How do we apply Acts with expectant faith to produce worship in our hearts, without either (a) absolutising and normalising astonishing one-off miracles or (b) historicising those same miracles and making them to be of purely historical interest such that we don't expect God to work mighty wonders today?
Read moreHow to Defend an Idol; Acts 19:21-40
It isn't just non-Christian Ephesians or non-Brits who worship idols. Christians do too. How much I need to continually submit, asking God to remove the idols from my own heart. In Jeremiah's words I far too easily ignore the cisterns full of living water that God provides and try to hew cracked and broken cisterns for myself that hold nothing of true, eternal value.
At the end of the day that's what idols do, they replace the eternally valuable with the seemingly instantly valuable that isn't valuable at all. It only seems so because I did it.
Read moreGalvanising for World Mission
Brilliant article by Andy Stevens on the OMF blog on 10 steps your church could take in putting world mission front and centre.
http://www.omf.org/omf/uk/omf_at_work/blogs/node_6569/ten_ideas_for_a_strategic_missional_church
Read moreReligion and Money; Acts 19:21f
If pagan Ephesian idol makers were unable to separate out their pagan object of worship, their approach to their occupation and their money, how much less should we be able to separate worshipping the living God from our occupation, our money, our use of our homes and our whole identity. We have no identity outside of Christ anymore, so why do people in churches sometimes look like they are flirting with Christianity or playing religious games with God?
Read moreIs Jesus Compelling?
Are there Christians who don't find Jesus completely compelling? I think there are. I chatted to a friend last week and concluded we both know people who are happy for other Christians to sacrifice and take risks to try to spread the gospel but who wouldn't dream of doing do themselves.
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