God does not “show up”.

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in God | 12 Comments

When I was the worship coordinator at Cardiff Univeristy Christian Union, I remember a specific time when a group of us were praying ready for the weekly meeting. The speaker for that week and a little following of his also joined in the praying. At the end of the prayer session, the speaker went round all of us asking us the usual things; name, age, course, what we did in the CU and all that. But when he came to me and asked what I did, he asked in the most serious, non joking manner… “So, have you prayed to ask God if he’ll show up this evening?” To which I replied, Read more

God chooses to be powerless? What?!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Apologetics, God, Jesus, Theology | 3 Comments

I’ve been doing a lot of work recently that involves talking about the nature of God. When talking about the nature of God, you often find yourself trying to explain things that contradict God’s nature, especially the fact that we live in a world of suffering, evil and pain. Before we go any further, I just want to point out that this post isn’t going to be as morbid as I’ve started it out to be! Read more

Abigail, marriage and godly hair

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Mrs. "God Loves Women" Posted in Church, Deep Discussion, God, Jesus, Life Issues, Rant! | 5 Comments

Recently I read this post from Matthew Paul Turner talking about Michelle Duggar’s “Seven Basic Needs of a Husband”. It includes:

Details of how a man needs to prove his manliness and asks how a wife can destroy her husband’s manliness.
Ensuring a wife lets her husband hear her praising him to others
Explains how a wife needs to accept her husband as leader, including a wife telling her husband how his *bad* decisions are benefitting her spiritual Read more

Our Father.

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Megan Paull Posted in God, Jesus, Worship | Leave a comment

Last week I was asked if I would ever have children by a colleague. The conversation went on to describe how having children spends all your money for you, gives you too much responsibility, puts a strain on your other relationships, means you can’t do things your way and leaves you thoroughly exhausted at times. It sounds awful! So what, I asked, makes it all worth it? Why do you carry on past having just the one child? Read more

Jesus the God-Man or Jesus the Man-God?

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in God, Jesus, Theology | Leave a comment

Studying the Gospels for an exam forces one to study Christology. The Christian faith is full of tensions; tensions that most Christians are OK to hold together. One of the biggest tensions we have to face and deal with is the tension of Jesus Christ being Man and God. Is Jesus Read more

“If I believed in God, I’d hate Him” Misconceptions about God and the root of them.

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in God | 8 Comments

Every Sunday, I look at a website called PostSecret. If you search it in google, you’ll find it. It’s a website where people send in anonymous secrets via post card. Anyway, this Sunday the postcard to my left was sent in. My guess is that if I were to probe deeper into why this Read more

Does God inflict suffering here and now on those who ‘sin’?

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in God, Theology | 2 Comments

One of the most popular questions that I’m asked as a Christian is ‘Why does God allow suffering?’, or a question to similar effect. But what I’ve recently been exposed to is the question, ‘Does God actively punish today (physically) as a result of people sinning?’ Did you know that the Holocaust has been excused Read more

Do we know God’s Mind?

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Devotional, God | 5 Comments

I’ve been thinking recently about how many questions we ask. I mean, it’s OK to ask questions. It’s great to ask God questions.

But there comes a point sometimes when we find it all to easy to slip into God’s shoes, thinking that we can fill them. Unfortunately, we forget that Read more

The Doctrine of… God

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in God, Theology | 13 Comments

After recent discussions and debates about what/who/why/when/how God is, I have decided to do a post on the Christian doctrine of God. This post is by no means an exhaustive doctrine of God. I’m learning just as much as anyone else is, and I am also a humble theology student with the vocation to be a Vicar. Having said all this Read more

Trees and Water

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Devotional, God | Leave a comment

So today, I took a morning walk with my friends, Rob and James. We were walking along a quiet stream with huge, healthy trees growing along side it. It was a beautiful time and place to chat and walk. Then we were reminded of Psalm 1:

¹ Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.⁴ Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.