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Recovering True Empathy in a Fractured World
Empathy is diminishing rapidly in our culture. We’re told that “the average person in 2009 was less empathic than 75 per cent of people in 1979”. Yet 1,500 books available through Amazon apparently have a version of the word empathy in their title. As with other things it seems the more something is talked about, the less there is. Some fear that it is talked up in such a way as to amount to a religion in itself; a belief in the power of “feeling”. Do we just need a little kindness to make everything better? Is...
read moreHow Far Should Reformation Go?
Reformation is not merely an event in the past; it is a present imperative. God’s Word constantly challenges us to ever closer harmony with its teaching. Reformation concerns each one of us. It means taking the authority of the Bible seriously in everything. We need to seek still closer obedience. Not only in our personal lives but also in the life of the Church. We need to reflect on where we are in relation to reformation and what still remains to be achieved as individuals, churches and communities. How do our lives, families and...
read moreHow Does Faith Help Love?
Perhaps it’s a question that never exactly occurred to you. But it matters a lot; especially if your love has grown colder. There may be some distance in your relationship with Christ and a sense of absence or sorrow. Faith works by love (Galatians 5:6) but how does love work by faith? To love God is to know and trust Him. As Augustine put it, “neither hope nor love are without faith”. How does deepening our faith influence the strength of love? Faith and love are uniting graces; they are a bond of union with Christ. The...
read moreThe Christian’s Spiritual Dress Code
We live in a look-at-me culture where image is everything. Many are encouraged to be obsessed with how they appear to others. Thinking less of ourselves in these ways is not humility but another symptom of self-obsession. Our culture generally celebrates pride as though it was a virtue. There are many ways in which we need to resist these pressures but we need to begin within. The Bible tells us that all Christians need to be concerned about how we clothe our minds, our words and our behaviour. There is something that should be worn by every...
read moreWhy Face-to-Face Communication is a Biblical Priority
In our digital world, relationships have also become digital. Sometimes this brings the benefit of making those who are far away near but it can also have the disbenefit of making those who are near, far away. Sometimes we see people in the same physical space but they are in their own digital worlds. It can also be easier to use electronic forms of communication when personal interaction would be possible. Why meet up with one friend when you can chat to multiple friends by simultaneous text conversations? But we miss tone, expression, body...
read moreHow Do I Know What God Commands?
When you look around you see so many different strands of Christianity and churches. You might have asked the question–”why?” It’s not just because of historical factors–ultimately it’s because there are different answers to the question of authority. What does God require from all Churches and Christians? What has God’s authority as opposed to the authority of mere human beings? This is of course a huge question but let’s explore it in the most straightforward way we can. The Bible specifically tells us that we will...
read moreHow Should True Thankfulness Impact Us?
We have (properly) expressed our deep gratitude for the courage and sacrifice of D-Day. It was one of the greatest battles for freedom this world has ever known. There has been little recognition in recent days of the debt we owe to God. President Trump repeated part of President Roosevelt’s prayer from the time of D-Day. Not indeed though, the close of that prayer which was “thy will be done”. Many prayers were offered 75 years ago for this deliverance and in God’s great kindness they were answered. Yet we have to...
read moreWhy True Happiness is so Hard to Find
Happiness research and the science of happiness has apparent growing influence. Behavioral scientist Paul Dolan hit the headlines with controversial pronouncements on whether family and happiness go together. He defines and measures happiness in terms of “experiences of pleasure and purpose over time”. He says this is “the final arbiter of the rightness of what you do” not “moral judgements based on ill-conceived ideas about what is right and wrong”. It’s no great surprise since in a fallen world...
read moreHow Should You Treat Rulers You Disagree With?
In an age of polarising politics and toxic political conversation it’s easy to be influenced by the way of the world. We’re likely to go along with anything which echoes something of our own views. There’s no shortage of cynical comment, media hounding, social media posts or biting political satire that mocks those in power. It’s frequently thought that those in the public eye are fair game for such attacks. It’s part of a wider contempt for authority within our culture. Political comment fuelled by frustration,...
read more6 Benefits Believers Receive from Christ’s Death
Christians know that it is important to believe in Christ’s death on the cross. But some find it difficult to explain how it benefits us. They know that salvation depends on it but perhaps struggle to explain how it is central to the Christian life. Christ taught that it must be crucial in how we live (Matthew 16:24). Paul said that it was the controlling principle of his life (Galatians 2:20). How can we make it central to our life? This is a very large theme and we can only consider one aspect of it. In this updated extract, Andrew...
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