Godly Living in a Godless Age, Part 2

This is a continuation of yesterday’s blog. Please see the introduction to that blog if you missed it. P. Gene   Keeping Life in Perspective Sin always brings some form of death. Always. Jesus always brings life. Always. Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal … Read more

Godly Living in a Godless Age, Part 1

Our Greatest Challenge It’s clearly the greatest challenge any believer faces in following Jesus today: How can I remain godly in a godless age? This week I’m doing something a bit differently in the blogs. I’m going to share with you an abbreviated list of Bible verses that I’ve compiled over time to keep myself … Read more

The Divine Sigh

Have you ever heard the sound of God sighing within you? He lives in you, if you’ve come to Jesus by faith in who He is and what He’s done. Paul calls it a mystery – and it has to be the greatest mystery in human history: that believers have become the very dwelling place … Read more

‘What More Could I Have Done?’

Parents want the very best for our children. We raise them, love them, nurture them, guide them, pray for them, and pray for them and then pray for them again! But many a broken-hearted parent has considered the path of a wayward son or daughter and wondered, ‘What more could I have done?’ It might … Read more

Four Things That Even God Calls Impossible

‘If God can do anything, can He create a rock so heavy that He can’t lift it,’ asks the clever sceptic. ‘Maybe not, but He can certainly create one heavy enough to drop on your irreverent head,’ my snarky flesh wants to answer! Augustine was famously asked by a student what God was doing before … Read more

Catching a Glimpse of the Glory

‘Be practical!’ ‘Application, application, application!’ In seminary I learned that the key to preaching an effective sermon is practical application. Today, the focus of sermons is usually the audience: ‘What will he or she hear and will it matter to them personally?’ But this, I think, says more about the day in which we live … Read more

Shipwrecked!

In 1 Timothy Paul tells of a shipwreck. Not of a first century wooden ship piling her hull upon the rocks, mind you, but a shipwreck nonetheless. And one no less terrifying than any of the nautical disasters that have become so famous. “This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with … Read more

Drifting from the Father’s Love

In Luke 15, a conflict is about to bust out between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes. Jesus is becoming popular – too popular – and with all the wrong kinds of people. “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him, “Luke tells us, “And the Pharisees and the scribes … Read more

Living Inside Out

It’s a theme that runs throughout the New Testament: to follow Jesus means to live inside out. That’s not to say that the outside doesn’t matter – it does! God holds us accountable for what we do and say. He expects obedience of us, and a good testimony – and confession, if sin has broken … Read more

Alms from Within

Do you remember how in 1 Samuel 15 God gave Saul the victory over the Amalekites? His instructions to the king were pretty straight forward: “Attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them” (15:3). Clear enough, right? This included their animals – “cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys,” nothing was to be spared. … Read more