by Stuart | 31 Mar 2022 | 1 Peter, Devotionals
One of the most frequent exhortations in the Bible is for people to fear God. It is also one of the most frequently misunderstood exhortations. Perhaps this is because the Bible envisions two types of fear. On the one hand, Scripture recognises the reality of dreadful...
by Stuart | 30 Mar 2022 | 1 Peter, Devotionals
Christians sometimes have the tendency to make their faith little more than a list of dos and don’ts. When this happens, Christianity becomes nothing more than a moralistic way of life. We aim for behaviour without getting to the heart of the matter. The apostles did...
by Stuart | 29 Mar 2022 | 1 Peter, Devotionals
Christians in the Western-influenced world tend to trivialise suffering. We know that everyone who lives a godly life is supposed to suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12) and, since we don’t often experience the same kind of suffering that the first-century Christians...
by Stuart | 28 Mar 2022 | 1 Peter, Devotionals
As we use them, greetings are frequently nothing more than a formality. We greet friends and family, tellers and petrol attendants, and beggars at our gate. We greet without thinking. We do so with little more motivation than politeness. Christian greetings should be...
by Stuart | 25 Mar 2022 | Devotionals, The Minor Prophets
Some concepts in Scripture are more difficult to understand than others. One of the concepts with which many Christians struggle is that of fearing God. After all, “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 2:7). Many...
