Dr Paul Allen

IF YOU LIVE A COMMITTED CHRISTIAN LIFE BUT NEVER SHARE THE GOSPEL VERBALLY, THEN HOW DOES YOUR NON-CHRISTIAN NEIGHBOUR KNOW THE SOURCE OF YOUR HOPE? CONVERSELY, IF YOU COMMUNICATE THE GOSPEL VERBALLY BUT ARE A COMPLETE JERK IN THE PROCESS, THEN THOSE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE MAY WELL FALL ON DEAF EARS. By Timothy K. Beougher Bible-believing Christians know they are called to be Christ’s witnesses (Acts 1:8) and to commit their lives to making disciples of all nations (Matt 28:18–20). But some Christians have never begun the exciting adventure of sharing their faith, while others may witness it sporadically but not consistently. How can believers cultivate a Great Commission lifestyle? In this article, I share advice for cultivating and maintaining evangelism as a way of life. The Importance of Verbal Proclamation Evangelism is not “mere presence.” We often hear that faulty perspective expressed today. Individuals declare, “I’m just going to witness with my life and let my life do the talk...

It’s never been easier to step into the role of a would-be prophet, to stand in the long line of men and women over the ages called to “speak truth to power.” Social media has amplified the ability to speak out on any number of issues—to expose the hidden corners of injustice, to rail against the abuses of the strong against the weak, and to point out the flaws in institutions and the people who lead them. Much of this prophetic sensibility is good. As a result of people expressing critique or concern, we’ve seen institutions and individuals move toward health. We’ve seen rot exposed and expunged. We’ve seen repentance and restitution. The ability of more people to speak out can lead to greater awareness and accountability in the church. Heartless Prophet But there’s always the danger of having a prophetic voice without a prophet’s heart. When this happens, we sound less and less like Jeremiah, passing on the Lord’s command through tears (“Return, you faithless children!”) alongside th...

Ivan Messa The story of Jonah reminds me of Nasreddin Hodja, a character from Central Asian children’s literature. As the story goes, one day Nasreddin, a Muslim holy man, was lying under a walnut tree. Looking up into its magnificent branches, he began to question the wisdom of the Creator. Why should such a large tree have tiny walnuts? It could easily carry the large pumpkins that grow on spindly vines. Soon, Nasreddin fell asleep. But he was jolted awake when a walnut plopped onto his head. In that moment, he recognized not only the Creator’s wisdom but also his kindness. While the Hodja was busy questioning the purposes of God, he’d been oblivious to mercy—the mercy that kept a falling gourd from crushing his head. In Muslim folklore, Nasreddin Hodja is a silly and absurd character. But his puerile humour often reveals profound truths. Of course, absurd characters can be found throughout literature and throughout the world. Down through the ages, literary satire has been a sharp c...

Dear Friend, Two thousand years ago, the Roman world suffered many of the same challenges we encounter today – oppression, racial hatred, lies, bitter divisions, and wrongs. Into that culture stepped the most amazing thing imaginable: the Creator of the universe. If you’re unfamiliar with Christianity, the story of the baby Jesus may seem sentimental and perhaps no more real than Santa Claus. But the Gospel of John tells the story from the cosmic perspective. He calls Jesus the “Logos”, the living Word: In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through him, all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, which was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gave light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own...

I’ll never forget sitting across from a dear friend who tried to communicate what life was like for Muslim women. She held up two fingers and said, “You don’t understand. Women are number two—we’re number two!” She recognized that in my youth and naïveté, I simply didn’t understand some of the things she experienced. She felt my confusion, so she tried to communicate more gently, “This is just how things will be here.” Our family had moved to a country with a 99 per cent Muslim population. I was trying to learn a new language, adapt to a different culture, and somehow show these beautiful women that they were certainly not number two by God’s design. Yet I realized their greatest need wasn’t for me or anyone else to convince them—they needed to see Jesus. They needed to see the Messiah who loved them unconditionally and offered them the abundant life they were created for. Over the next decade of walking through life with these women, I learned that they longed to hear four important t...

The Bible has a lot to say about love. In John 13:34–35, we are commanded to “love one another as Christ loved us.” In doing so, those around us will know that we are His followers. In his first of three small letters, John tells us why we are to love, “for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love” (1 John 4:7–8). We show love by allowing God’s love to flow through our lives and those around us. Loving others is not always easy and entails multiple actions on our part. For example, to love, we must show empathy and sympathy to others. We must learn to see each other as broken vessels in need of God’s love and transformation. This unique perspective of other people requires humility on our part.  When we recognize our own failings, that we are not perfect, we will only begin to approach others with a caring and compassionate attitude. This humility comes from recognizing what God has done f...

The difference between secular love and Christian love is that secular love is not rooted in the cross of God’s Son, is not sustained and shaped by the power of God’s Spirit, and is not acted for the glory of God the Father. So the source of it is different, its sustaining power of it is different, and its goal of it is different. Let’s think about each of these one at a time and see if we can fill it out. Rooted in the Cross First, there’s a different source between these two loves. First John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” And how did he first love us? Well, John says in 1 John 3:16, “By this, we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” So, Christian love is rooted in Christ’s sacrifice for me and for you. By this, our sins are forgiven. We’re justified, accepted, and loved by God. We have the hope that everything in life will work together for our good and bring us everlasting joy, so that fear and greed, th...

When we are in love—especially when that love is raw and new —we count the days and hours until the time we will see our beloved again. The strange thing about this kind of longing is that it is created by someone, and it can only be solved or filled by that same person. The longing a lover feels for his beloved is what the psalmist feels in Psalm 84. His language is love language:  “How lovely is your dwelling place. . . . My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord” (emphasis added). This psalmist knows God and has been, one could say, wounded by His presence, so that the only balm is to return to that presence. He longs for it. He yearns for it. The great church father Gregory of Nazianzus described this feeling in his poem De rebus suis as knowing in his inmost being “the sharp stab of desire for the King.”   C.S. Lewis gave fine expression to this desire in his Reflections on the Psalms: “I have rather—though the expression may seem harsh to some—called this the...

  Love is the heartbeat of Christianity: “For God so loved the world . . .” (John 3:16). “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us” (1 John 4:10). From eternity God set His love on His people. In time and space, the Father sent His Son as the great display of that love. On the cross Christ secured our salvation out of love for us. Not one of Christ’s blood-bought people will be lost, because He loves every one of them. The gift of the Holy Spirit is a further outpouring of divine love. Truly the heartbeat of biblical religion is the love of God. God has loved us so much and blessed us so abundantly in Christ that the only appropriate response is to love Him in return. We do not need to be reminded of Christ’s incisive summation of the law as “love God and love your neighbor” (Matt. 22:34–40). We read our Bibles, hear inspiring sermons, and wholeheartedly agree that Christians should love their Savior because He first loved them. Yet, the reality for many is that ...

If you’ve ever played a Bible trivia game, you likely know that “Do not fear” is a frequent command found throughout Scripture. I haven’t personally counted, but some say it can be found hundreds of times. Yet there’s also another frequent command. This command stands in stark contrast: “Fear the Lord.” Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! (Ps. 34:9) “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:28) Just what does this command mean? Are we called to fear the Lord in the same way that we fear harm or loss or some great evil? Are we called to feel terror before the Lord? Does this fear make us want to run and flee? Or might it mean something else? It depends. The Bible describes two different types of this fear. And as we’ll see, the main difference between the two is love. SERVILE FEAR The first type of fear is what theologians refer to as servile fear. This fea...

  Saint Augustine answered that question at its root when he wrote, “You have made us for Yourself and [therefore] our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” If God has made us and designed us to be happy with him, then nothing else can take his place. God is the food our spirits need to eat. Other things will make our body happy (Eccl 2:24; 3:13; 5:18–20), but not our spirit, our soul, our true self. Other things will make us happy for a while, but not for long. Other things will make us happy on a superficial level, but not deep down. In the Bible, we read that all happiness, all joy, all beauty come from God (James 1:17). The joy of friendship, the beauty of nature, the happiness of human love were all created by God and designed to reflect his joy and beauty, to carry a little of his joy to us as the air carries the light of the sun.  Every joy you ever feel is a reflection of God. God is not one of the many sources of joy, for “religious people” only (whoever they a...

Kim Kardashian has been called the most famous woman on the planet, with more than 200 million Instagram followers and a reported net worth of one billion dollars. Yet in the aftermath of her divorce from Kanye West, she said that she feels like an [expletive] “failure” and “loser.” There’s a lesson here for all of us, one that is confirmed by the biblical book of Proverbs. To be clear, I don’t write this to attack Kardashian or to speak evil of her. Regardless of how she has made her money or become famous, she’s a human being created in God’s image and someone for whom Jesus died. And, based on her own words, she is hurting right now. So, my prayer for Kim Kardashian is that she would truly come to know the Lord, truly come to repentance, and truly find internal wholeness and peace. I am not here to throw stones. Peace of Mind Beats Riches and Fame Instead, I’m here to remind us that riches and fame cannot be compared to peace of mind and that no amount of wealth or popularity can me...

How many people do you know that have made it to the hall of fame in music, art, literature, or sports because of their love? We elevate people to the status of heroes because of their gifts, their talents, and their power, but not because of their love. Yet, from God’s perspective, love is the chief of all virtues. But what is love? Love is said to make the world go round, and romantic love certainly makes the culture go round in terms of advertising and entertainment. We never seem to tire of stories that focus on romance. But we’re not referring to romantic love when we speak of the Christian virtue of love. We’re talking about a much deeper dimension of love, a virtue so paramount that it is to distinguish Christians from all other people. Moreover, love is so important to the Bible’s teachings that John tells us, “God is love” (1 John 4:7–8).  Whatever else we say about the Christian virtue of love, we must be clear that the love God commands is a love that imitates His own. T...

“All you need is love.” So sang the Beatles. If they’d been singing about God’s love, the statement would have a grain of truth in it. But what usually goes by the name love in popular culture is not authentic love at all; it’s a deadly fraud. Far from being “all you need,” it’s something you desperately need to avoid. The apostle Paul makes that very point in Ephesians 5:1–3. He writes,  “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” The simple command of verse 2 (“walk in love, as Christ loved us”) sums up the whole moral obligation of the Christian. After all, God’s love is the single, central principle that defines the Christian’s entire duty. This kind of love is really “all you need.”  Romans 13:8–10 says, “The one who loves another has fulfill...