Difficult texts that say unexpected things are worth a harder look.
Category Archive: Pastoral Passages
When we sing together as a fellowship, we join the reality hinted at by the coming of the wise men to Jesus. We who are not ethnic sons and daughters of Israel have joined the ‘wise men’ in their wisdom when we come to Christ and raise our voices together to him. One day we will join that multitude of Revelation 7. Today we sing as a small sample of that.
The Christian faith frequently conflicts with current ideas. Given this has happened since Christianity’s inception, this should neither surprise nor dismay us. Rather, we should establish its difficult teachings in our hearts and minds so we can preserve them, present them, and faithfully pass them on.
The wise men were prompted to travel far and bring costly gifts and worship him because of what they understood about this new-born Jesus.
||Pastoral Passage|| The sweetness of salvation must be more than a fond memory. It must be the fuel of the Christian life that propels us forward in the present and all the way to the end.
How often do Christians sing of and to God as Judge? Readers will find this theme in Scripture, yet contemporary worship music neglects to make use of it.
The following is a list outlining 27 out of the 114 amendments that were rejected from the End Of Life Choice Bill. These are the kind of things advocates for a ‘No’ vote suggest would make the ‘End of Life Choice’ Bill a safer euthanasia law and should have been included in the law.
When we look for the restoration of human destiny, we can see it rekindled in Jesus.
“Who is church for?” It is a question I have heard discussed and debated numerous times. I have myself. I have noticed that opposing answers are frequently affirmed without clarifying what the other answer is attempting to preserve.
Christians have a distinctive view of the world and a particular, Christ-centered spirituality. It is in light of this that we would like to reconsider the appeal of euthanasia. We have identified five reasons – five fears – why people, Christians included, might wish for assisted dying, and shown how the hope we have in Christ confronts these fears. All of them are understandable, and forgivable, yet none of them are so dark that this hope cannot sustain his people through them.
Chris Northcott 