When many Christians read the Bible, it is possible that an underlying notion exists that the Old Testament presents a different picture of our God than that of the New Testament. Not wholly different altogether, but different nonetheless. God expresses His judgment and wrath in an overwhelming sense, whereas, in the New Testament, He is shown as a much more gracious and loving Father. Or so it goes.

And we might read passages like John 1:16-17 and believe it helps underline this thinking:

But I want to suggest to us that our God, as revealed in the old covenant, is full of grace, mercy and love. Of course, Jesus is the greatest expression of God’s love and grace, the exact representation. He is grace and love incarnate. But our God has always been a God full of ferocious chesed and agape from the beginning. And He has always been a just God as well, though I would argue His justice is about making things right, which becomes good news for believers, but bad news for non-believers.

And so, in Genesis 3, maybe the great black mark for humanity, where our first parents ruined it for us all, I still believe we can find great expressions of God’s grace even in the midst of pronouncements of judgment.

Let me suggest 6 points of grace: Continue reading

In just a week and a half from now, I am off to Lusaka, Zambia. My trip is centred around an opportunity that I have to teach at Hope College, a pastors ministry training college headed up by ministries (i.e. leaders) within our network of churches.

I am looking forward to this visit on several fronts. Continue reading

With Christmas messages being shared with frequency and fervour these days, the usual place to head is either in Matthew’s or Luke’s Gospel (or maybe a combination of the two). And if one heads into Matthew, where is the usual starting place?

Verse 18.

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about…

Not a bad place to start. But it’s not the beginning of the Christmas story, at least from Matthew’s perspective.

For Matthew, a Jew also writing to Jews, what we call the ‘Christmas story’ actually begins in vs1.

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah…

Well, it must begin there if he started off his account that way.

It’s just that we aren’t too sure what to do with all those names, much less pronounce some of them. Continue reading

About 6 or 7 years ago, I attended a church leader’s conference during my time of living in the UK. It was particularly launched by a leader with a desire to train up leaders in today’s world. Yet, to be honest, It was a bit awkward at times, at least for me and those pastors we relate to within in our network.

Why?

Mainly because there were two pastors of megachurches, one leader from a church of 3000 and one leader from a church of 7000, this being quite different from the normal church context of Europe and the UK. In a European context, a healthy church would consist of anywhere from 50-75 adults, while a larger church would consist of 100+ adults. Quite a different scene than what is at times presented on ‘Christian television’ and other marketable places. Continue reading