Dr Paul Allen

 At the end of Genesis, Joseph dies. His last request is a testament to his unwavering faith and his awareness of a storyline that is larger than one lifetime: “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then Joseph makes the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here” (Gen. 50:24–25).  Like Joseph, we can consider our death and go to our graves in the certainty that God will do exactly as he has promised. The worker of God goes into the dust, and the work of God continues without faltering.1 Knowing this with perfect clarity, our Saviour laid down his life willingly. Will we do the same? When we know our days are short, will we be grateful for what we’ve been given or greedy for what we have not?  Yes, you may say, but Jesus knew he would be raised. He knew he could go into the grave and come back out again. Friend, so d...

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright. (Ps. 20:7–8) Don’t fear your weaknesses—God supplies all the strength you need. Be afraid of those moments when you think you’re independently strong. Admit it, you don’t like being weak. It’s not fun being the last one chosen to play on the team. It’s embarrassing to be asked a question you can’t answer. It’s frustrating not to be able to figure out the directions for assembling the furniture you just bought.  It’s mortifying to forget that important appointment or the name of a good friend. It’s humbling to fail at a task, to drop the ball, or to make a promise and not be able to keep it.  We don’t like getting lost or forgetting a phone number. We all hate those moments when we feel unqualified or unprepared. We don’t like being confused or not knowing. We covet the muscles and the brains of others.  We all hate being afraid an...

For generations, Christians have believed and affirmed the true story that life is a gift from God in all of its stages. Our whole-life pro-life commitment means we believe every person at every stage of life is made in the image of God. We make a conscious commitment to value all of human life, from beginning to end—or from dust to dust, as the centuries-old graveside liturgy expresses it. But we inhabit a world that is dead set on living in a false story of aging—one that values, at most, only the first half of life but does not value its second half of bodily decline. The Christian whole-life pro-life commitment is beautiful on our lips, but it is more beautiful as it moves to our hands and feet. We assert that all of life is valuable in all of its stages, but do we prove we believe that story by living in a way that reflects this conviction? One of the simplest ways for the modern church to live counterculturally is to embrace, defend, and live as though we value all of life, inclu...

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God . . . (Eph. 6:17) On September 19, 2022, the world watched as several members of England’s royal family marched in Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral. They wore regal military uniforms and carried gold-handled swords at their sides. These swords were beautiful heirlooms, symbols of the monarchy’s authority and power, not meant for actual battle. Unlike those ceremonial swords, God’s word—the sword of the Spirit—is intended for warfare. Every other piece of armour in Ephesians 6 has been defensive and protective, helping God’s people resist evil and stand firm against it. The sword of the Spirit, our only offensive weapon, can defeat every temptation, sin, and evil scheme that opposes God and his kingdom. The enemy wants us to believe that this weapon is optional or reserved for an elite few—ministry leaders, mature believers, or people with seminary degrees. But the truth is, this sword is indispens...

In a world awash with information, we as believers desperately need wisdom. But what is it exactly? That is a surprisingly difficult question to answer simply. Based on the Bible, we can define wisdom as the ability to discern good from evil and apply knowledge, skill, and experience in order to live in right relationship with God and others within the world that God made. Let’s briefly unpack the elements of this definition.  Discern good from evil. Discernment refers to making distinctions. The most fundamental distinction is between good and evil, right and wrong. Yet oftentimes the hardest distinctions to make are between good, better, and best. Wisdom is the ability to make such distinctions, especially when the issue at hand is not one of obvious right from wrong.  Apply knowledge, skill, and experience. Wisdom is based on knowledge but goes beyond it. Skill refers to abilities that one acquires over an extended period of time. Experience provides the necessary perspecti...

I have to forgive someone who hasn't repented? Let's explain that Scripture points to two levels of forgiveness:  1. An unconditional heart posture that releases bitterness and entrusts the offender to God as judge,  2. A relational forgiveness that is granted when the offender repents.  Mark 11:25    And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Romans 12:19  Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[a] says the Lord.  Luke 17:3  “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them." Matthew 18:20-35  The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant 21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but sev...

Serve one another T he first three chapters of Ephesians have dealt with the theological argument that God has made us alive with Christ; that He has saved us by grace and that, therefore, Jews and Gentiles together are coheirs, members of the same body, partners in the promise of Christ; and that Paul is the proclaimer of this gospel. The Key Theme of Unity and Diversity In chapter 4, we see now the implications of these truths. In particular, 4:1–16 is really about how the church as a whole should live together and how the church will walk according to this unity that Christ has created in His own body. We’ll see that this body of Christ needs different body parts—that is, there is one body, a unified body, but there is diversity within the body; the body has different body parts. So the theme of unity and diversity is the key theme through Eph 4:1–16. The Structure of the Passage This passage is constructed in two parts. First, 1–6 is about walking in unity, really stressing the imp...

  This segment of Eph 4 is verses 4–6, where Paul says, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” We can see that this passage is brought to us by the number 1; Paul is really emphasising the oneness of the body of Christ, the oneness of the church. Of course, this is an implication of much of the argument through chapters 2–3—Jew and Gentile being brought together [and] forming the one temple of God, the one building in which God would dwell by His Spirit. The Church as the Body of Christ So the oneness of God’s people has already been developed theologically. This is kind of a recap, emphasising the point in this chapter about the body of Christ. But it’s worth going through each of these elements that Paul lists. He says that “There is one body” in verse 4. In 1:22–23 he refers to Christ’s body as being the church, the people of G...

Here we have some of the most difficult and challenging verses of the Letter to the Ephesians in 4:7–10. Paul says, “Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the Messiah’s gift. For it says: When He ascended on high, He took prisoners into captivity; He gave gifts to people. But what does ‘He ascended’ mean except that He descended to the lower parts of the earth? The One who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.” There are two difficult parts of this passage: first, verses 7–8 and what the quotation is all about from Psa 68; and then what on earth verses 9–10 is all about. The Reference to Psalm 68 First, the psalm. Paul is quoting from Psa 68:18. It’s important, whenever an OT citation is quoted in the NT, that we pause and think about the context of that passage because it’s been demonstrated that the NT authors often had the wider context in mind as they cited a particular text. So what is Psa 68 ab...

Martin Bucer (1491–1551) was among the first generation of Protestant Reformers, spending most of his ministerial life in Strasbourg and serving in later years as regius professor of divinity at the University of Cambridge.  This was his prayer:  Show me your grace and favour so that I may truly learn to hate my sins. Instead of lulling myself to sleep in sin, let me be so cast down in heart that I may confess with my mouth the honour, glory, and praise due to your holy name. In your great mercy, you instruct us by your holy word. For your name’s sake, then, allow your instruction to so lighten and clear our conscience that in due examination of all our holy life we may truly learn to be angry and displeased with all our former and corrupt living. Please draw near to us and guide our footsteps truly and perfectly in obedience to your holy laws and commandments. Send your holy angel to protect us; the enemy’s infernal army can never prevail against us. With strong faith in Jes...

 

 

 

“Without the Spirit we can neither love God, nor keep His commandments.”   The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is like any other mainline doctrine, both saturated with variety and overflowing with controversies. The Holy Spirit, being God, makes a rather unruly subject matter in that He is too incomprehensibly vast for us to tackle with full authority, especially in the brevity of this paper. As Clark Pinnock writes, In fact, of the themes of theology, the Spirit may be the most elusive of all. How does one speak at all of the power that enables us to know God? How can one put the Spirit-breath into a conceptual bottle? Yet, the graciously given presence of the Spirit is surely the most wonderful thing one experiences and that which brings God unspeakably close.  Yet scripture provides both a reasonable description of what the Holy Spirit’s interaction with His creation is, and what we might have as a standard expectation for our own understanding and teaching.  Regardin...