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

Big Read 2012: Week 4: Challenges “Can everybody play?” @BigBible #BigRead12

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Megan Paull Posted in Big Read 2012, Jesus | Leave a comment

Week 4 of the Big Read 2012 gave us a chance to look at Mark 8: 27-37; 9: 30-37 as a Small Group. In the passage Jesus asks the disciples “Who do you say I am?” – He’s concerned with who the disciples believe Him to be and what the word on the street is about Him. But what interested us was the power in the name of Jesus; what it means to do something in Jesus’ name; and who gets to play!? Read more

Big Read 2012: Week 3: Expectations “Your Identity” @BigBible #BigRead12

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Big Read 2012, Jesus | Leave a comment

Tonight at small group, we continued our Lent Course – being a part of the Big Read 2012, going through Mark’s Gospel. Tonight found us at Mark 7:1-13, which gives us insight into Jesus’ teaching on being clean before God as well as various other things. Throughout the discussion, we talked and chatted about many things, but the one prevailing theme that kept coming up was 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

Big Read 2012: Week 2: Echoes “Calming the storm” @BigBible #BigRead12

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Megan Paull Posted in Big Read 2012, Jesus, Life Issues | Leave a comment

In Mark 4: 35-41, we see Jesus command power over creation when he calms a storm. Whilst this echoes that of creation and of the rescue of the Israelites in the Old Testament, what seems most interesting is the reaction of the disciples. Do we ever react the same way? This is where we began with our discussion at Small Group this week, as part of the Big Read 2012 Lent Course on Mark’s Gospel, with Tom Wright.

Cross Centred Life, OR Jesus Centred Life?

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Jesus, Salvation, Theology | Leave a comment

I was having a chat with a couple of my friends at Uni this week about atonement. We were discussing the various things that happen on the cross as Jesus hangs on it, and the implications of those things on our lives. Then the subject came up about the terminology we use and whether or not our focus is sometimes on the wrong thing when thinking about our lives in relation to Christ, the Cross and how we are to follow Jesus in discipleship. This got me thinking. 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

Why do so many Evangelicals only preach half the Gospel?

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Jesus, Salvation, Theology | 7 Comments

For a twenty year old, I’ve had a lot of experience of church. I’ve seen many of its failings, many of its successes, and I’ve been involved and listened to a lot of its politics. I’ve also been in a range of different denominations, from liberal Methodist, to conservative-nearly fundamental evangelical Calvinistic Methodist chapel. What I’ve observed of the more conservative brand of Christianity is that quite often, only half the gospel is preached. Read more

Who is Jesus to you?

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Jesus | Leave a comment

Everyone has an opinion on who Jesus was/is. Even people who aren’t Christians have an opinion on whether Jesus was just a man, a good teacher, a prophet, a magician, or something else. Some people still even debate over whether he existed in the course of history (surprisingly).