Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 11028 If worship is the response of the whole person to the worth of God, the question of how we worship is not a matter of personal taste but of biblical obedience. God is not indifferent to how He is approached. Scripture contains both positive examples and serious warnings about worship, and the pattern…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 11030 Few topics in corporate worship generate quite as much variety of opinion as whether Christians should raise their hands during prayer and praise. Some congregations see lifted hands in every service; others would find the practice deeply uncomfortable. The question is whether Scripture gives us any guidance, and if so, what that guidance…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 11053 Should prayer be spoken aloud or offered silently? Some Christians feel that prayer spoken out loud carries more weight or demonstrates greater faith. Others prefer the privacy and intimacy of silent prayer. The question is simple enough, but the answer touches on the nature of prayer itself and the character of the God…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 11048 The use of written prayers, whether from a prayer book, a liturgical order of service, or a personal journal, has divided Christians for centuries. Some traditions rely on them almost exclusively; others reject them as incompatible with genuine, Spirit-led prayer. The question deserves a more careful answer than either extreme provides. The Biblical…
Reading Time: 8 minutesQuestion 7003 This might seem a strange question at first. How could someone possess eternal life and be unaware of it? Yet pastoral experience and Scripture both suggest this is not only possible but relatively common. Many sincere believers struggle with assurance, wondering whether their conversion was genuine, whether they truly belong to God. The…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 7004 Few experiences are more distressing for Christians than the absence of spiritual feeling. You’ve trusted Jesus, you believe the Gospel, you’re trying to follow Him—yet something is missing. There’s no warmth, no joy, no sense of God’s presence. You go through the motions but feel nothing. You wonder if you’re even saved at…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 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 framework a question uses determines the answer it receives, and the question of whether you need to forgive yourself places you as both the offended…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 6021 The hardened heart is one of Scripture’s most sobering images. From Pharaoh’s repeated resistance to Moses through to the stern warnings of Hebrews, the biblical writers return again and again to the danger of a heart that has become impervious to God’s voice. Understanding what this means, and how it happens, is not…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 6042 When a Christian fails morally, are they in the same position as someone who has deliberately turned their back on God and done evil with full intent? Every honest believer has experienced the frustration of Romans 7, doing what they did not want to do, failing in ways they genuinely hated, confessed, and…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 02014 The phrase “God hates the sin but loves the sinner” has become so familiar in Christian circles that most people assume it must be in the Bible somewhere. It is not. The reality the Bible presents is more complex, more demanding, and ultimately more searching than that popular summary allows. Getting this right…