Take a look at the slightly tongue-in-cheek trailer for Barry Cooper's new book 'Can I really trust the Bible?' part of the Questions Christians Ask series.
I was three years old when I first ran away from home. There was no trauma, no tears, I simply took out my miniature suitcase and packed it with what mattered most to me: big ted and little ted (I was not creative when it came to naming toys). Resolute in my pursuit of freedom, I went for the front door, opened it and walked down the street as fast as my little legs could carry me. I was on a bid for freedom ... It was going to be great!
It wasn't long before my distraught mother caught up with me. There were many questions in her mind but none more pressing than this: why are you running away?
My answer was simple: I'm grown up now. I want to go and live with my teddies.
I was barely capable of doing up the buckles on my t-bar sandals but I was confident that my bears and I could make it in the world without any parental guidance. Of course, I was wrong.
The folly of childhood!
Trouble is, forty-odd years later, things aren't so different...... continue reading
Praise be to the Lord,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.
The Lord is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Save your people and bless your inheritance;
be their shepherd and carry them for ever.
Psalm 28:6-9
In this extract his new book, published today, Barry Cooper grapples with the question of how the Bible can be culturally relevant today…
The past often embarrasses us. Looking at photos of myself growing up in the 1980s, it’s one fashion car-crash after another. It’s impossible to look away. Why didn’t people spend the entire decade pointing at each other and laughing? The reason, I suppose, is that more or less everyone was dressed the same. It seemed normal to us. We’d built up a plausibility structure of pastel t-shirts, neon socks and snow-washed jeans.
Isn’t it the same when we look at the Bible? It reflects the attitudes of a particular time and place in history. It seemed ok to everyone at the time, but now those attitudes appear regressive and embarrassing. We look back and we say to ourselves: “What were they thinking? I’m glad we know better”.... continue reading
Every so often we resolve to do things differently. Pray more. Grumble less. Actually take the Bible's command to rest vaguely seriously ...
However in amongst all the declarations and outpourings I suspect that one resolution you won't or haven't heard is this:
I'm going to stop asking Jesus into my heart.
Most Christians would never dream of suggesting such a thing and non-believers probably wouldn't care enough to make that kind of stand.
Asking Jesus into your heart by praying some version of the Sinner's Prayer, in which you acknowledge your sin and need of salvation and then accept Jesus as your Saviour, has become something of an evangelical ritual. It can mark the moment of salvation—"the hour I first believed," as the great hymn says. But like any ritual, we can wonder whether we've done it right—whether we were sincere enough and really meant it. At that point it becomes a kind of good work, something we do to get saved. And like every good work, it's not good enough to assure us of salvation.... continue reading
In this extract his new book, Barry Cooper grapples with the question of why the words of the Bible really matter…
Isn’t it silly to claim that something as commonplace as a book actually contains God’s words? If God really is God, couldn’t he communicate with human beings in a less run-of-the-mill way?
He certainly could. The Bible itself gives plenty of examples: God speaks to people by means of dreams, visions, angels—even, on one significant occasion, from a burning bush. He also “speaks” to individuals by means of their consciences (Romans 2 v 15); by hard-wiring us with a deep inner hunger for him (Ecclesiastes 3 v 11); even by determining where and when in history we live (Acts 17 v 26-27). God constantly “speaks” to us of his goodness by providing for us, regardless of whether we love him or not (Matthew 5 v 45; Acts 14 v 17). And he still guides his people by means of his Holy Spirit.... continue reading
Revenge porn. It’s the sort of issue we’d like to assume is just “out there” rather than inside the church. But it isn’t.
We’d like to think that all the single people in the congregation are walking closely with the Lord – and that all the marriages are rock solid - but they’re not. Some are sleeping with people to whom they are not married. A few are taping their physical pursuits. And when the break-up comes, occasionally one disgruntled party posts explicit images online to humiliate, to hurt and to hate.
It’s not a weekly occurrence in the average congregation but it happens. And when it does, lives can be wrecked – emotionally and spiritually.
How would your church respond? Would there be compassion? Rebuke? An awkward silence? It’s worth taking some time to think it through before it hits …... continue reading
Christians are Bible people.
It's a book we listen to. It's a book we love. It's where we find out about Jesus and the good news of his saving work. It's where we discover the history of the world, and our place in it.
But that doesn't stop us having questions about it. Just how does it work that a book written by scores of people over a thousand year span can claim to be literally the very words of God?
And at a time when the central ideas of Scripture are more and more out of step with the spirit of the age, we are tempted to doubt the Bible as reliable and trustworthy.
That's why I'm delighted that Barry Cooper has written Can I really trust the Bible? - the latest in our Questions Christians Ask series. Barry uses a simple example to ask some key questions about the Bible. If you see what looks to be a jar of honey on a shelf - how do you know that it is genuinely honey inside? Three simple steps:... continue reading
I hope you will excuse this moment of self-indulgence but today is this little blog editor’s special day. It’s exactly 25 years since the grace of God changed my heart and, forgiven, I began to follow Jesus.
Today, I’ve been looking back over the past quarter of a century – with all its highs and its lows – and have been bowled over by God’s faithfulness, forgiveness and love in ways that I tend to miss on a daily basis. It’s wonderful to take stock every now and then.
So, what has changed over the past 25 years?... continue reading
