Dr Paul Allen

Jesus is So Cool (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) When it comes to outreach, we have a problem with Jesus. So what’s the problem?  Your image of Jesus is (I hope!) informed by Scripture. He’s the incarnate, crucified, risen, ruling Son of God — the original Jesus of history. But that’s not the image most people have of him. When you say “Jesus,” they have an identity for him in their heads. It’s just not the real one. This is a function of the times we’re living in. Think about witnessing in the United Kingdom which is de- Christianization . In that sense, we’re all moving back to the context of the first-century Gentile world — pluralistic and un-Christian. The difference is that the early church outside Israel was witnessing to a pre-Christian society. In Athens, when Paul talked about the risen Christ , they’d never heard of him. They mocked the apostle for “advocating foreign gods” (Acts 17:18). We speak into an increasingly post-Christian society. That means that Jesus isn’t fo

Image via Wikipedia You may have heard of Said Musa , a man imprisoned in Afghanistan and awaiting execution. His crime? He converted to Christianity from Islam . He needs our prayer. Here is what  Denny Burk  posted yesterday. “Said Musa is married and the father of six young children. He has been a Christian for eight years.  Compass Direct News  reports: In the two-page letter, a copy of which Compass received in late October, Musa pleaded with the international community : ‘For [the] sake [of the] Lord Jesus Christ please pray for me and rescue me from this jail otherwise they will kill me because I know they [have] very very very cruel and hard hearts.’  Musa wrote of being sexually abused, beaten, mocked, spat on and deprived of sleep because of his faith in Jesus. He wrote that he would be willing to suffer for his faith in order to encourage and strengthen other Christians in their faith. So why don’t you pray for our brother, that the Lord would spare his life. And if tha

Image via Wikipedia You may have heard of Said Musa , a man imprisoned in Afghanistan and awaiting execution. His crime? He converted to Christianity from Islam . He needs our prayer. Here is what  Denny Burk  posted yesterday. “Said Musa is married and the father of six young children. He has been a Christian for eight years.  Compass Direct News  reports: In the two-page letter, a copy of which Compass received in late October, Musa pleaded with the international community : ‘For [the] sake [of the] Lord Jesus Christ please pray for me and rescue me from this jail otherwise they will kill me because I know they [have] very very very cruel and hard hearts.’  Musa wrote of being sexually abused, beaten, mocked, spat on and deprived of sleep because of his faith in Jesus. He wrote that he would be willing to suffer for his faith in order to encourage and strengthen other Christians in their faith. So why don’t you pray for our brother, that the Lord would spare his life. And if tha