The Gospel is the good news of the free offer of eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only Advocate and High Priest for sinners. The apostle Paul summarised the essential elements in the Gospel at the beginning of his famous defence of the bodily resurrection of the …
The maturing Paul
At a conference of Christian political party leaders in Leissigen, Switzerland, in 2013, I heard the following observations made by Valeriu Ghiletchi, a member of the Parliament of Moldova and a former President of the European Baptist Federation. He drew attention to four stages of the apostle Paul's life and ministry, to show his changing …
The power behind the throne
The Lib Dem peer, Lord Oakeshott, said on Question Time 30/1/2014 that if he was put in the position of choosing between defying his party leader, Nick Clegg, by voting for the ban on smoking in cars with children present, or defying his wife who is a doctor, there was no contest. If he voted …
Exegesis and eisegesis
As a divinity student in 1980 I came across the term 'exegesis' in reference to the exegesis of Scripture. It means 'drawing out' the meaning of a written text and Scripture in particular. I became aware of the opposite process – people reading into Scripture their own opinion and thus putting into Scripture something that …
Hogmanay and a Happy New Year
We brought in the New Year with our growing family. Since the children have left home a few years ago, Elizabeth and I have become accustomed to watching their lives from a distance. However, there are happy reunions when they make their occasional and seasonal return to Ebenezer, and this Hogmanay was one of them. …
Sermon preparation
Some bullet points on sermon preparation. 1. Have an interesting introduction. In Lectures to My Students, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 'the prince of 19th-century preachers', says that every notice should have the word “Attention!” at the top; and so every sermon should call attention to the topic of the sermon. It should be composed last, when …
The Starting Handle era
Older people will remember the days when the car would not start and one had to use a starting handle to start the engine (until people learned about ‘bump-starting’ the car with a push). The handle was inserted in the front of the car and one cranked the engine into life. Sometimes the handle ‘kicked …
Three providences at Belladrum
We had a great night as Street Pastors at the Belladrum Tartan Heart Music festival, just outside Beauly, a family-orientated event with a different emphasis compared to RockNess festival at Dores two months earlier. There were some remarkable providences. Not least, the weather was warm after a washout the night before. We had come prepared …
Pope Francis’ defective theology
In his inaugural address on 19 Mar 2013, Francis the new Roman Catholic pope in Rome finished by praying to the dead. He said: "I implore the intercession of the virgin Mary, saint Joseph, saints Peter and Paul, and saint Francis that the Holy Spirit may accompany my ministry..." So he thinks that the Holy …
BT Yahoo limiting the number of domestic emails
I have spent about 1½ hours on a BT help call to determine: 1. those wanting to move away from BT will have their former BT email address supported for free for one month; this has been recently reduced from three months. After that, it will cost £1.60/month to continue to use it. 2. domestic …
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