Christian Living

Question 06035 The word "backsliding" has an old-fashioned ring to it in some quarters, but the reality it describes is anything but historical. It names something that believers in every ...

Question 11087 The phrase "forgive yourself" is frequently offered as pastoral advice to people struggling with guilt, shame, or regret. Its absence from Scripture is not a trivial observation. The ...

Question 07082 If legalism is the error of adding to what God requires, antinomianism is the error of subtracting from it. The word comes from the Greek anti (against) and ...

Question 07071 The word legalism gets used in at least two quite different ways in contemporary Christianity. Sometimes it means what it should mean: the error of trying to earn ...

Question 04019 Paul writes to the Corinthian church and tells them, pointedly, that he cannot address them as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ ...

Question 11083 Gluttony is perhaps the most consistently ignored sin in contemporary evangelical culture. Behaviours that would draw immediate pastoral concern in relation to other appetites are routinely overlooked when ...

Question 11082 This question is framed as though it must be one or the other, and most of the energy in contemporary discourse goes into arguing for the disease model ...

Question 6029 Pride occupies a unique place in the catalogue of human sin. The Christian tradition has long regarded it not merely as one sin among others but as the ...

Question 11084 This question carries significant pastoral weight, because many conscientious believers are tormented by thoughts that arrive without invitation, thoughts that horrify them precisely because of how out of ...

Question 06031 Anger is one of the most contested emotional territories in Christian life. Some believers are taught that any expression of anger is sinful and unspiritual, a failure of ...

Question 11085 Many believers wake troubled by the contents of a dream, carrying a sense of guilt or shame about what their sleeping mind produced. The question of whether dreams ...

Question 6049 This question troubles new Christians and experienced ones alike. If Christ has truly dealt with sin, if we are new creations, if the Spirit now lives within us, ...

Question 06060 John Owen's seventeenth-century treatise on mortification of sin remains one of the most searching pieces of practical theology in the English language. But the concept did not originate ...

Question 06061 Every honest believer knows what it is to return to the same sin again and again. Not the single stumble but the repeated pattern, the familiar failure that ...

Question 06062 The category of secret sin is as old as the fall itself. Adam and Eve, having disobeyed God, hid themselves among the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:8) ...

Question 11090 Few pastoral questions produce more confusion, guilt, and genuine suffering than this one. The Christian who has wrestled with an addictive or compulsive pattern of sin — whether ...

Question 06072 This is one of those pastoral questions where a great deal of unnecessary guilt and confusion has accumulated because the distinction between two very different things has been ...

Question 06067 The practice of confession sits at the intersection of theology and daily Christian experience. Most believers know they should confess sin to God, but questions arise about whether ...

Question 6018 Paul's second letter to the Corinthians contains one of the most practically searching distinctions in the New Testament. Writing about the response of the Corinthian church to a ...

Question 6015 The word "world" appears hundreds of times across the New Testament, and it does not always mean the same thing. Reading it as if it did produces significant ...

Question 6013 The phrase "besetting sin" is part of the common vocabulary of Christian conversation, yet it comes from a single verse in Hebrews and carries a meaning that is ...

Question 6014 Temptation is one of the universal experiences of the Christian life, and it raises a genuine question about God's purposes. If He is perfectly good and desires our ...

Question 1057 In many churches today, the public reading of Scripture has been reduced to a brief prelude before the sermon—a quick reading of the text about to be preached, ...

Question 1058 Family devotions. Family worship. Family Bible reading. Whatever you call it, most Christian parents feel a mixture of guilt and aspiration about this practice. We know we should ...

Question 1128 Passing faith to the next generation is one of the most important things Christian parents do. And central to that task is helping our children love God's Word ...

Question 1126 When it comes to reading the Bible, people often wonder about the best approach. Should you start at Genesis and read straight through to Revelation? Should you jump ...

Question 1127 You started January with good intentions. A Bible reading plan. This would be the year you finally read through the whole thing. February came, and you missed a ...

Question 1123 Every Christian goes through seasons when Bible reading feels like a duty rather than a delight. The pages seem flat. The words don't come alive. We know we ...

Question 12049 The question of whether smoking is sinful troubles many believers. Scripture never mentions tobacco—unsurprising given that it was unknown in the biblical world—so we must apply broader biblical ...

Question 11065 Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12 that "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present ...

Question 11066 There is a kind of spiritual fatigue that is not produced by overwork but by accumulation — the weight of sin that has been noticed but not confessed, ...

Question 11067 Paul's command to "walk by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16) and his instruction to "keep in step with the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25) assume a kind of moment-by-moment awareness of ...

Question 11070 Depression is one of the most misunderstood experiences within the Christian community. Well-meaning believers have told sufferers that their depression is evidence of weak faith, unconfessed sin, or ...

Question 11069 The Bible contains more than three hundred commands not to fear, which might suggest that every experience of fear or anxiety is a failure of faith. That reading, ...

Question 11071 This question cuts right to the heart of Christian living and witness. We live in an age where people often pit truth against love, as though you must ...

Question 4087 The question of how to distinguish a genuine prompting from the Holy Spirit from one's own reasoning or from an external spiritual influence is one of the most ...

Question 4083 Spiritual dryness is one of the most disorienting experiences in the Christian life. The person who yesterday felt the presence of God in prayer and worship finds today ...

Question 11056 Acts 1:8 is the last thing the risen Jesus said before His ascension, and it was not a farewell encouragement. It was a structured programme. "But you will ...

Question 11081 The Samaritan mission in Acts 8 is one of the most theologically charged events in the book of Acts, though Luke narrates it with characteristic restraint. Philip crossed ...

Question 04026 Prayer is not a skill that can be fully mastered through technique or discipline alone. The New Testament presents the Holy Spirit as intimately involved in the believer's ...

Question 04021 Sanctification is not simply a matter of moral improvement or religious discipline. It is the Spirit's work in the believer, transforming what we are from the inside out ...

Question 04022 Paul's instruction in Galatians 5:16 is not a vague encouragement to be more spiritual. "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh" ...

Question 04023 Every Christian has moments of genuine uncertainty about their own spiritual condition. Am I acting out of the Spirit's leading, or am I following my own desires and ...

Question 04020 The Holy Spirit produces fruit in the believer and distributes gifts to the believer, and while both come from the same Spirit, they are doing entirely different things ...

Question 04045 There are few more striking statements in the New Testament than Paul's declaration in 1 Corinthians 6:19: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of ...

Question 04043 Galatians 5:16-25 contains one of the most practically important passages in Paul's letters. In a single sustained argument, he sets out two contrasting ways of living: life driven ...

Question 09114 "Touch not my anointed" is quoted with surprising frequency in certain church circles as a warning against criticising or questioning Christian leaders, pastors, or prominent figures. The appeal ...

Question 11068 Few questions in Christian living carry more confusion than the one about anger. Some believers conclude that any experience of anger is a failure of sanctification, and they ...

Question 05038 No question matters more than this one. Every person, at some point, has looked at their own existence and wondered what it is for. Philosophy, religion, popular culture, ...

Question 4063 Paul identifies three conditions for Spirit-filled living in Ephesians 4 and 5, and 1 Thessalonians 5: do not grieve the Spirit, do not quench the Spirit, walk by ...

Question 4066 Someone approaches you after a church meeting, or perhaps contacts you privately, with a message they believe is from God for your life. They may have used the ...

Question 10109 How does a believer grow in holiness? The question sounds simple and turns out to be one of the most contested in Christian thought. On one side stands ...

Question 4065 Every believer in Christ has received at least one spiritual gift. This is not an aspiration or a target to aim for — it is a statement of ...

Question 1091 The language of "claiming" Bible verses in prayer is common in many Christian circles. We hear phrases like "I'm claiming Jeremiah 29:11 over my situation" or "Claim the ...

Question 1087 Worship and Scripture are inseparably linked in the Christian life. The Bible is not merely a book we study privately; it is meant to be read, sung, prayed, ...

Question 1090 Prayer and Scripture are inseparable companions in the Christian life. Just as a conversation requires both speaking and listening, so our relationship with God involves both prayer (our ...

Question 1092 The word "meditation" can make some Christians nervous. In our culture, it's often associated with Eastern religions—emptying the mind, achieving altered states of consciousness, or connecting with some ...

Question 1093 Artificial intelligence has rapidly become part of everyday life, and Christians are increasingly asking whether these tools have a place in Bible study. Can ChatGPT help me understand ...

Question 1053 Study Bibles are everywhere. Walk into any Christian bookshop and you'll find shelves of them—leather-bound, colour-coded, themed for men, women, teenagers, and every niche you can imagine. They ...

Question 01150 The claim that personal experience overrides biblical teaching is one of the most pastoral challenges the church faces today, precisely because it is often made by sincere believers ...

Question 0030 Walk into any theological seminary and you will encounter rigorous study of systematic theology, historical theology, biblical languages, and philosophical argumentation. Walk into most local churches and you ...

Question 0029 Every believer who takes both truth and relationships seriously will eventually face this question. You find yourself at odds with someone over a matter of faith or practice ...

Question 0049 It is one of the most sobering realities in the Christian life, and one that every serious believer must confront: it is entirely possible to have impeccable theology ...

Question 0034 The good news is that we live in an age of unprecedented access to theological resources. Books that were once available only in seminary libraries are now accessible ...

Question 0032 It is one of the great tragedies of the modern church that the study of God—which is what the word "theology" means—has become associated with dusty books, academic ...

Question 0033 The question itself is encouraging. Anyone asking how to develop an appetite for doctrine already possesses something precious—the recognition that such an appetite is desirable. Not everyone reaches ...

Question 0031 The comparison between doctrine and an immune system is remarkably apt, and Scripture itself uses similar language. Just as our physical bodies possess an intricate defence system designed ...

Question 0017 This question gets to the very heart of how the Christian life actually works. There's a connection between what we believe and how we live, and understanding that ...

Question 0019 This is one of those questions that's painful to ask but necessary. Walk into many churches and you'll find people who've been Christians for twenty, thirty, even forty ...

Question 0018 The letter to the Hebrews contains one of the New Testament's most direct discussions of spiritual maturity, and it comes with a sharp rebuke that still stings today ...

Question 04010 Galatians 5:22-23 lists what many Christians have memorised as the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The question of whether ...

Question 4008 The question of how the Spirit guides believers is one of the most practically significant in all of pneumatology. It touches directly on decision-making, on the discernment of ...

Question 4007 Few phrases have been borrowed more freely from their original context than "the still small voice." It has become a standard way of describing the Holy Spirit's gentle ...

Question 4009 In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul lists what he calls "the fruit of the Spirit": love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It is one of the ...

Question 11040 The idea that Christians can "activate" healing by speaking God's Word has become popular particularly through Word of Faith teaching. Believers are encouraged to "speak healing into existence" ...

Question 11041 When a scribe asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest, our Lord responded with words that have echoed through the centuries: "And you shall love the Lord your ...