Dr Paul Allen

How does the Bible uses to describe Itself? 1) A Sword that Pierces For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword , and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.   And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.  Hebrews 4:12-13 It’s not a Q-tip that tickles. The Word is Divine. It has come down from above. It has not originated from us but from God Himself. It is a Book that is alive. Lawson goes on to note that as the writer of Hebrews quotes the Psalms , he says that the psalmist “says…” therefore, although written many years prior, it is continually speaking. Martin Luther said, “The Word of God is alive, it speaks to me. It has feet, it runs after me. It has hands, it lays hold of me!” It has been...

What do you do if you get a sudden, unexpected opportunity to teach or preach God’s Word? I often turn to what is for me one of the most precious of Jesus’ parables, the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant—a passage one of my favorite writers on the parables (Klyne Snodgrass) groups with parables of “Grace and Responsibility.” The “grace” is truly an amazing one: the master in the parable forgives a massive, unpayable debt—ten-thousand talents. The “responsibility” is a serious one: Jesus ends the parable with the promise that the dire consequences visited on the unforgiving servant will be visited on us all by God “if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” ( Matt. 18:35 ). I think readers may not feel the weight of the grace (or the responsibility) because we subconsciously substitute “dollars” for “talents” while reading Matthew 18. Ten-thousand dollars is not really that big a debt for most of my readers. It’s certainly not an unpayable one for middle-class people in tod...