One of the things us evangelical Christians like to do is to take a small passage of scripture and hang an entire praxis on it. This gets us into a bit of trouble sometimes, for example: I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. […]

If you attended a Christian Union (or equivalent) as a schoolchild or student, you will already be familiar with the concept – if not always the practice – of “Quiet Times”. What is it? For those who aren’t familiar, the “Quiet Time” is a (ideally) daily exercise of taking some time out, and spending it […]

In Romans 6:23, Paul says: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Aside from the obvious quip (“That’s fine, thanks – I’ll sin on a voluntary basis”), I’ve been reflecting on this recently, and my own experience of sin and death. […]

I think Life Verses are probably a bit of a marmite thing – you either love the idea, or hate it/don’t see the point. I must confess that I haven’t read any direct explanation of what they are, so I’ve inferred it from some of the youthwork books I’ve read and my own personal experience. […]

(Download PDF Template) Sometimes a little bit of structure can make a huge difference, especially when trying to do a Bible study. I must confess that I find it very hard to engage with the ‘standard’ sort of Bible study, where you start off with a list of comprehension questions (“Where was Peter when he […]

There are many ways to interact with the Bible – I have previously talked about Lectio Divino, or holy reading, and FIER is another technique where you try to experience a passage “first hand”. Obviously unless you are The Doctor (or possibly a neutrino), travelling through time to experience it first hand is a tall […]

One of the ancient contemplative habits of the ancients is Lectio Divino, or Holy Reading. This is a way of engaging with the Bible and with God in an utterly different way to normal. In fact, it’s different from any other form of reading. The best and most helpful description I have come across is […]

House group this week was interesting. We’re doing a study called The Prayers of Jesus, which is a DVD/study book combo looking at, well, the prayers of Jesus. It’s a series, and we’ve previously done The Parables of Jesus and The Miracles of Jesus. Once you get past the slightly odd bollywood-esque music and Americanisms, […]

Just discovered a new aide-memoire for the New Testament letters – God’s Electric Power Company (Galations, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.) Not bad, but it doesn’t beat my method: So, there’s the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – just have to remember that), then Joan of ARC (Acts, Romans and Corinthians (1 and 2)), then […]

The street bible by Rob Lacey is a complete reworking/summary of the Holy Bible in modern (street) language for those who “have never read the Bible, or have read it too much”. I have personally found it quite inspiring, particularly how he works the four gospels into a single narrative (although the disciples being called […]