I was listening to an old sermon the other day, during which a conversation was recounted that made me think. A grieving man was talking to his pastor; he had prayed for a long time for God to intervene in a dire situation, praying for a miracle that would have saved someone’s life. The miracle didn’t happen, despite his believing he was standing in faith for the victory. While I sympathised with the man in the story, it became a challenge to my heart to better understand the dynamic of faith, especially if we are to take the words of Jesus seriously. “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say…

As I have been looking through the fruit of the Spirit of late, my focus has been turned to the seventh fruit listed, faithfulness. Faithfulness, to me, speaks of dependability, fidelity and reliability. It is an essential quality in marriage, and a powerful foundation in friendship. It is the relationship between Jonathan and his armour-bearer, or, in Tolkien, Sam to Frodo. With faithful companionship, terrible circumstances are traversed with a sense of peace because of the mutual support and confidence they share. We know faithfulness is a trait of God. God’s love and faithfulness could be seen as his most hope-inspiring qualities.   Yea, though I walk through the valley…

Creation I marvel at the miracle of creation, that one event would perpetuate on a seemingly infinite cycle. God created the world in 6 days, but even while He rested, His creation continued to create further generations of itself in a cycle that has not ended since the creation of space and time itself.   Adam and Eve were not the first created entities. But compared to the rest of creation, God created mankind differently. All of the rest of creation was spoken into being at the very utterance of God’s words, yet for man, God took something he had already created (dirt) and created the first human body from it. The…

Last time I wrote, I focused on the first commandment that Jesus highlighted – love the Lord your God with all your heart. I intended to write about the fruit of Kindness today, but as I pondered the matter, I realised that it was also the second commandment in practice – love your neighbour as you love yourself. The most basic definition of kindness is simply being good to others who are in need of goodness. In scripture, we see it at play in the parable of the Good Samaritan, but we also see it in God’s relationship and actions with the people of God, as He of his own…

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ [a]This is the first commandment. Mark 12:30 When you think of it, love is a strange thing to command. I have written briefly on agape, of serving love, but did not write much on the heart element of love at that time. We have all heard the saying “love is a choice”; that is certainly true of the agape love we share between our Christian family members. But to love something with one’s whole heart demands more than service. The love described in the commandment…

Wrath strong vengeful anger or indignationretributory punishment for an offense or a crime. Lately, in my writings, I have been exploring some of the Fruits of the Spirit, but this time I want to examine something that Paul considers a lust of the flesh. We are experiencing a period of healing and repentance in the Church. Many things have been exposed, and no doubt there will be many more to come. This is a good thing – no Christian should have unrepentant sin in their lives, leaders especially. For wounds to heal, they need to be exposed. The offence must be dealt with and actions corrected, which is the real meaning of…