What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? (James 2:14)
Many of a Calvinist persuasion object strongly to Jesus’ half-brothers linkage of faith and works, some even advocate the epistle be removed from the canon of the Bible, Read more
What is praying in tongues?
…if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. (1 Corinthians 14:14)
The context of this verse is instruction to the church of Corinth on how to behave as a collective. The word translated as ‘tongue’ is γλῶσσα glossa ‘language’ which means it is not a meaningless set of sounds but a structured speech with the purpose of communication.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mark 1:35)
It is notable that Jesus often sought solitude to pray, but what exactly did he do or say? The Greek verb used in the verse above is προσεύχομαι proseuchomai, which derives from pros ‘towards’ and euchomai ‘to wish’. Thus praying is literally an interaction of wishes.
While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3)
In Greek, the verb ‘to fast’ is νηστεύω nesteuo from ne,implying negation, and ἐσθίω esthio ‘to eat’, thus nesteuo is literally ‘to not eat’. But in the context of the Bible, this is abstinence not starvation. Thus, a Biblical definition of a fast is to refuse food in order to better focus on God – or put in the negative, and especially in a modern context, fasting without prayer is merely dieting.
The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of dedication to the Lord as a Nazirite (Numbers 6:1-2)
The Hebrew word referred to is נָזִיר nazir (Strong’s 5139) means pure; therefore, a Nazirite is one given in devotion, or one who is consecrated. It is the principle of being separated or set aside for God’s exclusive use.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. (Hebrews 11:1-2)
Thus, begins chapter eleven in the book of Hebrews. The chapter’s burden is to cite those ancients for their faith, thereby making the point of the criticality of faith as the fundament to any human being’s relation to God. And this to the apostate Jews who were slipping away from faith in Christ as the persecution of the early church quickened.
The Bible is always counter cultural, because culture is humankind’s creation. Currently, there is no better example of this than the perception of marriage and within that, the role of men and women. In this post, I examine Scripture to seek how God views partnership in marriage.
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:22-24)
Women today are in revolt and who can blame them? Men have let them down is so many ways in the workplace, within wider society and especially within personal relationship. Feminism is the world’s pushback to men vacating the moral stage, where women seek to redress the tyranny of men in which most often women are their victims. And nowhere is this abdication better seen than within the home, where men are both absent and/or controlling, leaving women to raise children largely unsupported.
Can any Christian take pride in their actions. Paul suggests you can. In this blog post, I examine what the Bible tells us about pride and its flip side, humility and how both qualities reveal on what, and in whom, men and women find their security.
Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else… (Galatians 6:4)
Greek word translated is καύχημα; kauchéma (Strong’s 2745) and means ‘boast’; properly, it is the grounds for boasting; in other words pride, self-glorification or exultation.
Pride is almost always a negative quality in Scripture but in his letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul, within a narrow definition, says a person can take some credit for their actions. This is an important point, because the follower of Christ is not a puppet, God continues to grant license to make poor decisions along with wise ones, and do evil along with good.
If faith is commitment before knowledge, then doubt is inevitable. The most famous of doubters is Thomas the twin, one of Jesus’s disciples, but John the Baptist also came to doubt Jesus as the Christ. How given his own anointing could he doubt? In this post, I examine, doubt, where it arises and how it is part of faith.
God Breathed Words 