Dr Paul Allen

When Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not to love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (v. 1), was he talking about the theological debate on the internet? No.  But “a noisy gong” and “clanging cymbal” are appropriate descriptions at times. The internet can turn a mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll into a murderous Mr. Hyde. It has provided an outlet for people who have long felt powerless and voiceless, and many of those people apparently have a lot of pent-up frustration that comes out anytime they sit behind a keyboard. It has also provided a platform for people who seem to want everyone else to know how much more intelligent they are than the average Christian. If theology becomes a substitute for love of God, it is nothing more or less than an idol. I think most Christians begin to study theology with good motives. We begin to study Scripture and to read books by Christians who have been studying Scripture for many years. We wa...

All Scripture is God -breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. [2 Tim 3:16] Authority in the Bible comes from God. The human writers of the books accepted as Scripture claim nothing less than divine inspiration for their own works and for certain of the writings of others. What an audacious assertion for them to make. What did they mean, and what do we mean today, by saying these words are “God-breathed”? God-breathed does not mean that God somehow took over their bodies or pushed them out of the chair and took up their pens. That is the sort of inspiration Muslims claim for the Qur’an . Rather, inspiration means that God breathed his own words through their personalities and pens. He gave them the insight and understanding so that the finished literary product had two authors, one human and one divine. God’s words seem more meaningful and relate to us on our human level so well, because they have been translated through the liv...

Can I live a holy life?  If it were not possible to live a holy life, God would not have commanded it. He said, "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2). To be holy means to be separated to God. God’s nature itself defines holiness. Being set apart to God makes us holy. We are not made holy by doing good things. We are made holy by faith in Christ , Just as we are saved by faith. Little by little, as we grow and live with the Lard we become more like Him (2 Cor. 3:18). As we look to the Lord Jesus , think about Jesus, study about Jesus, pray to Jesus, and seek to follow His example, we become like Him We begin to think like Him and act like Him. We become like Him because we are set apart to Him. This is true holiness. If you are a Christian , ten years from now your life should be considerably different from what it is now. Your motives and desires, as you draw closer to Him should be continuously more holy. Jesus said, "Blessed a...

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me.” (John 14:1) Few words in the Bible are better known or more often quoted than these, but for all their timelessness, they were addressed to a very specific situation. The demeanour and language of Jesus had filled his disciples with foreboding. He was going to leave them, and that itself would reduce their world to rubble. But they would also have to cope with the manner of his departure. They would see him betrayed by one of their own, arrested, and condemned to a death that would not only wrench him from them, but would cover his name with ignominy and bury all their hopes. What is before the Lord’s mind here, then, is not how he himself would cope with the cross, but how his confused and bewildered disciples would cope. It is the trouble in their minds that troubles him, and he addresses it not only with soothing words, but with powerful arguments — arguments they must remember when they see him hanging on ...

Anyone known for hate rather than love doesn’t deserve to be called a Church. Ps 15:4 …In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord… We all agree that God hates sin and that believers should hate sin (Prov 8:13). The question is, whether it is acceptable to hate the sinners who commit the sins? Advocates of this view may cite the rare verses that seem to legitimize hating sinful people (Ps 15:4). Most notably, David’s declaration of fealty to God’s cause in Ps 139:21-22 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. Bear in mind David was a king anointed by God’s decree, given prophetic capabilities, and a divine military commission to wage war against Israel’s enemies. If that’s you, perhaps you could make a case for stirring up a bloodlust to fuel your grim responsibility to kill the men of war God instructed you to exterminate. (There isn’t...

"αθεοι" (atheoi), Greek for "those without god", as it appears in the Epistle to the Ephesians on the third-century papyrus known as "Papyrus 46" (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) And to know the love of Christ , which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God .” ( Ephesians 3:19 ) The hymn “Higher Ground” acknowledges the difficulties of the Christian life. But we press on, ever striving for the goal. A Christian must be habitually “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” ( Philippians 3:13 ). And so it is in the hymn. I’m pressing on the upward way, New heights I’m gaining every day; Still praying as I’m onward bound, “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.” All faithful warriors must remember that they are fighting for the King. “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier ” ( 2 Timothy...

English: Stained glass panel in the nave of St. John's Anglican Church, Ashfield, New South Wales (NSW). This window depicts Jesus Christ welcoming children and teaching "of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:14). The inscription on this memorial window reads "To the Glory of God and in Commemoration of all the Baptisms in this Church † Erected John the Baptist Day 1932". (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Lots of people are completely content to have Jesus as a Savior, forgiving them of all their sin . Fewer are ready to have him as the Lord of their life, leading and growing them in godliness. But have you ever thought of Christ as your Treasure? A Treasure Hidden in a Field One of Jesus’s parables in Matthew’s Gospel follows a man into a field . He’s walking through the field and stumbles on something unusual, something out of place. He probably didn’t know what he’d found at first. He never expected to find random riches in a field. But he did. He h...

“And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull , which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.” ( John 19:17 ) The Hebrew word golgotha and the Latin word calvarie actually mean “skull.” The Romans had selected a place of execution outside Jerusalem ( Hebrews 13:12 ) but near the city ( John 19:20 ), near a public highway ( Matthew 27:39 ), and easily visible from some distance away ( Mark 15:40 ). This has led many to speculate that it was on a hill, as in the first verse of the well-loved hymn “ The Old Rugged Cross .” On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, The emblem of suffering and shame; And I love that old cross where the dearest and best For a world of lost sinners was slain. Truly His cross involved great suffering: “ Christ also suffered for us. . . . Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” ( 1 Peter 2:21 , 24). Likewise, it...

“Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification .” ( Romans 4:25 ) We rejoice greatly in Christ ’s resurrection, knowing that He has promised that “because I live, ye shall live also” ( John 14:19 ). But it is also very important to realize and remember that if He had not been raised from the dead, we would still be lost sinners, separated eternally from God . He was raised, Paul reminds us, “for our justification.” The immensity of the load of sin which Christ bore with Him on the cross is beyond comprehension. He had to “taste death for every man” ( Hebrews 2:9 ), for He was the offering “for the sins of the whole world” ( 1 John 2:2 ). Since “the wages of sin is death” ( Romans 6:23 ), were it not for the infinite power, as well as the infinite love, of both the Father and the Son, such an infinite weight of sin would seem impossible to overcome, so Christ would die forever, and we would be lost forever. How could we ever know that we had been for...

Lamentations1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’” Lamentations 3:24 It is not “The Lord is partly my portion,” nor “The Lord is in my portion.” But he himself makes up the sum total of my soul’s inheritance. Within the circumference of that circle lies all that we possess or desire. The Lord is my portion. Not his grace merely, nor his love, nor his covenant, but Jehovah himself. He has chosen us for his portion, and we have chosen him for ours. It is true that the Lord must first choose our inheritance for us, or else we shall never choose it for ourselves; but if we are really called according to the purpose of electing love, we can sing: “Loved of my God for him again With love intense I burn; Chosen of him ere time began, I choose him in return.” The Lord is our all-sufficient portion. God fills himself; and if God is all-sufficient in himself, he must be all-sufficient for us. It is not easy to satisfy man’s ...

"I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God , which is in Christ Jesus our Lord ." ( Romans 8:38-39 ) Charles Wesley wove into his lyrics the very words and thoughts of Scripture. Such it is with the deeply moving hymn "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." Jesus lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high. Hide me O my Savior hide, Till the storm of life is past, Safe into thy harbor guide, oh receive my soul at last. "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved" ( John 13:23 ). How often do we lean on Jesus' bosom, and partake of that intimate agape love ? There we find safety both in this life and the life to come, for Jesus Himself "is in the bosom of the Father ...

The Death of Jesus (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Grace is at the heart of the Christian faith. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than at the cross of Christ . It is grace that the Son of God took on flesh, and grace that he taught us how to live — but it is especially grace that he died on the cross in our place. Moreover, this climactic grace shown at the cross has a specific shape — it has edges. These edges help us see what exactly happened when Jesus died. And it’s important that we see because seeing leads to worship — you can’t worship what you don’t know. So in hopes of more clarity — fuel for worship — here are five biblical truths about what Jesus accomplished on the cross. 1. The death of Jesus was for his enemies. God’s love is different than natural human love. God loves us when we’re utterly unlovable. When Jesus died, he died for the ungodly, for sinners, and for his enemies. Paul gets at how contrary this is to human nature when he writes, “For one will scarcely ...

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love” (John 15:9). The idea of the Father no longer loving the Son is unimaginable and wholly impossible. The love between the divine persons is unbreakable, eternal, and steadfast. It can no more cease to be than God Himself can cease to exist. Can we even begin to understand the scope, the depth, the height of such love? Yet, this is the love that binds us to Christ . It is His love that secures our salvation. It is His love that maintains us through every situation in life. It is His love that endures to the end and enables us to be inwardly transformed even as He calls us to exert our own wills and obey His commands. This is the love in which we abide and from which we receive our strength and our ability to persevere in holiness. This abiding love is closely connected with the eternal nature of the Trinity . God Himself is love, and the love shared between the...