The Jerichos of our lives

I love a good worship album. Iโ€™ve been listening since the late 1980s. One of my favourite early albums features a song led by British songwriter Graham Kendrick titled, โ€œLift high the banners of love.โ€ Iโ€™ve listened to the album countless times. Spliced into the heart of Kendrickโ€™s song is an interlude where he declares: …

Courage for the journey

โ€œBe strong and courageous!โ€ It sounds like a quote from a self-help manual.  The opening chapter of the Book of Joshua is one of the Bibleโ€™s great texts on courage. Following the death of Moses, Joshua faces the daunting task of leading Israel into the promised land. The people are in transition. Their great leader …

The wind beneath your wings

Weโ€™ve all heard the phrase โ€œYou are the wind beneath my wings,โ€ a metaphor expressing gratitude toward someone whose support has enabled us to succeed, flourish, or achieve greatness in life. A bird or aircraft is able to defy gravity because air moving beneath its wings generates lift. The phrase came to fame through the song Wind …

The secret to bulletproof faith

The Letter of Jude is one of the shortest books in the New Testament, occupying barely a page in most Bibles and able to be read in less than five minutes. Yet it carries a significant message. Jude has become aware that false teaching is spreading through the church. He observes spiritual arrogance and theological …

If only we were all prophets!

Today, in the churchโ€™s liturgical calendar, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the universal church. Pentecost is a unique historic gospel event, arguably as central to the mission of the church as is the resurrection of Jesus. British Anglican pastor-theologian John Stott observes that Without the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship …