Dr Paul Allen

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

Lyne Wallace In simple words, John gives us an important observation about the morning of the resurrection. “…It was still dark…” As always with John the words operate on two levels. Yes, it was before dawn so it was dark. John, however, was not referring to the limited number of lumens peering over the horizon. The time of day is only a servant to his greater point. The world was dark not because the sun had yet to peer over the horizon. John is not trying to describe the ordinary. The world was dark because the power of evil had if just for a moment, won the day or so it seemed. The Light of the World was extinguished, and, for all Mary Magdalene knew, that fact remained unchanged. She most likely suspected it to forever remain unchanged. Mary was beside herself in grief. Her eyes, swollen by hours of wailing, were unable to see clearly. Her wailing had drowned out both extraordinary and familiar voices. John 20 -  Mary and Jesus She watched in disbelieving horror as the soldiers tie

Words are weapons. They are either weapons used in the service of God and His kingdom—weapons that are brandished in love for God and our neighbour—or they are weapons used in the service of the kingdom of this fallen and sinful world—weapons wielded in the love of self and hatred of God and neighbour.  This is simply the reality of what words are.  This reality powerfully confronts us in our current context, and we struggle with how to wield our words. We live in the middle of a swirling vortex of political conflict, social unrest, clashing values systems, a culture war, and a global pandemic, and the power of words as weapons through social media has exponentially increased.  Through various forms of social media, words as weapons are used to mobilize, encourage, scare, advocate, anger, inform, judge, punish, reward, lament, and rejoice, all on a massive scale and with dizzying speed. How do we navigate through this daunting and sometimes overwhelming reality, and how do we wield a

  Read the Passage 25Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.33 So, therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has

“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 the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies” (Ps. 139:21-22). How do we understand this as Christians? And how might we navigate these verses and the call to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44-45)? A few considerations: 1. God is holy. Even a quick reading of the inerrant books of the Bible tell us that the true God is a God of blazing holiness (Lev. 11:44-45). He is set apart; distinct in all his ways, not the least of which is his stance towards sin (Hab. 1:13). To a decadent 21st century audience tainted with post-post-modern sensibilities, the concept of a holy God is like nails grinding on a chalkboard. Even more, nothing of natural man’s sensibilities are able to embrace the truth of God’s holiness. Naturally, we are unholy and flee anything that exposes our sinfulness (John 3:19-20). But the fact remains, no one his holy like the Lord (1 Sam. 2:2). He must opp

Radical obedience to Jesus relativizes natural relationships. By  natural relationships , I mean relationships established by ordinary, non-miraculous processes, such as the relationships between parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and so on. By  radical obedience , I mean that the supreme value of Jesus has taken hold of us at the root ( Latin   radix ), and we seek to live in a way that shows that supreme value, with the teachings of Jesus and the apostles as our guide. By  relativizes  natural relationships, I mean that the claims of natural relations are never absolute in comparison to the claims of Christ , and that total devotion to Jesus may at times prevent even biblically sanctioned forms of respect and affection. This means that following Jesus often introduces ambiguity and sorrow and pain into family relationships . If you are looking for a religion that will make all your relationships clearer and smoother and happier, you will fin

“Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.” ( Psalm 139:21-22 ). David has no other response to God’s enemies than that of hatred, i.e., he is not neutral towards them nor will he ever ally himself with them. Of the psalmist Spurgeon says that “he was a good hater, for he hated only those who hated good.” The psalmist could not remain neutral on the matter of those who hate God. And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? He was disgusted with, nauseated by, and loathed those men who unjustly raised their hatred against God. I count them mine enemies. Once a conscious choice has been made to reject God ’s truth and love, an individual begins to hate God and the people of God. The Scriptures are replete with these insights, but two references should suffice to establish the teaching—“they that hate the righteous shall be desolate” ( Psalm 34:

God has always been selective. The blessing came through Isaac. Then the blessing came through Jacob. "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated." (Rom. 9:13) You say, "Wow, you mean God is that discriminating?" Verse 14 then says (and this is what the responder would say) "What shall we say then? Is this unjust? There is no injustice with God is there?" Mē genoito—the strongest negative in the Greek language—no, no, no, no. This isn't out of character for God to be selective. God never intended every Jew to be in the kingdom. For He says to Moses, God says, "I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion." And it doesn't depend on "the man who wills or the man who runs but on God who has mercy" (Rom. 9:15-16). And then He goes to Pharaoh, "'For this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole ear