On a school run recently, one of my kids asked: “Daddy, is God ever fed up with us?” Over the years, my kids have stumped me with questions about God, but on this occasion, I couldn’t have been more delighted to answer them. I explained to them God’s faithful love [Jeremiah 31:3], His boundless grace …
Free will carries a burden of responsibility because choices have consequences. Although God made it easy for us to choose good [Deuteronomy 30:15-20], human beings have demonstrated throughout history that we’re incapable of making good decisions consistently. Either through ignorance or wilful disobedience, we repeatedly violate God’s commandments with our free will [Romans 3:23]. The …
We don’t hear much about the donkey in the Palm Sunday story. We know Jesus explicitly directed two of His disciples to find a specific donkey no one had ever sat on [Luke 19:29-34], but we don’t know much else. That’s OK because the donkey is a prop in this story. Its Maker, the One …
Several people gave up everything to follow Jesus during His earthly ministry. Some of them left behind their families, jobs, etc., to accompany a street preacher on evangelical missions across Israel for three years [Luke 18:28]. It was a risky, uncomfortable leap of faith [Luke 6:58]. John tells us that these men and women beheld …
Over the next three weeks, I’ll be writing about something that has just clicked for me and enabled me to understand where I am in my Christian walk. Paul holds up Jesus as our example and urges us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling [Philippians 2:12]. The qualifications at the end of …
My daughter is at an age where her curiosity and understanding of life is resulting in some fascinating questions! Recently, she came up to me and said: “Daddy, I want to follow another god!” I didn’t see that coming, but I managed to compose myself and ask: ”Why is that honey?” Her answer was intriguing. …
There’s a classic novel by Mark Twain called the Prince and the Pauper. It tells the story of a young prince who swapped places with a poor boy on the street who had an uncanny resemblance to the prince. The swap was supposed to be temporal, but the prince ended up experiencing more than he …
Years ago, I was chatting with a friend about praying, and he said something like: “it’s been so long since I prayed that if I was to pray now, God would probably respond ‘who is that?’” He was trying to be humorous but I think his response betrays something many of us feel when we …
I was reflecting on the parable of the sower recently and it occurred to me that I subconsciously assumed I was among the fruit-bearing seeds. Reflecting further, I had to ask myself: “how much does the evidence support that assumption?” In this parable, Jesus describes a farmer who went out to sow seeds. Some of …
Firstly, don’t be put off Jesus by Christians. Many of us are so woeful at imitating Jesus that we’ve soiled His reputation. Jesus has nothing to do with what so many do in His name, and one day, we’ll all answer to Him. We’ve all rebelled against the God who made us and the rest …
