In tolerant 21st century Britain, your lack of support for something you believe is wrong will no longer be tolerated.
That’s one of the implications of the much-reported “gay cake case”, in which a Northern Ireland bakery run by Christians has been found guilty of discrimination for refusing to decorate a cake bearing a “Support Gay Marriage” slogan.... continue reading
Should Christians eat meat, or just vegetables? It's a more complex question than you might think at first glance, and one we give our attention to during National Vegetarian Week.
There has been growing concern about a whole variety of issues which should rightly affect the way Christians think about this question.... continue reading
Books have been written on how best to support people who self-harm. We don’t have the space to go into detail on a blog. But here are our ten top tips for supporting those who struggle:
Be analytical
Spend time thinking about what the person has been through and listening to them talk. How have they been sinned against? What distorted views do they hold about themselves and God? Are they using self-harm to try to bring cleansing / control / sensation or punishment?... continue reading
Statistics show that as many as 17% of people will experience suicidal thoughts during their lifetime. Suicide is the biggest cause of death for men under the age of 25. Some describe it as a "waste", others a "mystery", many as a "tragedy" but, in quiet corners, there are other groups of people: those who see it as an "appealing option". Today on The Good Book Blog we meet one Christian who sought suicide, tried suicide but is now praising God for her life.... continue reading
I was delighted when I got the message over Facebook—it made my day in fact.
An old member of my youth group from 20 years ago got in touch. We had been very close when he was a teenager, but he had dropped off the radar completely.... continue reading
Is God Anti-Gay? is available to buy from TGBC website... continue reading
Our screens have been filled with tragic images of the ruin and destruction brought to Nepal by the earthquake on 25th April – and the unfolding tragedy of lives lost, homelessness on a mass scale, and precious cultural heritage reduced to rubble.
Natural disasters are just a normal part of life on fallen planet earth. There are between 10 and 20,000 earthquakes a year worldwide. But many of these are minor. For the last 10 years there have been 10 and 20 earthquakes of magnitude 7 and above. This year so far only 4. But it is where they strike that makes the difference between a minor paragraph on page 3 and a dominant news story for days.... continue reading
It's always important to manage expectations. And especially in evangelism.
We are thrilled to read remarkable stories of how people come to faith in Christ in dramatic and earth shaking ways. And we long for some kind of "Silver Bullet”—a perfectly pitched, unanswerable argument that will propel our friends to faith in Christ.
But the vast majority of those who are found by Christ do so after long years of unspectacular friendship, witness and prayer from faithful believers. And the truth is that some ground is harder to plough than others—much harder! Perhaps especially with Muslims.
In his recently published book Engaging with Muslims, author John Klaassen encourages us to think differently about how we view our witness to Muslim friends. He talks about moving from “Prayer” to “Presence”—spending time with Muslim friends—and then to “Proclamation” and “Persuasion” of the good news. In an illuminating chapter entitled Bridges to the Gospel, he writes:... continue reading
One of the few remaining links between Christianity and the culture is the idea of “giving something up for Lent”. Chances are that someone you know who has no interest in Jesus will be observing Lent—disciplining themselves to give something up between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.
And here are two very good reasons why not to join them:... continue reading
It can be a massive shock to walk in on your daughter and see her using pornography, or to look at your browser history and know beyond any reasonable doubt that your teen (or child) has been investigating those kinds of sites. The temptation is to panic, cry or react out of anger—but none of those things help. Here are some tips on how to approach the situation:
... continue reading
