Packer on Spirit baptism
In Acts 1:5 we read that the Risen Jesus ordered his disciples ‘not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father which you heard from me; for John baptised with water, but you will be…
Category Acts
Living in the cinema
“Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:28). My wife and I went to the cinema last Monday. We used to go to the…
Delusion, deceit and the day of the Lord
I was reading an Ann Cleeves’ murder mystery last night entitled ‘The Darkest Evening’. I learnt that the title is taken from a Robert Frost poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’. In spiritual terms, the times that we…
It just happened no 4
“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on…
Watkins on Time
My Spin cycle classes run for 45 minutes. But, as I sweat and struggle my way through a one minute sprint, I always find it helpful when the instructor informs us that there are just 15 seconds to go. A…
The Blood of Jesus
In her novel, A Taste for Death, PD James opens with this vivid description of the discovery, by an elderly spinster, of two bodies in a church: “There were two of them and she knew instantly, and with absolute certainty,…
God’s story in Sydney today
“everything written about me…must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44) I arranged for a guest preacher to speak at our church while I was on holidays. Unfortunately, he came down with Covid and so, while away, I had to arrange something else.…
Descended into hell
Reading around in preparation for Good Friday I returned to this old chestnut debate – the phrase ‘he descended into hell’ which we used to say in the Apostles’ Creed using the book known as AAPB (An Australian Prayer Book).…