James 5 - The Prayer of Faith

Greek Text:
 13  Κακοπαθεῖ τις ἐν ὑμῖν, προσευχέσθω· εὐθυμεῖ τις, ψαλλέτω·14  ἀσθενεῖ τις ἐν ὑμῖν, προσκαλεσάσθω τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους τῆς ἐκκλησίας καὶ προσευξάσθωσαν ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ἀλείψαντες [αὐτὸν] ἐλαίῳ ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου. 15  καὶ ἡ εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως σώσει τὸν κάμνοντα καὶ ἐγερεῖ αὐτὸν ὁ κύριος· κἂν ἁμαρτίας ᾖ πεποιηκώς, ἀφεθήσεται αὐτῷ.16  ἐξομολογεῖσθε οὖν ἀλλήλοις τὰς ἁμαρτίας καὶ εὔχεσθε ὑπὲρ ἀλλήλων ὅπως ἰαθῆτε. πολὺ ἰσχύει δέησις δικαίου ἐνεργουμένη.

 17  Ἠλίας ἄνθρωπος ἦν ὁμοιοπαθὴς ἡμῖν, καὶ προσευχῇ προσηύξατο τοῦ μὴ βρέξαι, καὶ οὐκ ἔβρεξεν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἐνιαυτοὺς τρεῖς καὶ μῆνας ἕξ·18  καὶ πάλιν προσηύξατο, καὶ ὁ οὐρανὸς ὑετὸν ἔδωκεν καὶ ἡ γῆ ἐβλάστησεν τὸν καρπὸν αὐτῆς.

Holman Christian Standard Bible:

 13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they should pray over him after anointing him with olive oil in the name of the Lord.  15 The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will restore him to health; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.

 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.


The above passage is what my research project  for college. It has a whole heap of exegetical issues, and I think pastoral issues. I'm currently in the process of writing an exegetical paper on the passage to begin my thinking . God willing I can come up with some helpful solutions

The Atonement: By Leon Morris

I'm starting to read this book  by Leon Morris on the atonement. It's one of the classic studies on the atonement from a leading Evangelical Scholar. After a quick flick through, it looks like it will be a cracker! I hope to post up over the coming weeks some reflections on what I've been reading.

What is Christian Ethics?

I've been reading for a little while now this great book by Michael Hill, "The How and Why of Love - An introduction into Evangelical Ethics."

And I have to say, it has been really enjoyable. It's nice to read something at college that is very clear, well argued and a delight to read. I have been challenged in my thinking about how I go about developing and sustaining what Hill calls 'Mutual Love Relationships" (MLR's). Another thing that this book does really well, is it grounds ethical deliberations within the story of redemption, from creation to new creation (that is, within Biblical Theology.) Hill takes you through this schema, showing his working if you like, and so develops his theological ethic based on a reading of scripture. He then moves on to some moral issues, and so applies his ethical theory to these very important issues, thus giving a module of how Christian ethics is done.

I've also noticed that the publisher has produced a great downloadable study guide. Find it here.

Gospel Song Animation

One of the songs that I often sing to my daughter, especially when we are trying to settle her down (but on other occasions as well) is a song call  'The Gospel Song'. It is a very simple song that has a very profound message. In fact I believe it to be one of the most profound messages that human beings can hear. It is a message of the Love that the God of the universe has lavished on the word. It is the message of why it is possible for sinful creatures (that is those who say to God, 'I'm doing it my way, but I'll take all your blessings, but basically you can go jump!), can be brought into a loving relationship with the one who made them. This is the ultimate Love song in my book. It's the message I constantly pray that my daughter will know and believe. And it's my prayer that others I don't know this message, will come to cherish.

Have a look at this very powerful animation, accompanied by 'the Gospel Song'. It gets to the heart of what the Christian message is all about. The Holy God who in love became the perfect man to bare my blame; the blame that is mine for rejecting the God of the Universe, the one who created all things, and who is only revealed in the person of Jesus. It is very powerful.




If you want to find out about who Jesus is, check out here . I'm happy to chat as well.

Thinking about the Holy Spirit

We are currently teaching a series at Kids church on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. I've been trying to trying to think through some of the issues on the Holy Spirit's ministry of assurance. Big topic! As I've been working through Romans 8,  I guess this is what I've come up with.

How can I know (be confident) that God loves me?

The gift of the person of the Holy Spirit helps me by:
1. Pointing me to Jesus, as the only one who could deal with my sin (8:1-4).
2. Units me to Jesus as an adopted Son, by which I cry Abba, Father. Through this cry the Holy Spirit bears witness to the fact that I'm a child of God (8: 12-17)
3. Helps me Pray, when I don't know what to say (8:26-27).

That's my thinking, I'm going to let that mull lfor a bit.

Thinking about Church Part 2

After I got the ball started with my last post, I started reading through some scriptures, jotting down some notes in my journal, and well, started to think this is harder than I thought. It's such a huge topic! But an importance nonetheless.

Anyway what are my thoughts? As I was thinking, I should work out what the Old Testament background to the church is, so I picked up the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology -- by IVP (Great resource by the way!), and read this really helpful little article by D. Tidball. He had this line: the church is the 'consequence of the character and purposes of a trinitarian God.' (p407).

Now as you look at the narrative of the Old Testament you see how this works out. God calls Abram, promises him that he'll be a great nation, and the nations will be blessed through him (Gen 12:1-3). In redeeming Israel (Abraham's descendants) from the oppression in Egypt, Yahweh remembers his covenant with Abraham and Israel's forefathers (Exodus 2:23). They were to be His people and he their God. They were called out to worship Yahweh and serve him (Exodus), in being Yahweh's 'treasured possession' and 'kingdom of priests' (Ex. 19:4-6). The reason for this choosing of Israel was not that they were impressive but because of Yahweh's love (Deuteronomy 7). What was required, was spelled out in the covenant, it was love and loyalty.

However, this is not the picture of the Old Testament people of God. They constantly fall into worship of other gods, and forsake Yahweh. So they get punished for this rebellion with the exile (cf. Deuteronomy 28 for the curses). But the prophets looked forward to the time when God would 'gather' his 'scattered people' to himself. And these people would not just come from the remnant of Israel, but from the nations (cf. Isaiah 2, Micah 4). God's purposes have been to call a people to himself. The Old testament has this huge expectation of an in-gathering of many people to God, to be in relationship with Him under blessing, in fulfillment to the promises made to Abraham way back in Genesis.

Now there is much in the Old Testament that gets picked up in the New Testament, in terms of language used to describe the people of God. it adds depth to our understanding of the church, when see it in this light. The ideas are transformed into a greater reality when seen in light of the person and work of Jesus. But we need the background of the OT. This has been very brief. Next time I'll turn to ponder what the New Testament says in terms of 'what is church?'.

Thinking about Church

Robyn and I are currently on holidays from College, and also after exams, our church (Denham Court Anglican). Last week we decided to go to another church to meet with God's people. As we had another week of Church holidays this week, we decided to go to another church again. It was interesting, and not what we were used to. And so, it got me thinking about church....

What is church? What is important for church? What does the Bible say about how God's people are to gather? And what things should be part of the 'time together'? How much of our culture and the media has influneneced the way we go about 'doing church'? Is that all together bad?

In the next couple of entries, I'll spend some time thinking 'out loud' so to speak, reflecting on church and the things associated with it. I know that greater minds than mine have already written plenty on this, but I guess want to delve into the Scriptures to see if I can start to come up with some answers to these questions... hopefully its a journey that is helpful.

Some thoughts on Suffering and 2 Corinthians

Here is a paper that I wrote up for church. It's a paper that reflects on our personal experience, and the parts of 2 Corinthians that have become precious to us in being comforted by our gracious God...Tell me what you think, find it here.

The Holy Spirit in John's Gospel

Trying to get my head around the Holy Spirit in John Gospel (for NT2 essay). As a result I've been reading the work of Carson and Kostenberger (Baker Exegetical) in their Commentaries (Carson generally is better, better at answering my questions I think), as well as a new book by Kostenberger and Swain in the NSBT series (Father, Son and Holy Spirit in John)...Basically really helpful stuff, but there is one point where I think I disagree with Carson and Kostenberger though (but not sure if my argument is sound). This is on the reference in John 3:5-8. Is it a reference to the person of the Holy spirit (ie born of water and the Spirit, so NIV, TNIV, ESV and other trans), or is it just a reference to spiritual renewal? While I get the fact that grammatically v5 'water and Spirit' are governed by the preposition ek, I think the reference is a reference to the person of the Holy Spirit because of the strong allusion to Ezekiel 36:26-27 where Yahweh promises cleansing and renewal by water (yes), and promises to place HIS SPIRIT in Israel. Also v 8 does appear to be a reference to the person of the Spirit (by analogy with wind). With that background is it not possible to John 3:5-8 as a reference to the person of the Spirit? Just getting my thoughts down.

A quote from John Owen

I reading this book from John Owen at the moment, and I came across this quote (below). John Owen was a puritan preacher in England in the 1700's .

It was something that really hit home to me. And upon reflecting on it more, I longed for heaven all the more. I longed for the time when I can using the lanuage of John Owen, behold the glory of Christ by sight, and not just by faith. In other words, I long for the day when I get to see Jesus, my great God and Saviour, him who poured out his blood, dying and taking the punishment for me, that I may have life eternal!

"This vision is not in the least liable unto any weakening from internal
defects, nor any assaults from temptations, as is the sight of faith in this
life. No doubts or fears, no disturbing darts or injections, shall there have
any place. There shall no habit, no quality, no inclination or disposition
remain in our souls, but what shall eternally lead us unto the contemplation
of the glory of Christ with delight and complacency. Nor will there be any
defect in the gracious powers of our souls, as unto a perpetual exercise of
them; and as to all other opposing enemies, we shall be in a perpetual
triumph over them, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57. The mouth of iniquity shall
be stopped for ever, and the voice of the self-avenger shall be heard no
more.
Wherefore, the vision which we shall have in heaven of the glory of Christ
is serene, — always the same, always new and indeficient, wherein nothing
can disturb the mind in the most perfect operations of a blessed life. And
when all the faculties of the soul can, without any internal weakness or
external hindrances, exercise their most perfect operations on the most
perfect object, — therein lies all the blessedness which our nature is
capable of.
Wherefore, whenever in this life we attain any comfortable, refreshing view
of the glory of Christ by the exercise of faith on the revelation of it, with a
sense of our interest therein, we cannot but long after, and desire to come
unto, this more perfect, abiding, invariable aspect of it."

Works of John Owen, Volume 1 - Meditations and Discourses: Concerning the Glory of Christ page 164