Category: Church
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Cast Away the Works of Darkness
Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his…
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Why Advent?
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and I think more than any other year I remember, I welcome this season of the church. It is first week of a new year in the Christian calendar. I know not all my friends keep advent, so I suppose I should explain why it’s so important and…
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Unless Worship Is for Us, We Cannot Worship with Our Whole Heart—part 2
Our worship is almost always not biblical. By that I mean if you look at the psalms, a model of worship songs, the songs we pick often don’t line up. The reason for this is that the psalms are not an abstract regurgitation of God’s character and blessings. They are not only outwards towards God…
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Worship is about us-Part 1
For those who grew up singing Hillsong and Tomlin, we can be often reminded that worship is not about us. For example, in his song, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” Paul Oakley writes that “all this [worship] is for you, for your glory and your name. It’s not about me.” Similarly Tomlin writes “It’s not…
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The beauty of catholicity
As a protestant, the word “catholic” is not the first word I’d use to describe myself. Indeed, for many of us who do consider ourselves to be fairly conservative protestants, holders of the gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone (with some measure of asterisks around the word “alone”), the very word “catholic” might…
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Devotions are not enough.
For me, as an Evangelical, I have always been told to “do your devotions,” to “set aside time every night/morning to read and meditate on the word of God.” But the more I have come to love the Word, the more I believe that devotions are at best a stopgap, and at worst unbiblical. Devotions,…
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What does it mean to be Christian?
Lately I’ve been thinking more about this question, and I think I’ve come up with an [unsatisfactory] answer that shows what I think it means to be Christian. To be Christian means that I have been bought with a price and that price is the blood of Jesus Christ which has been shed for me…
Defined Faith 