||Pastoral Passage|| In light of the current coronavirus pandemic and the use of vaccines to ward off its serious ill effects, I would like to share two incidents – deaths – from the life of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards’ faith was in the same God and gospel we have today. The same confident hope is offered and there are the same expectations for selfless, humble, purposed living.
Category Archive: Pastoral Passages
Some thoughts on a letter Martin Luther wrote to a friend during a health crisis.
View post to subscribe to site newsletter.
A short while ago I came across a summary of the gospel from John Stott’s commentary on the book of Acts. I appreciated the summary but wondered what place gospel-motivated social transformation has in it. How does the gospel make us make the world better?
View post to subscribe to site newsletter.
||Book Summary|| Children from families who have immigrated are often said to be caught between two cultures. They belong to their parents’ culture but grow up within another. It can be a tricky tension for them to navigate as they often wish to be faithful to their ‘home culture’ as well as fit in with their adopted culture at school and with their friends.
Experiences don’t make or break the Christian life. They can be a great boost for faithful Christian living, but in the end they count for nothing if what God has already clearly spoken has little value to you. Do seek to hear God, but make sure you aren’t neglecting to listen in the right place. He has already spoken.
View post to subscribe to site newsletter.
Photography isn’t able to capture the eerie majesty of the Red Crater or the imposing bulk of the mountain slopes. It just doesn’t have the capacity. This reminds me of the way we fail to truly grasp the characteristics of God. We might agree with them mentally, but not really comprehend the scale.
View post to subscribe to site newsletter.
The parable of the Unforgiving Servant spells out in severe terms the necessity of forgiving those who wrong us “from the heart”. An issue that arises here is the very real difficulty people can have in bringing themselves to forgive.
Difficult texts that say unexpected things are worth a harder look.
View post to subscribe to site newsletter.
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.
View post to subscribe to site newsletter.
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.
Chris Northcott 