Dr Paul Allen

It's sexy among young people to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ -followers living in real community without the confines of church. Really? Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It's immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marriage, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary know it's the institution of marriage that preserves the romance. Without the God -given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul. What we need are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. That's my dream for the church—a multitude of faithful, risktaking plodders. The best churches are full of gospel-saturated people holding tenaciously to a vision of godly obedience and God's glory, and pursuing that godliness and glory with

It's sexy among young people to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ -followers living in real community without the confines of church. Really? Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It's immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marriage, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary know it's the institution of marriage that preserves the romance. Without the God -given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul. What we need are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. That's my dream for the church—a multitude of faithful, risktaking plodders. The best churches are full of gospel-saturated people holding tenaciously to a vision of godly obedience and God's glory, and pursuing that godliness and glory with

Prayer is the language (Photo credit: Lel4nd ) This prayer, often called the “ Lord’s Prayer ,” when it could more accurately be titled the “Disciples’ Prayer ,” is not a set group of words to repeat. When Christ said to “pray, then, in this way,” He didn’t mean pray with these exact words. His intention was to give them a pattern for the structure of their own prayers , especially since He had just warned them of the dangers of meaningless repetition. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t recite it, as we do with so many passages in Scripture. Memorizing it is actually helpful so you can meditate on its truths as you formulate your own thoughts. The prayer is mainly a model we can use to give direction to our own praise, adoration, and petitions. It is not a substitute for our own prayers but a guide for them. The initial benefit of this prayer is the way it exhibits the believer’s relationship with God . “Our Father” presents the father/child relationship; “hallowed be Thy name,” the

English: Christ and the woman of Samaria at Jacob's Well (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Two thousand years out, it’s easy to miss how shocking the salvation of the Samaritans would have been to the Jewish Christian community . The Samaritan people were neither Gentiles nor were they Jews ; they were a detested third entity.  The route from Jerusalem to Galilee was through the land of Samaria , but Orthodox Jews would take a much longer route, just to avoid being defiled by an “unclean” people. The Samaritans , in turn, despised the Jews, claiming the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible ) as their own but changing words and sacred places to fit themselves. In John 8:48 , the Jews, seeking to slander Jesus , accuse him of having a demon and being a Samaritan. And now we read how God scatters the young church into Judea and Samaria ( Acts 8:1–4 ). The spread of the gospel beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem may seem inevitable from our point of view, but it took tragedy

Icon of the Pentecost (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The Spirit moves the church into the world. That is how it has always been since the day of Pentecost when the Spirit brought thousands from many countries into the body of Christ .  With the breadth and scholarly care that have marked John Stott 's years of ministry, this book opens to us the early days of the church as recorded by Luke in the book of Acts . The experiences of the early church have much to say about issues that concern Christians today. What can Acts tell us about tongues and other extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit?  How should churches structure themselves--with elders, deacons, pastors or all three? What should a normal Christian conversion look like? And, of course, how should the church reach out into the world with the message of salvation? Related articles The Church Is Greater Than The Pastor What is the Difference Between the Classical Pentecostals and the Charismatics in the U

Dore Bible Sermon on the Mount (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "The followers of Jesus are to different," writes John Stott , "different from both the nominal church and the secular world , different from both the religious and the irreligious.  The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counter-culture. Here is a Christian value -system, ethical standard , religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, lifestyle, and network of relationships—all of which are totally at variance with those in the non- Christian world .  And this Christian counter-culture is the life of the kingdom of God , a fully human life indeed but lived out under the divine rule ." Related articles Thoughts on Nigeria's National Conference: the masses, women & religious issues, etcetera - Tola Adenle Christians Must Reject Putin's Christianity Triumphal Entryism: A Secular Christian Sermon for Holy Week

John Stott was a cessationist . This makes his attached statement about New Testament prophecy all the more credible and significant. It is worthy of our consideration because what is happening here is that a good biblical scholar is allowing the Bible to take him in the direction of something that could potentially undermine his position. We all do well to approach the Bible with a similar reverence. Stott argues here that there was indeed a non-authoritative version of prophecy in operation in NT times. Click on the image below to read it more clearly: Related articles Because You Are Loved (hopefullyknown.com) John Stott. Gone for now. (tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com) In Memory of John Stott (str.typepad.com) Stott Outlines Gospel; Speaks Plainly (t2pneuma.net) Book Review: The God I Don't Understand, Christopher J. H. Wright (firstthreequarters.wordpress.com) Quick-n-Dingy Cessationism for the Non-Theologian (julesdiner.me) John Stott: Preach the C

Dante And Virgil In Hell by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1850) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The wisdom of this question, I would argue, is that it gets at the real horror of hell. A lake of fire is a frightening thought indeed. The greater dread, however, is the duration of hell, that it never ends. This, I suspect, is what tempts some to try to tweak the church's historic view on hell, including everyone from John Stott to Rob Bell . Is it possible to posit a truly terrifying, painful hell that only lasts a time? Can we affirm the just judgment of God, and still hope that it will one day come to an end? Well yes you can posit it, but in so doing you would expose a lack of understanding of the scope of the evil of our sin, and a lack of understanding of the nature of God 's judgment. Sin, the church has argued, must be punished infinitely because we sin against an infinitely holy God. The problem with taking a cookie out of the cookie jar isn't the cookie, nor the c

English: Peresopnytsia Gospels. 1556-1561. Miniature of Saint Matthew. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) What saved us in the past, when we were still in our sins —fallen sons of Adam by nature—was the grace of God in the gospel.  Nowhere is that put more succinctly than in Ephesians : "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God , not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8–9). But the New Testament can also speak about our salvation in the present tense—we are "being saved" (1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15)—as well as in the future tense—we "shall . . . be saved" (Rom. 5:9). There is only one salvation and one way of salvation. What occurred in our past, works itself out in the present, and comes to consummation in the future is all of a piece. Justification now leads to glorification then (Rom. 8:29–30). True, some talk unadvisedly about being "saved again," as though salvat