The following post is a collection of excerpts from Mark's sermon. Listen to the podcast for the full sermon. The Bible says that Jabez was an honorable man and from this we can deduce that his prayer for blessing and an enlarged territory was not a selfish prayer. He was asking for blessing in order [...]
It is not possible to over emphasize the centrality of love in the Kingdom of God. The only thing that rivals the centrality of love is the centrality of truth. In our evangelical tradition truth has been emphasized more often than love with the sad result that we tend to become highly qualified Pharisees. [...]
Did I get your attention last week with my statements about Christians and truth? See post here if you missed it. It has the sermon link too. Truth = change and change = increased responsibility. I am thinking of the story of Jesus and the man at the pool of Bethesda. A crippled man has been [...]
Mark Cowper-Smith The answer depends on what they are angry about. For many years I was very angry with the church I grew up in. My anger was such that it was keeping me from God. I actually hated Christians. My issue was hypocrisy. My mistake was confusing God with His people. People [...]
There is a tenet of Ignatian spirituality*[see note below] that when our hearts are generally inclined towards God [that we are generally consecrated to Him] the desires of our hearts are placed there by Him. If you have prayed a genuine prayer of consecration and your desire is to worship God, then you can trust that [...]
The book of Philippians is a letter to a church. To understand the letter we have to understand the church. Churches are just like people; they have a genetic code which they received from their parents. They are formed as well, through the experience of their early formative years. The church of Philippi is the [...]