I haven’t posted for ages – partly very busy, partly nothing to say.
But I thought I’d post briefly now, because this has encouraged me.
The parable of the weeds and the wheat in Matthew 13:24-30 shows (I think) that the world is a mixed place – it contains true disciples and it contains unbelievers. We need to wait until the end of the age to see truly who is who.
At long last, I’m please to present a new piece of software, Bible Reading Plan Generator.
There is a page dedicated to it on this site: http://www.oakleys.org.uk/software/bibleplan.
Visit the software’s homepage for more information.
In essence, though, it’s free software that takes a list of Biblical books, and devises a reading plan for you over any number of days you want.
Why does Jesus spend forty days in the wilderness, confronting public enemy number 1 (Satan, the accuser of the people of God), immediately after he has been declared Son of God (echoing Psalm 2) at his baptism?
I know that one answer is that it relates to the 40 years Israel spent in the wilderness. Jesus must be faithful at the exact point at which they failed.
After Saul failed to follow the Lord’s instructions (to destroy Amalek totally, together with their livestock), the Lord rejected him as king. The incident is related in 1 Samuel 15.
Saul’s excuse was that they spared the livestock in order to offer sacrifices to God.
“ 1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
“What’s new about the new covenant?”
A really good question that a friend of mine kept asking, from lots of angles, of lots of people, while we were at college together.
David Field’s post entitled Covenantal category confusion, disconnect, denial, and abstraction is a very helpful contribution.
Next weekend, I’m on a training weekend run by Lichfield Diocese as part of my CME. The theme is preaching, and here are the instructions for the prep (quite encouraging really)
Before the weekend you are asked to sketch out the shape of three sermons: one expository, one all-age and one evangelistic.
Jam Cary’s post on Evangelicalism and Art is well worth reading.
Rough Table of Contents.
Neil’s 8 biblical personality types offers a very helpful analysis of the kinds of people we find in the church and in the world at large. I, for one, find his Venn diagram most helpful to see the map at a glance.
He concludes with one of the right questions: “As a minister, the question is, how should God’s word be ministered and applied to each personality type?”
See also my earlier post on William Perkins’ categories of hearer
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