Hello It is a wonderful thing to see a small child running to someone they trust, looking forward to being picked up and carried. The moment the child allows their feet to leave the ground they completely surrender their safety and security to the one who is holding them. As we get older it becomes […]
What did Jesus say about Prayer? (Part 2)
Hello For Jesus, prayer wasn’t just about asking for things. When Jesus prayed, the beloved son was communicating with his loving Father in a very deep way. This loving communication between Jesus and his Father is so outside our normal human experience that it is, probably, impossible for us to fully understand it. But we […]
What did Jesus say about being humble?
Hello Jesus said that his followers should be humble. What did Jesus mean by “humble”? ‘Humble’ for modern English speakers means “having a low estimation of one’s importance” (Oxford English Dictionary). But the Greek word used in Jesus’ time, and used in our New Testaments, carried a range of meanings including gentle, kind, mild, considerate, forgiving, […]
Letting Jesus Down – Criticising Other Christians
In this video, I share my thoughts on why people who follow the teachings of Jesus must not criticise other Christians:
What does Jesus want his followers to do?
Hello Jesus told his disciples to make new disciples and teach them to obey his commands (Matthew 28:20). He also said that if we obey his commands, we will live in his love (John 15:10). So, obeying Jesus’ commands is important. Good News! Although some of Jesus’ teachings are difficult to understand, his commands are […]
I’m a Don’t Knowist.
Hello I spent years studying at Seminary. Those years of study showed me that expert scholars disagree with each other about the meaning of many passages in our Bibles. So, if these experts don’t agree with each other, how do we know what the truth is? The answer is simple. We don’t know what the […]
Do we follow the teachings of Jesus in our churches?
Hello For nearly 2000 years, Jesus’ followers have been adding doctrines, beliefs, traditions, rituals, rules and jargon to his teachings. We think of these things as being Christian, but they are in fact human traditions and rules. Jesus was passionate, perhaps brutal, in his criticism of the religious leaders of his day for teaching human […]
What Did Jesus Say About Church?
Hello The 1st century Greek word translated “church” in our bibles can also be translated accurately as “community”. My Oxford English dictionary defines “church” as: A building used for public Christian worship. 2. A particular Christian organization with its own distinctive doctrines. 3. Institutionalized religion as a political or social force. And “community” as: A […]
What Did Jesus Say About Being a Christian? “Follow Me”.
Hello Jesus didn’t call his followers Christians. The word “Christian” didn’t exist in Jesus’ time and didn’t come into use until a long time after he physically left our planet. So, Jesus didn’t say anything about being a Christian. But a Christian is someone who follows Jesus; and Jesus had a lot to say about […]
God said Jesus was his son… twice.
Hello On two occasions, human witnesses heard God speak with a voice they understood, confirming that Jesus was his son. The first of these occasions was Jesus’ baptism. It is recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke: …suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and […]
What Did Jesus Say About His Own Words?
Hello Jesus said that his words came directly from God. And he didn’t just say it once: “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me.” (John 7:16) “…the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” (John 8:26) “The words that I say […]
How can Christians change our churches?
Hello Jesus didn’t say anything about how he wanted us, his followers, to organize ourselves. He didn’t even tell us what we should do when we meet together. This means that every group of his followers can organize ourselves in ways that are appropriate to our own cultures and our own times. We don’t have […]
What did Jesus say I must believe?
Hello Words change their meaning over time in any language. The English word “believe” used to have a much stronger meaning than it does today. It used to mean “be committed to” or “trust”. Now it simply means you think something exists or is true. Occasionally we still hear “believe” being used in its older, […]
Does God Speak to Us Through the Bible Today?
Hello Does our loving, heavenly Father speak to us through our Bibles today? Yes. He most certainly does. Our loving Father can speak to us by any means he chooses, and he certainly speaks to us through the writings contained in our Bibles. But that doesn’t mean he always has something to say to us […]
Did Jesus say he was God? Yes! So… Was he mad?
Hello Did Jesus say he was God? Yes. And he also said he was the Son of God, the long-expected Messiah, and (wait for it) the ultimate authority in the universe! So, was he mad? Did Jesus say he was God? Yes. Jesus is recorded saying that he and God are the same being […]
The Importance of Trusting and Cooperating with others
Hello Over the last few hundred years, we human beings have built an incredible global civilization. And I reckon we have only been able to build it because we have been able to do two simple things: trust other people and cooperate with other people. Trust There can be no question that we do […]
A Theory of Creation
Hello A theory of creation. (Remember, this is just a theory.) There is a doctrine that God created the universe out of nothing. It is a human doctrine. As far as I know, there is no Biblical support for this doctrine. I’ve got an alternative theory. Jesus said that God is spirit (John 4:24). Could […]
Loving God, the Good Parent
Hello In Genesis 3 we read of a time when the creator, our loving Father, had a beautiful, intimate, loving relationship with a man and a woman and something went wrong. The man and woman broke the relationship and tried to hide from him. They tried to separate themselves from our loving Father. But the […]
Following Jesus is simple and easy. He said so.
Hello Following Jesus is not difficult or complicated. Listen to his words: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke […]
What did Jesus say about Prayer?
Hello Jesus spent a lot of time talking to his followers about prayer. He encouraged them to pray. He taught them how to pray. He told them parables about prayer. Praying is probably the most important thing a follower of Jesus needs to do. The first and most important command is that we love God, and […]
How does the devil attack the church? Answer 5 – By encouraging Christians to stay in our churches.
Hello Many of Jesus’ teachings show him telling his followers to go out into the community. He selected some of his disciples to go out into the community and teach repentance and the good news of the Kingdom of God (Mark 6:7-13; Matthew 10:5-23; Luke 9:1-5; Luke 10:1-9). He told them to go and […]
Is God male?
Hello Is God male? No. God is not male. Neither is God female. The problem really lies with the English language. We believe that there is an entity that we sometimes call God. We believe this entity is intelligent and created everything and loves us. Jesus describes this entity as a loving parent. In modern English, […]
What did Jesus say about love?
Hello Jesus said the two most important things we must do are love God and love others. (Mark 12:28-31; Matthew 22:35-40; Luke 10:25-28). Loving God is something we do in prayer. It’s very much like loving another person. We like to spend time in conversation with a person that we love and, sometimes, just being […]
God wants to be the object of our love. Not the subject of our study.
Hello Jesus told us that the most important commandment is that we should love God. And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: […]
Jesus, Nicodemus, and the Woman at the Well
Hello John tells us about Jesus’ meeting with two very different people; Nicodemus and the woman at the well. I reckon these two meetings show us some interesting and important things about Jesus and his message. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council. So, he was a very important religious […]