:11 is where I began, as that was the verse quoted in the sermon. Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God, and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences. I thought I may see a Greek word with a semantic range which includes “respect” or “honour” maybe, but what I found was the word φόβος (phobos) which literally means “alarm or fright; be afraid, fear, terror”. It’s also where we get our English word “phobia” from! So I went forward a couple of chapters to this verse: 2 Corinthians 7:1Having there...

Francis Chan turns towards a more historical and ancient view of Communion

...class at Bible College)! We would all be wise to reserve judgement on the matter until Chan comes out and gives a proper statement about his new views and says one way or the other if he’s going towards Rome fully, or towards one of the other more historically rooted Protestant denominations, if anything actually comes from this.   Further Reading / Sources: Full Francis Chan sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUUbXzb2atM Short 3 minute Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP9roQQwzsA “BASIC series” on communion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4k5qHuDmEM https://www.theopedia.com/huldreich-zwingli https://patristics.info/ignatiu...

What are the Seraphim, and was the devil one of them?

...Have you ever wondered about what the devil is — or was, pre-Fall? You’ve probably been told that he used to be an angel with God, so then why is he often described as a snake, serpent or dragon? Though there isn’t a great deal given away in Scripture as to the nature of angels, or the heavenly realms in general, we get some glimpses from the visions of the prophets. But what we can also look at is the words which the Bible uses; some of which aren’t translated and so lose their original meaning in English. The Seraphim The word “seraphim” is a transliteration of a Hebrew word, rather than a translation, so in English we often will miss the me...

Lent, Lament and Lockdown

...   The Bible isn't a stranger to times of lament and distress, and we see it often in the Psalms. At times like this of limited food and resources and job loss, we can probably relate to David when he wrote things like this: Psalms 86:1 Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Psalms 102:1-2 Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call. And such poetic sadness from the book dedicated to lament; Lamentations 3:16-18 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my sou...

The Gospel of Jeffrey Dahmer

...one-hour Bible studies and pastoral care. He even wrote a book about the experience and was convinced his conversion was genuine. I’m going to state something off the back of this which will no doubt offend some, but it is for this reason that Paul says the truth of the Gospel is offensive: If you can’t accept that Jeffrey Dahmer could be welcomed into the Kingdom of God, then you don’t understand the Gospel.   Does the idea that a homosexual, cannibalistic, murdering rapist could be forgiven by God cause you some discomfort? I’ll be honest, when I first considered something like this many years ago, it did cause me to have a knee-jerk reaction ag...