Dr Paul Allen

In his second letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul gives a long, scathing description of a group of people he calls heartless, abusive, brutal, and treacherous ( 2 Tim. 3:2–4 ). He then, in no uncertain terms, says, “Avoid such people” (v. 5). But didn’t Jesus spend time with sinners? Shouldn’t we do the same? Yes and no. Avoid Such People Paul isn’t talking about sceptics or people exploring Christianity. We shouldn’t avoid people who don’t identify as Christians. We should welcome them into our homes and invite them to know Jesus. Nor is Paul talking about people struggling with sin, as we all do. He’s talking about professing Christians who  embrace  their sin. They may have the appearance of godliness, but they’ve denied its power to transform their life ( 2 Tim. 3:5 ). These people go to church and may even consider themselves  more  spiritual than others because they’re open-minded. Unlike uptight Christians, they’re free from rules. They live a more enlightened...

You, Will, Have Trouble It is a guarantee that we will have trouble in this world as Jesus himself did. But, with his power and presence in our lives, we are called to endure and thus shine the light of Christ in a dark world. Be encouraged by these passages and commentary from the ESV Study Bible. Romans 8:35–39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The quotation from Psalm 44:22 shows that the difficulties listed in Romans 8:35 do strike Christians...

Christians love clichés. God said it. I believe it. That settles it. You're never safer than when you're in God's will. Let go and let God Where God guides, God provides. If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it You can't outgive God. God helps those who help themselves When God closes a window, He opens a door. God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. Your setback is God’s way of setting you up for your comeback! The intent may be good, but many Christian clichés are simply trite sayings for troubled souls. Why? Some Christians seem to think that if you are troubled, struggling, and having a rough patch that there is something wrong with you. To be sure, once we get to heaven every day will be a good day. In the meantime, Jesus was clear in John 16:33 that, “In this world, you will have trouble.” It is not a sin to be troubled; although Jesus never sinned, He was troubled. We read in John 13:21, “Jesus was troubled in his spirit”. ...

How do we weather seasons in life when friends are far away, fair havens have faded from the horizon, we are storm-tossed at sea, and everything we need has been stripped away? You lose your job. You’re bombing several classes. Your home feels like a battleground. You’ve just been diagnosed with a serious illness. Your church is in dire straits. In seasons like this, many of us (myself included) feel like we need something new — a new word from God that applies directly to our situation. In Acts 27 , after more than two years of waiting, Paul was finally sailing for Rome . His whole life had led up to this moment. All of his training and experience had prepared him to preach the gospel before Caesar himself. But on the journey from Jerusalem to Rome, Paul faced one of the fiercest storms of his life. And the strength he needed did not come from a new promise, but an old one — a promise God had given to him years before. Goodbye, Fair Havens The trip starts off we...

You know the story. A man has been a believer in Christ for decades. To all outward appearances he's a man of Christian faithfulness and integrity. He has maintained a reputation as a fine example of public and private faithfulness to the things of God for decades. Then, without warning, it all collapses into a sinkhole of sin. Everyone wonders how it could have happened so quickly. In most cases, it soon becomes known that—like most sinkholes —the problem didn't develop overnight. Several years ago, this man likely had a relatively consistent devotional life through which the Lord often refreshed, strengthened, and matured him. But with each passing year, his busy life became ever busier. Increasingly he saw his devotional life more as a burden—a mere obligation sometimes—than a blessing. Because of the massive doses of Bible teaching he'd heard—in addition to the knowledge gained teaching church Bible classes himself—he began to imagine that he needed less...