Dr Paul Allen

Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 13:13, the three greatest spiritual virtues : faith , hope, and love. Actually faith and hope are encompassed by love, which “believes all things,” and “hopes all things” (v. 7). Because faith and hope will have no purpose in heaven, where everything true will be known and everything good will be possessed, they are not equal to love. Love is the greatest of these not only because it is eternal, but because, even in this temporal life, where we now live, love is supreme. Love already is the greatest, not only because it will outlast the other virtues, beautiful and necessary as they are, but because it is inherently greater by being the most God–like. God does not have faith or hope, but “God is love” ( 1 John 4:8). Gifts, ministries, faith, hope, patience, all one day will cease to exist because they will cease to have purpose or meaning.  But in that perfect day, when we see our Lord “face to face,” love will for us be just beginning. But...

PRAYING FOR PEOPLE Establishing an accurate definition of what constitutes a miracle is difficult in view of the prevailing influence of Deism among Christians. God is continually and directly in control of everything that occurs! In light of this, several inadequate definitions of miracles need to be rejected. E.g., Some define a miracle as a direct intervention of God into the world. But “intervention … into” implies that God is outside the world and only occasionally intrudes. Some define a miracle as God working in the world apart from means to bring about the desired result. But God often uses “means” or “instruments” in performing the miraculous, as in the case of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. Others define a miracle as God acting contrary to natural law. But this implies there are forces (“ natural laws ”) which operate independently of God, forces or laws that God must violate or override to perform a miracle. God is the author and providential Lord over all nat...

The Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) This coming Sunday morning April 5th at Hope Church Australia , we will gather together as the people of the risen King who delight to bring Him praise, and will celebrate the triumphant victory of King Jesus, who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, who was buried in a borrowed tomb, and who three days later rose from the grave, triumphant and victorious over sin and death. But the heights of our praise will not exceed the depth of our theology. Our praise to Christ can only soar as high as our understanding of His glorious person and work is rooted in the rich soil of God ’s Word. Our worship of Christ for His resurrection will not rise higher than our understanding of His resurrection. And so to enflame our worship of the risen Lord Jesus Christ as we anticipate this Easter Resurrection Sunday, I want us to think on the biblical and theological significance of the resurrection of Christ . Today I want to focus pa...