Dr Paul Allen

The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations. (Jer. 46:1) I’m persuaded that much of our fear, anxiety, discouragement, and hopelessness is the result of bad theology. At its core, what is the Bible all about? The existence, character, and plan of God. Every other aspect of Scripture flows out of the reality of who God is. A bad or weak theology of God will lead to weakness in other areas of theology, and spiritual weaknesses in daily living.  I had this experience again and again in counselling. I would be working with someone who was struggling to trust God, but, as I listened to him describe who he thought God was, I immediately understood why he had trouble trusting him. I would often think, “If I thought that this was who God is, I would have trouble trusting him too.” One common mistake in our functional theology of God is thinking he is too small.   The God in our minds lacks the awesome, glorious, and incalculable power and authority th...

We live in a day in which understatement is an endangered species. We have no shortage of embellishment and exaggeration. Public communication is awash in grandiose claims. Parties, events, releases, political rallies must be bigger and better than the last. In our society of hype and hyperbole, pomp and posturing, we create our own online profiles in a matter of minutes, select our most flattering photo, highlight our most impressive accomplishments, and then fill our timeline with the confirming data. We are experiencing (not to overstate it) an epidemic of over-promising and under-performing. Few of us have the humility to report on our lives and experiences with simplicity and truth. Sadly, we Christians too often fall prey to this cultural pressure.  This Sunday , this conference, this study, this message must be more “epic” (talk about exaggeration) than the last. Such a penchant is perhaps especially acute in church planting and other ministry startups, when our co...