How Afghan pastors reflect on God’s sovereignty

‘This past weekend, we met in an Afghan/English church retreat. On the first night of the retreat, we learned that a pastor in Afghanistan received a letter from the Taliban: “We know who you are, what you do, and where to find you.” By Saturday the Taliban were at his door, but he had gone into hiding.’

Afghan pastors ask for prayer

‘As Taliban forces have swallowed up Afghanistan and even now the capital city of Kabul, pastors in the country have been emailing and messaging me over the last few days, even hours, anxious for prayer… Here are specific ways they have asked for you and your church to pray.’

Where we draw the line

Alistair Begg: ‘What does it look like to live as a Christian in a society that increasingly does not like what Christians believe, what we say, and how we live? Or to put it another way: What do we do when we realize that the place we are living is less and less like Jerusalem, and more and more like Babylon?’

Prioritise your church!

‘[Other] things will come and go. The church will remain. The church is the only institution Jesus founded and the only one that will end in success. All other institutions, parachurch ministries, charities, and businesses will eventually end. The church will not.’

5 myths about being called to ministry

I co-sign this one by Bobby Jamieson: ‘If you desire to serve as a pastor but don’t serve yet, my guess is that you’ve picked up from other Christians the language of “calling.” Are you called to the ministry? How can you tell if you’re called to ministry? What should you do to find out?’

I’ll see you in court!

This was a really interesting look, practically worked out, about the instructions in 1 Corinthians 6 about not suing other believers and the real principle behind that passage.

From the archive: If blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable, does this imply hierarchy of power and authority in the Godhead?

‘The question, and I thought it a good and insightful one, was this: why the hierarchy within the Trinity? Specifically, if all the persons of the Trinity were really co-equal, why is blasphemy against the other two persons forgivable but not that towards the Spirit? Isn’t that just another way of saying the Holy Spirit is greater than the other persons of the Trinity? I can see how they drew that conclusion though, we ought to recognise, lying behind the question was a belief that the Trinity is fundamentally illogical and here is a case in point. But, taken at face value, I can see how it might look like blaspheming the Holy Spirit seems more serious that blaspheming the Father or Son. I wonder how you would answer?’