Dr Paul Allen

John 6 records two eventful days in the incarnate life of Jesus Christ . The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand occurred on the first day. That day also ended with another miracle, that of Jesus walking on the water . The second day was a bit different. This day was filled with teaching, and it was teaching that was not well received by the great crowds. Jesus stood before this crowd and identified Himself as the bread of life and as the exclusive way to His Father (John 6:35-40). The crowd was not buying it. They responded "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?" (John  6:42 ). Jesus declared Himself to be one thing. The crowds decided that He was another. By the end of this second day, those great crowds had dwindled.  The hard sayings were too much, and Jesus was left with the twelve . So He put the question to them. Do you, the twelve, want to leave (6:67)? Peter spoke for the group. There is nowhere else for us to ...

“Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt : for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” ( Hebrews 11:26 ) We hear much today about the importance of self-esteem , with the implication that lack of self-esteem is the cause of many of the personal problems and antisocial activities of so many young people (and others as well) these days. But this is not the biblical perspective. The problem really is too muchself-esteem. The biblical command is that we should “in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” ( Philippians 2:3 ). The man Moses was once a prince of Egypt, probably in line to become the pharaoh, but he chose Christ and the people of God instead, “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (today’s text). Paul the apostle could have become the greatest teacher and leader in the religious/political life of his own Jewish people , but he said: “What things were gain to me, ...

English: Their are thousands of artworks created in the art world depicting St Paul. This painting was created by the famous artist called Rembrandt. It hangs on the walls of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In the movie  Creed , boxer Adonis Creed takes a brutal punch in the fight of his life, and gets knocked to the ground. He hits the floor hard. The people in his corner are shouting, “Get up! Get up!” His opponent is on the ropes celebrating, thinking it’s over. But while Creed is out, his mind is scrolling through all he’s been through up until that point, and all the people who love and motivate him. Like a jolt, he’s up before the count of ten — and is back in the fight. Creed’s boxing life may seem to bear little resemblance to our lives as believers. Though we encounter battles, we don’t train intensely for them, with dedicated professionals to put us through our paces and shore up our weaknesses. We don’t know the time, dat...