Sometimes when God grips my heart in a certain area or when I have grown in my understanding of some aspect of biblical understanding/interpretation, I can allow that to dominate my teaching. While it is unavoidable (and even to some degree vital for the things I am personally learning) for things to come through my …

Abraham Kuyper, the great Dutch Prime Minister of the 19th Century, developed a concept known as Sphere’s of Sovereignty. The idea is that different principalities hold different authorities in different areas in different ways. Last week in our Sunday gathering we were considering the Great Commission as presented by Matthew’s Gospel (Matt 28:18-20). Jesus says …

Conflict and the Gospel go together. You might think this is an odd pairing, but it’s an inescapable truth.  I recently read an article by Winston Smith entitiled, “Getting the Big Picture of Relationships.”* This gospel conflict was highlighted by this article. Pastorally, I found this concept extremely helpful. Conflict began in Genesis 3 when …

I was at conference a couple weeks a go here in London hosted by CCEF. One of the things they mentioned doing when looking at the Psalms in order to get a clearer understanding of what the Psalm is saying is to take a look at what it is not saying. I loved the idea …

As pastors, what do we teach our churches about worship? Do we approach worship as an event or a lifestyle? As singing or breathing? As being or attending? In John 4 Jesus tells the woman at the well, “We know what we worship.” He is putting his finger on the fact that worship of God …

I think that the dictionary entry for ‘pastor’ should in part define the role as “slave to demands.” At least that can be what it feels like. I do not mean to imply that the demands are bad demands, but rather that needs can be so steady that they can begin to dictate what we …

This past Sunday, there was a new church plant launched here in London. They are called The Sunday Assembly. They gather on Sunday mornings to hear announcements, sing, hear readings, and hear a sermon. This sounds fairly normal, but this church is an atheist church. The sermon is given by a stand-up comedian, not a …

God has graciously provided for me to attend seminary part-time. We’ve already had a little banter on Cross Connection about the ‘semantic range’ of the word seminary, specifically whether or not cemetery is in the gloss. All humour aside, a relevant issue is keeping your faith vibrant in seminary. This statement does not imply that …

Yesterday I finished preaching through the book of Jonah (listen here). In the last couple verses, there is a powerful contrast where God says to the comfort-seeking prophet, “You pity the plant…” In the next verse God then says, “I pity Nineveh…” The word pity (ḥûs) used here in Hebrew carries the idea of teary-eyed …

The Church is a display of God’s beauty and grace to the world. It is in the church that the world gets the chance to glance at God as people indwelt by God interact one with another. Jesus is manifest through a Body. God has even ordained his manifold wisdom to be made known to …