Dr Paul Allen

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. (Gal. 5:24–25) If we walk by the Spirit, if we are willing to forgo what we’ve come to rely on for comfort—and willing, for a time, to experience the discomfort that happens in the letting-go process—our cravings to indulge will diminish. The Spirit leads us out of ourselves so that we are no longer preoccupied with how we feel, what we want, and what we think we need, and as we grow, we begin to see that self-preoccupation is what imprisoned us all along. As we walk by the Spirit, we are led away from ourselves and directed toward Christ. We become increasingly preoccupied with him. In the process, we come to look more like him. We reflect not the consequences of self-indulgence but the fruit of self-control, along with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness (Gal. 5:22–23). Paul concludes ...

It has been a good term for religious freedom at the U.S. Supreme Court, and predictably, LGBT activists are outraged. Their anger, however, reveals how far their crusade to hijack public education has gone and how necessary judicial pushback has become.  Exhibit A is Mahmoud v. Taylor, considered a key test case for parental rights – a concept that many LGBT activists reject entirely. The case centred around Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, which had introduced LGBT books into the pre-kindergarten through Grade 5 curriculum, and, in March 2023, eliminated a policy allowing parents to opt their children out of LGBT lessons.  Led by Tamer Mahmoud, a group of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish families sued the school board generally and Superintendent Thomas Taylor specifically, saying that their First Amendment right to the exercise of religion was being violated because their families were being forcibly exposed to content that directly conflicted with their religious...

And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you can number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD and counted it to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15:4–6) Even though Abram and Sarai cannot have children, God assures Abram that his “very own son” will be his heir. Taking him outside to look at the stars, God promises Abram that his offspring will be equal to their number. The New Testament quotes Abram’s reply four times: “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).  This verse reveals a key scriptural pattern. God regards Abram as righteous in grace and accepts him because of his faith. Paul agrees: “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8). In the following two verses of Ephesians, Paul says God did not save us because of our wor...

Romans 12:11 Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Spiritual erosion happens slowly but surely, like water cutting a channel through rock. By mid-thirties, the believer who started out with zeal in adolescence is on the verge of complacency. The heart once stirred by the Scriptures is now indifferent to them. Such decline happens so subtly that you are often unaware of its deadly work. It usually comes through these almost imperceptible means: A gradual shift from devotion to performance . Christ commended the church at Ephesus for their ceaseless labour but admonished them for neglecting their “first love” (Rev. 2:4 NASB). Spiritual attrition is inevitable when your passion for Christ becomes secondary to your deeds. A gradual change from commitment to convenience. Faithfulness in little things is the stuff disciples are made of. When your relationship with Christ is structured to fit into your tidy agenda, spiritual decline sets in. Christ demands your all—b...

     By Rich Gregory Feb 11, 2025   I recently faced what should have been a “simple” plumbing repair. Those who have attempted such a repair know this statement is laughable, as there is never anything “simple” about “plumbing.” Those are two words that should never be put together. No matter how hard I pushed and pulled, the pipe assembly that needed replacement wouldn’t come apart. After looking up my problem on YouTube (which is what every good weekend warrior does when faced with a snag), I discovered that my issue could be resolved with a small plastic tool costing about $1.50. After my fifth trip to the hardware store that day, my problem was solved in five seconds flat. Without that tool, a self-inflicted flood was right around the corner, but armed with it, the job proved incredibly simple.   That principle – get the right tool for the job! – is transferable to the church. In Titus 1, Paul gave Titus what seems to be a relatively straightforward task: H...

Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (Jude 21) If you are a Christian, God “keeps” you (see Jude 1, 24). He preserves you in his love so that nothing can separate you from him (John 6:37–40; 17:11–12; Rom. 8:28–39; 1 Thess. 5:23; 1 Pet. 1:3–5; 1 John 5:18). And you are responsible to continue in the faith. Not only does God keep you; God commands you, in community with the other believers in your church, to “keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21; see John 15:9–10). He tells you to do this in three ways: 1 . Keep yourselves in God’s love by “building yourselves up in your most holy faith.” What is this “faith”? It is “the faith” that verse 3 says you must “contend for.” The faith is the content of Christian belief as Christ and his apostles handed it down. It includes foundational teachings such as Christ’s atoning death in the place of sinners, his resurrection, salvation by grace alone through faith alo...

 Romans 5 Therefore, since faith has justified us, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom. 5:1–5) What would you say if someone asked you to explain God’s justifying grace?  It is hard to comprehend the riches that are ours because of the justifying work of Jesus. Paul tells us in Romans 5 what we possess because of Christ’s perfectly righteous life, his anger-satisfying death, and his victorious resurrection: To be justified by faith means: 1. We have peace with God. May we never devalue these words? It is a miracle of grace that we who were bo...

Few things can cripple people like fear. Fear makes people shrink from doing what they know they ought to do. Fear can also make us do things we ought not to do. Fear is not simply self-protective or self-preserving; fearful concern for the well-being and protection of those we love can cause us to worry, lie awake at night, and even do things that could be perceived as either very brave or very foolish.  So, what overcomes fear? The Bible offers a clear and potent solution—faith in God's promises. “By faith, he left Egypt, not afraid of the king's anger” (Hebrews 11:27). This verse stands in the middle of Hebrews 11 and in the middle of the author’s commentary on Moses's life. It briefly reflects on Moses's faith in the face of a very real and present danger (humanly speaking)—the king of Egypt. Moses was like any other man; blood flowed in his veins just as in yours and mine. He was truly human and thus capable of knowing the reality of fear in the face of an imminent...

A few years ago, I received this unexpected request from one of my church members with multiple sclerosis: “When you have time, could you please do a Bible study on how to prepare for death?”  This person knew that her condition was incurable, and although death still seemed a reasonably long way off, she was anxious to receive advice on how to face it. I was taken aback by that request, but I should not have been.  This was a very sensible idea.  Why wouldn’t every church member be interested in such a Bible study? Yet, I could not remember when I preached or heard a sermon on that topic. The Bible is very upfront about the reality of death but also very clear that it is possible to die well.  It is perhaps significant that one of the best-known Hebrew words in the Old Testament, the word shalom, which we associate with peace and well-being, first appears in the context of death (Gen. 15:15). Knowing how we may die “in peace” should be an essential concern for us al...

  “Christianity—and Christianity alone —has the moral coherence to it that serves as a dam holding back the full force of progressive ideology,” writes Andrew Walker for Southern Equip. Cultural Christianity has been  increasingly affirmed by celebrities and people of notoriety. Tech mogul Elon Musk joined this new trend by calling himself a “cultural Chrisitan” in a recent interview. “We have seen progressivism hollow out civilizational decency and wear its skin as a suit,” writes Walker. The interesting development from this outcome is the beginning of the progressive exodus towards a morality more closely aligned with Christianity. “How evangelicals tackle cultural  Christianity is a careful balancing act.” C.S. Lewis once wrote that if you “Aim at heaven, you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth, and you get neither.” “We should view this as an opportunity for cultural apologetics and, even more, a hopeful opportunity that Musk would dig into something deeper than j...

This article is the first of twelve to serve as an overview of the great “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11. In this introductory article, I would like to address the question, “What is faith?” It might seem like this little word, faith, so familiar to every Christian, would be easy to define. It occurs all over the Bible; various forms are used nearly one hundred times in the gospel of John alone. But what is faith? Often, Hebrews 11:1 is cited as a definition of faith. The ESV reads, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Though this might sound like a definition of faith, New Testament scholar J. Gresham Machen is likely correct when he says that Hebrews 11:1 gives us more of a description of faith than a definition of faith.1 In the New Testament, faith is often referred to as the subjective means by which the people of God receive the Word and blessings of God. But it is also used to describe the content of what God has revealed in His Word...

Your darkness can one day bring someone light. A person who’s been through a divorce has the compassion and words needed to help somebody going through a divorce. A person who’s been through abuse, rape, or an addiction can truly understand how to help someone else in a similar situation. And because you made it, God will cause your wounds to glow in the dark of somebody else’s life. And when you begin to share your story with them, hope will get in their soul, and they will start to believe that they can make it.   Don’t waste what you’ve gone through or allow it to make you bitter. If God lets you walk through it, it’s because He’s still God, and He has a plan. On five different occasions, the Apostle Paul was beaten with 39 stripes. That’s 195 scars on his body. Paul said, “Three times I was beaten with rods. One time, I was stoned and left for dead. Three times, I suffered shipwrecks. I knew what it was to be afloat in the ocean a full day and a full night. I thought I wou...

Would you describe yourself as an assured Christian? Are you sure God loves you, that your sins have been forgiven, and that God will keep you on the narrow road that leads to life? For many Christians, these questions hang awkwardly. Doubt plagues them, making every burden heavier, every shadow darker, and every hardship more significant. Where can they look for certainty? We start by encouraging doubting Christians to look away from themselves to Christ and God's free grace. Many of our doubts find their root in the secret fear that we must do something to prime the pump of grace. The gospel speaks eloquently to such insecurity.  We need no prior qualification or merit besides sin to receive grace. At no point in the golden chain of salvation is God waiting for us to take the first step before He will open the floodgates of grace. Every Godward thought, every desire for Christ, comes down from above and is itself the fruit of grace—grace previously and freely given. In the quest ...

Over my years of pastoral ministry and teaching, I have begun to notice something about people who struggle with assurance of salvation: almost all of them grew up as covenant children.  They made a profession of faith at an early age. They had never gone the way of the Prodigal and come back through a “dramatic conversion.” Outwardly conscientious and faithful, they’d been regarded as the “good boys” and “good girls” in their families and friend circles. Inwardly, though, it seemed to their own eyes a different story—a story of a mind still mired in sin, shameful and unholy feelings, and a will that never seemed to close the gap between what they knew they should do and what they actually did. I enjoy these pastoral conversations because that is my story. A covenant child who made a profession of faith at age six, I never went the way of the Prodigal. But I did ask Jesus into my heart at least a hundred times because “What if . . . ?”  Each time I prayed the sinner’s prayer, ...