thoughts out !oud

a Christian’s news, views, opinions and occasional poetry …

“Have mercy on me, for I am a sinful man”

Jesus was very much a master provoker - the stories he often told were well engineered to whack you up-side the head. His parables not only carried with them profound truths, some of them would have made some great stand-up comedy (plank in your eye, anyone?) while others just sought to directly stir the religiosity and prejudices of men.

As a pioneer panning for gold would often find, the parables of Jesus sift through our lives to reveal the worthless stones that clutter, weigh down and mar our souls.

By way of example, the Gospel of Luke records Jesus’ story of a Pharisee and a Tax Collector who were at the Temple to pray (Luke 18:10-14). The Pharisee rattled off a litany of reasons why he was better than a… Continue reading "Have mercy on me, for I am a sinful man"

Forgetting about the man in the mirror

Those of you with children or adolescent teenagers or those of you married to big kids (I pity my wife!) will no doubt know that it is frustrating when they don’t follow through on a commitment or a task that they promised. Look no further than me - guilty, your Honour. Well, there’s a great many more of us who do the same to God. Imagine what God feels like when we say yes to His face, but then go away and immediately fail to follow through or run in the opposite direction?

Take Jonah, for instance, whom God charged to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. And what did Jonah do? He ran away, defying God Himself. Futile, Jonah. Futile. When… Continue reading Forgetting about the man in the mirror

Pray like Jesus series - Pastor Mark Driscoll

My recent posts on prayer perhaps were somewhat influenced by a series on prayer that Pastor Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, Seattle, has been delivering over the last few weeks. This is a great series. I would encourage you to give them a listen… Continue reading Pray like Jesus series - Pastor Mark Driscoll

‘If God says “No”, will I still be happy?’

I saw this question just this morning. I can’t say I know exactly what it is that it’s trying to say, but it did get me thinking a little. (Rare, I know ;) )

When weighing up such a question, I guess we need to consider the implied assumption(s) - if there is one or any. Once we have some idea as to the motivation for the question, we should then be able to best address it. But let’s start with the possible assumption.

The author of the question could be implying that only an affirmative from God will make them happy. (Don’t misunderstand - God is really the only person who can fulfill every deep-seated emotional, physical and spiritual need that a person can have.)… Continue reading 'If God says "No", will I still be happy?'

To God the glory (even when difficult)

After my last post, When God says ‘No’, it seemed an obvious step to share some other learnings on 2 Samuel 12:13-23. To some, this passage can be difficult to accept; to the skeptic, it’s a verse they pull to label the God of the Bible as a cruel and unjust God. Why? Well, because God takes the life of David’s son - seemingly without just cause.

In all our Bible reading we must understand that the wages of sin is death and that this entails justice. We see this requirement met for us by the substitutional death of Jesus on our behalf - Jesus paid the full ransom for our sin by taking the punishment we ourselves deserve. In David’s case, is it that… Continue reading To God the glory (even when difficult)