Tag Archives: Institutional Church
How to pray, when life’s not ok
Praying the Laments The Lament Psalms are complaints, often bitter complaints, against God. I recently preached on Psalm 13 because I think we need to understand the power and the treasure of the Lament Psalms. This was a sermon but I have adapted it a little, into written form. This message is dedicated to the […]
Read MoreEvangelism: A View from the Inside
A State of Being: Freedom I was reflecting, as I often do, on what the chances are that I will be able to impart my joy to others before I die. What a tragedy it would be if I, having received so indescribable a gift, should die without having shared it. May it not be so! […]
Big Fella and the Promise
“This life is very real to me, God” How many of us can stand with Big Fella and testify: “The promise is calling out to me to be a witness”? That’s precisely what the promise does, if we are to understand it properly.
Big Fella is “Justified by Faith”
Neither Death nor Life In a track that cries out about the ongoing toughness of the spiritual journey, Big Fella takes comfort from the sure knowledge that he is “justified by faith”, and concludes that “neither death nor life can separate us”. This is precisely the point! We do indeed have that assurance. Praise God.
Big Fella is “Seeing the World Through God’s Eyes”
“No more jail cells. Bill’s been paid. No more ticket to hell” “I’m like a dealer on the street corner, pushing Christ to the junkies and the dope pushers: people I used to run with…” For Big Fella, it’s personal. He’s still got friends in the drug scene, and he wants to pluck them out, […]
Can Christ “get a witness” in Big Fella?
Is your heart ready to deal with this? Here is a man who was so good at crime that his friends and family assumed he would be in it forever. Jesus took him out of that life, and now the call of Christ is: Are you built for this? Can you handle this? Is your […]
Trinity: Perhaps the JW’s believe it?
Trinity: Have the JW’s withdrawn their objection? I’ve given Roman Catholic theology a few critiques, so it’s only fair that I publish something different. I recently wrote this essay to refute the 1989 Jehovah’s Witness tract entitled, “Trinity: Should you believe it?” My overall answer is that the tract was badly misleading and inaccurate. It […]
Read MoreBig Fella lays it all down, “In these Rhymes”
In These Rhymes Here’s another one from Big Fella. Notice in the lyrics that producing this work is part of the way in which God is working on the man: “Just layn’ it at your feet in these rhymes”.
Homosexuality: The Stumbling Stone of Modern Christianity?
Christian, why is it so hard to love homosexual people? Christian churches have developed a series of dogmatic teachings that culminate in Christians wearing T-Shirts bearing the theologically inaccurate statement, “God Hates Fags”. No wonder many Christians find it hard to reconcile this with their spiritual discernment, which prompts them simply to love and accept […]
Criminal Minds
What does the heart of a career criminal, converted to Christ, sound like? This friend of mine has been part of the Ipswich Mall ministry from the beginning. He knew nothing about music but was called by God to discover, learn, and create Gospel Rap music. It’s lonely In this song you will hear selected […]
Big Fella is “Moved by tha Spirit”
How’s your faith? This friend of mine has been part of the Ipswich Mall ministry from the beginning. He knew nothing about music but was called by God to discover, learn, and create Gospel Rap music. “My eyes have seen your salvation” Be encouraged. This is a genuine testimony. It’s happening in Ipswich, QLD. The […]
The fear of death: A Reason for Faith?
Is faith all about the fear of death? People who don’t pursue a faith conviction like Christianity or Islam, which teach about the afterlife, are sometimes left to wonder why on earth people “of faith” are interested in such things. One suggestion they come up with is that it is because of the fear of […]
Read MoreWhat is the “Authority” of the Bible?
The Nature of the Bible’s authority So if the Bible comes from the “people of God”, rather than falling out of the sky directly from God, how can it be said to be authoritative? The Process As we have seen, the Bible came together as a process over countless generations, and human beings were most […]
Is the Bible actually “the word of God”?
In what sense is the Bible, “the word of God”? This sounds like a simple question to answer, but it is actually a long-running and very heated debate amongst Christians. Many claim that the Bible is “the word of God”, but they often mean different things by that statement.
Jesus and the Wineskins: What does it mean?
Nobody seems to understand what the wineskins are about! A friend asked me what Jesus was talking about when he mentioned sewing patches onto garments, and putting wine into wineskins. I didn’t know the answer, and a quick overview of the commentaries revealed that nobody else does either. Most theories produce problematic answers Whereas there […]
Mass confusion as theological jargon creeps back in
The new “Plain English” Missal: Easier to understand… if you know Latin. Last year, the English Missal of the Roman Catholic Church wording was “updated”. In one place, the words “of one substance” were replaced with the far less well-known term, “consubstantial”. Consa-what? Even my spell-checker doesn’t reckon that’s a word! But don’t worry – […]
Has the Eucharist been redefined?
Does the Roman Catholic Church still hold to Transubstantiation as a doctrine? I attended Midnight Mass at the beautiful St Mary’s Church in Ipswich on Christmas Eve 2011. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and will do it again this year. A couple of things caught my attention, and in my interest as a student of the […]
Church Leadership: Could Jesus be right?
What is leadership in the kingdom of God? The question of leadership in church life is a hot one. The Roman Catholic view, which consists of a single hierarchy of authority governing all aspects of church life, culminating in a single figure in the Pope, is profoundly different from the cell-church/home-church model consisting of as […]
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The Book of Job: (not so?) Friendly Advice
What does the Book of Job say about counselling our friends? A key message of the Book of Job is that, when someone is suffering, there may be things going on that we are unaware of. Rather than badger the person to amend their behaviour, or drag them into a theological debate, we should comfort […]
- October 23, 2012
- / Category Commentary, Reflection on Ministry, The Book of Job
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
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