War is hell. At least that’s what those who’ve seen it say. If my vicarious experiences of war via Hollywood are anything resembling realistic, I’m inclined to agree. Many Christians over the years have considered themselves pacifists. I do not count myself among them. Still, there is something fundamentally broken

We all know intuitively that there is a line between giving your child a smack and physically abusing him. While we may draw our lines in slightly different places, all decent people understand that there is a line and crossing it is evil. Church discipline is similar, but when it

  Just over a week ago, on 12 November, 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that she will request the establishment of a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, particularly institutional responses to child sexual abuse. Subsequently, a formal website was set up as a hub for the Royal Commission

The image to the right genuinely shocked me on Saturday. Not really because of what the sign said—that is nothing new. Not particularly because it was a small child holding it, though that is deeply disturbing. Not even because the mum, presumably, was taking a photograph as if this would

I wonder if any genre has so much to offer the believer as biography. There is wonderful fellowship to be had among those whose lives ended even before ours began. Muster of the dead Hundreds of lives have been recorded. People whose faith and joy in God changed our nation

I came across two unrelated comments today on the pastoral ministry. The first comment was from Booker T. Washington in his autobiography Up From Slavery. Washington was born into slavery in the United State of America and went on to found Tuskegee University after emancipation in 1863. In his comments

The strength of your faith is not the big deal you might think it is. Jesus made it clear that even the most minuscule amount of faith (think mustard seed) is enough to move mountains. The issue is not the quantity or quality of your faith. The issue is the

I used to think that legalism was externally imposed. I had recently read Bridges’ Transforming Grace and had begun to see the grip that legalism had on my life. My security in God’s love was not based solely on Christ’s imputed righteousness, but in my ability to meet a certain

Those who hold to a TR-only position like to think that they hold a moderate position. They typically repudiate the extremes of Ruckmanism in the strongest terms while repudiating the “extremes” of contemporary texts/translations just as firmly. It is my intention in this post to explain why I believe it

That’s how my friend responded to my gospel assertion. “How can you be so absolute?” he continued. “There are no absolutes.” His pluralistic confession came as we sat on the concrete chatting in the car park after a long day’s work. Without getting too philosophical, pluralism which is similar in