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A glimpse inside the covers of our exciting new book, The Third Day...
Publishing a new book can sometimes feel a bit like having a baby. There's a lot of work and planning, effort and pushing. And then the glorious moment when you first hold your new creation in your hands. Sometimes I cry...
We're feeling like ridiculously proud parents this week as we have taken delivery of The Third Day - a new kind of book for us, as it is a graphic realisation of the last three chapters of Luke's Gospel. I have to say we are all rather smitten.
Of course there are lots of graphic Bibles out there - but how is this different? In three significant ways:... continue reading
One of the many questions address in the recently published: Is forgiveness really free? And other questions about grace, the law and being saved.
This is a question which worries many people for two reasons. First, we worry about family and friends who once were professing faith and have since walked away from the faith. Was their faith genuine? Will they one day return?
Secondly, we are worried because we know how weak we are. Could I commit some sin that might jeopardise my salvation? What about the great warning passages of the book of Hebrews, which seem to imply that we are hanging on to our salvation by the skin of our teeth? Am I “once saved, always saved”?
The best way to respond to this question is to focus not on ourselves but on the faithfulness of God. What is God like? He is faithful to his promises, and he has given us the Holy Spirit as the guarantee that we will receive everything he has promised his people (Ephesians 1 v 13-14). He has not spared his own Son, but has rescued us at great cost (Romans 8 v 32). We should then have confidence that he is committed to his own word. This is, in fact, the message of Hebrews: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”. (Hebrews 4 v 16)... continue reading
Author Michael Jensen, explains how he came to discover amazing grace for himself…
My own awakening to free forgiveness—to God’s grace—came when was about 16 years old.
I am, as I said, the eldest son. And I was the eldest son of a ministry family. I went to church and Sunday school, and never really rebelled. I knew all the answers, and it was kind of nice being a bit of a specialist in at least one subject on the school timetable (I went to a church school).
I was not much of a rebel, at least not publicly or openly. Mainly, I wanted to keep the appearance of being onside with the whole Christian thing, and I wasn’t courageous enough to be defiant.... continue reading
In his parable of the pearl, Jesus wants us to think very deeply about what is precious to us.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. - Matthew 13 v 45-46
Imagine a merchant. His business is perhaps the sale of fine jewels and luxury goods. And he’s in search of fine pearls. Why? Because he is a merchant. He’s a businessman, looking to make a profit.
And make no mistake, pearls were the most precious jewel of the ancient world. The historian Suetonius, wrote that the Roman general Vitellius, emperor for eight months in 69 AD, financed an entire military campaign by selling just one of his mother’s pearl earrings.... continue reading
As Christians, we need to take the truth of what Christ has done for us and apply it to our own experience, so that we believe it in our minds and feel it to be true in our hearts. Sometimes we know in our heads—Christ has paid for all our sins and I’ve been forgiven—but we don’t feel it. Having faith means believing this is true and enjoying the grace in which we stand. And we need to be specific in applying it to ourselves.
If you feel guilty, ask God by his Spirit to put his finger on the particular sin. Confess that sin to God and turn from it. Acknowledge that Christ has died for that sin and thank God for that. Take a Bible verse about what Christ has done and take God at his word. Ask God to help you feel that truth applied to this particular sin.... continue reading
How many times do we read of a political scandal? From Profumo to Sarkosi, it's been going on for years! In the celebrity world, people promise much and deliver little. Many in public life appear to be one thing but underneath lies a different story. We put our trust in many people of different types in various parts of our lives and in return I guess expect an honesty and openness, an integrity consistent with their position. But that doesn't always happen, does it? So why is integrity so rare?
In his book Integrity, Jonathan Lamb examines the issue in key Bible passages and interweaves them with examples from everyday life. Whether in responding to criticism, exercising authority, coping with failure, handling money or struggling with personal weakness, this book is a call to live consistently in the light of gospel priorities. Only then will our lives speak authentically to a sceptical world.
Read more HERE and get the ebook for just £4.99 until midday on Thursday. Simply use code inte0214 at the checkout.
If you did a street survey asking people what the cross means to them, unless they’ve just stepped off a passing spaceship, most would still get the link with Christianity. But beyond that it’s anybody’s guess. For some, the cross is just the Christian equivalent of the Golden Arches on a McDonald’s restaurant—an easily recognisable logo stuck on buildings to tell you where to find a church, if you’re that way inclined.
For others, it’s a cool design to have tattooed somewhere on your body, alongside a yin-yang or your star sign. Or a lucky charm to hang round your neck, bringing good fortune and warding off any vampires who happen to be in the neighbourhood.... continue reading
Questions we have to focus on as Christians can come and go. When a major disaster happens somewhere in the world, we find ourselves talking about God and suffering. When a question about a moral issue comes up, we find ourselves needing to articulate and defend the Bible's teaching on it to a sceptical and hostile society.
But some questions never go away for believers, because they come from the heart of our faith in Christ. That's why I'm delighted to have been part of pulling together the two latest books in the Questions Christians Ask series - because they aim to bring clarity and understanding to two subjects at the epicentre of the Gospel: the cross and forgiveness.
And having clarity on these areas of understanding is not simply an exercise in orthodoxy. Both authors introduce their books by showing that understanding properly what God has done in Christ on the cross; and what God's grace in Christ really is, have a huge impact on every area of our lives. Here are some thoughts that resonate many believers:
The great news is that all the answers to these common experiences can be found when we focus on properly understanding the cross of Christ and God's offer of grace to us in the gospel.
For the rest of the week we'll be running extracts on the blog from both books. We hope these tasters lead you to bury yourself in these subjects, and grow in your confidence and assurance as a follower of Jesus.
When we think of the Romans, we usually think of sandals and togas, straight roads, and Russell Crowe in Gladiator.
But when Jesus’ countrymen, the Jews, thought of Romans, they thought of oppression, unfair taxes, and random killing. That’s because, throughout Jesus’ life, their land was occupied by a brutal Roman army.
So for the Jews, freedom meant being free of Rome. They dreamed of a freedom fighter who would do the apparently impossible, and release them from the Romans, so that they could live in their land, ruling themselves, in peace.
In our day, many dream of that kind of freedom, too. Millions are being abused by someone else’s government, or their own government.... continue reading
