Astounding stories of God's intervention in Islamic Africa
No one comes to know Jesus except by God’s own hand. This is nowhere more evident than where believers are persecuted for their faith.
When he calls people, he gives them the faith to stand their ground, and fulfils his purpose in them.
The Third Degree
Student Christmases
Pod Bhogal
Date posted: 1 Feb 2012
‘It was a privilege to speak at four packed carol services on December 11 [for Southampton Christian Union]’, commented Adrian Holloway, evangelist at Christ Church in London.
He continued: ‘As 550 people filed out of the first service through one door, another 550 entered through a different door for the second! The CU president had to interrupt the service to ask people to ‘budge up’ to create space for these folks to get seats.
Companion of the exalted Jesus
Timothy Dudley-Smith
Date posted: 1 Mar 2012
‘Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful’ (Revelation 17.14).
We come — from across the world — to remember our brother John. We come to give thanks to God for him; and to offer his family, with those like Frances Whitehead who were closest to him, our shared support in loss, and in that grief which goes with love. And along with them, his curates, colleagues, study assistants and innumerable friends — and latterly his devoted nurses and carers at the College of St. Barnabas.
Christianity Explored: next ten
Rico Tice
Date posted: 1 Mar 2012
Christianity Explored has just celebrated its tenth birthday.
We thought we should celebrate what has been achieved and — most importantly — plan and pray about how to take the ministry forward over the next ten years.
Maritime theology
Robert Letham
Date posted: 1 Apr 2012
Book Review
A GRACIOUS AND COMPASSIONATE GOD
Mission, salvation and spirituality in the Book of Jonah
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Why go to Bible college?
Robert Strivens
Date posted: 1 Apr 2012
Sam believes that he is called to full-time gospel ministry. His church leaders agree.
He has led a home group for some time and has done a little preaching. He is a godly man and gives evidence of having the necessary gifts. He and the elders of the church think it is time for him to begin serious training. How should he go about it?
Should you move and join another church?
Ken Brownell
Date posted: 1 Mar 2012
After rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, ‘the city was large and spacious’, but there were few people in it (Nehemiah 7.4).
There is a similar situation in many churches in our inner cities. There are small congregations in buildings that quite simply need more people. It would be wonderful if these were filled through conversions, but that is not happening. No doubt some churches are in-grown, but most churches I know are actively evangelistic. What these churches need is more people with the attitude, gifts and money that will strengthen them in their mission.
Take up your cross and follow me
Don Carson
Date posted: 1 Dec 2011
Don Carson's talk at Grace Baptist Mission's 150th anniversary was broadcast by BBC Radio 4's Sunday Worship.
For many people, the thought of missionary work sounds, at best, painfully old-fashioned.
Apostolic failure
Graham Heaps
Date posted: 1 Jan 2012
Book Review
FATHERING LEADERS, MOTIVATING MISSION
Restoring the role of the apostle in today’s church
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Christian anniversaries 2012
Joy Horn
Date posted: 1 Jan 2012
General
A famous letter was written in AD 112 by Pliny, the governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, to the Roman emperor Trajan, asking for advice concerning the attitude to take in relation to groups of Christians in his province. This is a fascinating and vital piece of evidence concerning the activities of early Christians and the attitude of the Roman authorities to them.
Thomas Helwys founded the first Baptist congregation in Spitalfields, London, in 1612. He advocated the principle of religious liberty, and for this was thrown into Newgate prison, where he died by 1616.
The story on an Albanian atheist
Gani Smolica
Date posted: 1 Feb 2012
God has done a remarkable work in the country of Albania. Gani Smolica was caught up in it from the beginning….
Gani was born in Peja, Kosovo in 1958. His family were Albanian Muslims, but at school, being part of the former Yugoslavia, he was taught atheistic Marxism. He studied English Language at university and, as a good student, was invited to become a member of the Communist Party. It was an offer you could not refuse. So he went to Communist Party meetings, but at home he observed the Muslim feasts, though he did not really believe in God at all.
How to visit your missionary
Peter Grainger
Date posted: 1 Feb 2012
For the past two years, since stepping down as Senior Pastor of Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh, Peter Grainger, along with his wife, has been ‘pastor at large’, visiting some of the Chapel’s 40-strong missionary family — in North Africa, India, Bolivia, Romania, Malawi and the UK.
It took eight months from leaving Britain in March 1871 for journalist Henry Stanley to reach the town of Ujiji near Lake Tangyanika and to utter the immortal words, ‘Dr. Livingstone, I presume?’ on meeting the famous missionary. It took my wife and me 18 hours to reach the city of Blantyre (named after Livingstone’s Scottish birthplace) in Malawi to meet our missionaries, David and Kirsty Kanyumi, serving at the Evangelical Bible College of Malawi.
Mark Drama
Andrew Page
Date posted: 1 Feb 2012
No props. No costumes. No professionals. Every incident in Mark's Gospel in 90 minutes.
Andrew Page tells us about his brainchild, the Mark Drama, which gets student groups and churches acting out the gospel.
City sense
Geoff Gobbett
Date posted: 1 Feb 2012
Book Review
SEEKING A CITY WITH FOUNDATIONS
Theology for an urban world
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Puritan heart
Karen Soole
Date posted: 1 Jan 2012
Book Review
SMOOTH STONES FROM ANCIENT BROOKS
Selections from the writings of Thomas Brooks
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Blogs for Brits
Mark Driscoll, the controversial pastor of Mars Hill mega-church in Seattle, wrote a blog in January, in which, among other things, he reflected upon the spiritual condition of the UK.
This came in the aftermath of an interview which appeared in the February issue of Christianity magazine, with which he took exception. It is good to see ourselves as others see us, so here are some of his words.