Joshua Jones reflecting on Sunday’s Vision Sermon by Simon Elliott. Vision matters. It is important to be doing the right things, but it is even more important to know why. And so vision is key for the church. God has a vision for us both as individuals and as Everyday Church. His mission statement calls us to be in presence and to engage in his … Continue reading Vision
My dad died on 7th November 2020. His death was tragic and unexpected. While this is not the first bereavement I have suffered, I have never experienced death feeling so close. So scary. So final. To be honest, it has felt like my life will never move on from its current perpetually sad state. Even if you are not presently enduring an acute moment of … Continue reading May the God of hope… (how to endure when life is hard)
This series is all about the attributes of Scripture, and, finally, the Bible has authority. This feature is probably the simplest to understand. Grudem, the author of the door-wedging Systematic Theology, puts it like this: “All the words in Scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.” We don’t really … Continue reading The Attributes of Scripture: #5 The Bible is Authoritative
This series is all about the attributes of Scripture, and the Bible is clear. Hang on. That’s not true, is it? What about 1st Corinthians 11:10: “It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.” Touché. Let’s unpack what I mean by “clear”. The Church of England does this really well in the following: … Continue reading The Attributes of Scripture: #4 The Bible is Clear
This series is all about the attributes of Scripture, and the Bible is all that we need. Grudem, in his brilliant Systematic Theology, summarises this in the following: “…[Scripture] contains all the words of God we need for salvation, for trusting him perfectly, and for obeying him perfectly.” The sufficiency of the Bible is probably the fiddliest doctrine in this series of blog posts. It’s … Continue reading The Attributes of Scripture: #3 The Bible is Sufficient
This series is all about the attributes of Scripture, and we need the Bible to know God. It’s that simple. True, we can catch glimpses of who God is without the Bible. For example, in Psalm 19:1-4, David says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after … Continue reading The Attributes of Scripture: #2 The Bible is Necessary
