In an interview with Julian Hardyman published in British newspaper Evangelicals Now this week, well-known author and evangelical leader Vaughan Roberts has described his long-term struggles with same-sex attraction.
The very honest, personal, and candid interview explains how Vaughan views this as a temptation to be resisted, and does not seek to self-identify as homosexual or gay.
Vaughan, who is the minister of St Ebbe's Anglican church in Oxford, published a book called Battles Christians Face which included a chapter on homosexuality. In a revised edition published in 2012 he said in the introduction that he had struggled with all eight temptations in the book.... continue reading
We're very excited! We're launching a new book on 22nd September... The Hard Corps written by Dai Hankey.
The Hard Corps takes a look at King David's Mighty Men, his elite soldiers. And encourages Christian men to think about what it's like to be a man of God now.
The picture below is a still from the trailer we're making with 2V Design. The full trailer will be out soon so do look out for it!
In the meantime you can pre-order copies in the UK and the USA.
I'm guessing that pretty much every church youth leader has at some point chatted to their young people about drinking. It's the sort of thing youth leaders do. And rightly so. The culture of youth binge-drinking in the UK and beyond is devastating to personal and community well-being and as such it's right that the under 18s in our care get a biblical perspective on alcohol that will help them to live for Christ.
I'm guessing that pretty much every university and college CU has had the same sort of chats. Acting in ways that are above reproach at parties and in the bar can be a great witness to friends and acquaintances while away at college.
But I'm guessing the subject doesn't come up too often in lunch clubs for the retired or afternoon fellowships for those in their 70s or 80s. It certainly hasn't been raised in those forums when I've been around. Nor has it come up for discussion at pastoral care meetings I've been in.
If recent research is to be believed, however, discussed it should be!... continue reading
Here at The Good Book Company we're passionate about equipping God's people for works of service, which is why we're so excited about our new-look distance-learning college, The Good Book College.
Formerly known as the Open Bible Institute, we now have a new-look website, a great new logo and most importantly, some great new courses coming this autumn to inspire and equip.
Always biblical, flexible and affordable, we hope there's a course to support you as you serve in your local church. So why not check out our new website today?
When Jesus was born, as "the son of Abraham, the son of David" (Matthew 1 v 1), how many other people in Israel were descended from Abraham, and from King David?
Really interesting article on the BBC website, by a guy with considerably more mathematical skills than me. His (very convincing) answer: everyone!
There were, according to Matthew, 28 generations between David and Jesus (1 v 17); and it appears that by that stage, King David would have almost certainly been an ancestor to everyone who lived in Israel (and a lot of people who didn't), simply because the number of our ancestors doubles with each preceding generation. We have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, so by the 28th generation there are 265,977,856 (assuming no "inter-breeding"). Since there were only around 1 million people in Jesus' time in Israel, there's a very high chance that David (and, therefore, Abraham) was the ancestor of all of them.... continue reading
I read an article last week about the difficulties of finding a fellow believer to date and/or marry. Perhaps some of these quotes sound familiar:
Sadly, if not unsurprisingly, a headline of “The recipe for happiness? An enduring marriage and an affair with lots of sex” has rocketed to the top of the most-read articles on The Telegraph’s website.
If you read it, it’s worth playing the “spot the unsubstantiated claim/logical inconsistency/historical inaccuracy” game.
Here were my favourites:... continue reading
London (and elsewhere around the UK) is still filled with events relating to the Cultural Olympiad - an arts festival that runs alongside the other sporting activities, which are now just starting to be a fading memory.
I travelled up to London to catch the festival atmosphere in the sunshine over the weekend, but very quickly became entranced with an artistic installation in the South Bank Centre* called aMAZEme. Essentially, it is a maze built out of 250,000 books that you can wander round and explore.
The maze in itself is not hard to navigate. But what really interests are the books themselves. They lie open on the walls, and you can pick up, browse and read. I recognised many books I have read myself. Some with intriguing titles. Some I wanted to buy. Others that I couldn't believe a publisher would put their money behind.... continue reading
It was great to welcome many people to our open day on Saturday!
It was lovely to meet you:
To help equip you for ministry through our range of seminars:
To chat to you about how we can support you in your local church:
And, of course, to offer you some great deals:
Our open day offers are still live on the website until the end of the day for UK customers. So do grab a bargain today!
Germany’s banning of child circumcision should alarm Christians in the UK.
Not because we want to get our children circumcised for religious reasons. But because of the thinking behind the decision.
The judgment by the court in Cologne said: "The child's body is permanently and irreparably changed by the circumcision. This change conflicts with the child's interest of later being able to make his own decision on his religious affiliation."
So, a western, mainstream, democratic country (56% of German citizens agree with the ruling, according to a poll) has decided that a parent may not do anything, for religious reasons, which cause an irreversible physical change.... continue reading
