prayer

31 Days of Prayer: Day Two – God is willing

Geoff Robson Christian Living, Quick Hits , , , ,

Child KnockingIf you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him. (Matt 7:11)

In Mark 9, Jesus meets the father of a boy possessed by an ‘impure spirit’. The man desperately wants his son healed, but is unsure of Jesus’ ability to help: “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us,” he begs. Jesus replies “‘If you can’?” Jesus then heals the boy with a simple word – he is more than able to meet the father’s request. “All things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27) Continue reading →

31 Days of Prayer: Day One – The Power of God

Geoff Robson Christian Living, Quick Hits , , , ,

World In God's Hands‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.” (Jeremiah 32:17)

Our understanding of prayer will never be bigger than our understanding of God.

I know it’s a cliché, but the place to begin reflecting on prayer is by focusing again on the character of God. In particular, we’ll start by focusing on God’s power. We pray to a God who is able to do all things. Continue reading →

31 Days of Prayer

Geoff Robson Christian Living, Ministry, Quick Hits , , ,

Prayer 1“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful in it and thankful.” (Colossians 4:2)

If I could choose one thing to be great at, or even one thing to be better at, it would be prayer.

Maybe that’s a reflection of how important I believe prayer to be in the Christian life. But if I’m honest, it also reflects my disappointment at my own lack of prayerfulness – my well-meaning plans that so often fail to produce action. And I’m not exactly going out on a limb here, but I doubt I’m the only one who wishes he was a better, more faithful pray-er.

With that in mind, I’d like to invite you to join me in the month of August for ’31 Days Of Prayer’. Continue reading →

Pray for North Korea

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“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!” (2 Tim 2:8-9)

World Watch List 2Every year, Open Doors produces ‘World Watch’ – a comprehensive list of the 50 countries in which Christians are most persecuted for their faith in Jesus. Even if you’re not a believer, it’s worth taking a look at the list to have your eyes opened to the human rights violations that take place around the world every single day. But for Christians in the West, the list is a great encouragement to prayer, and a reminder that the comfortable world we inhabit is not shared by countless millions of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

For the twelfth year in a row, North Korea tops the list. Here’s part of the ‘World Watch List Challenge’ email I received today from Open Doors (you can subscribe to this weekly email list here): Continue reading →

Another way to read the whole Bible in 2014

Geoff Robson Christian Living, Quick Hits , , ,

Dusty BibleOver the last couple of days, I’ve put together a simple Bible reading plan to get me through the Bible in a year. It was really just designed for my own use, so it’s tailored to what I want from a Bible reading plan. But I thought it was worth sharing in case it helps anyone else.

Why another Bible reading plan when there are so many out there (see below)? What makes this one different? Basically, I wanted something that would allow me to get through the Bible by concentrating on one book at a time (rather than reading a single chapter from multiple books each day). I also wanted something that deliberately did NOT start at Genesis and end at Revelation, but rather moved around from genre to genre throughout the year (blame YouTube for ruining my attention span, but I think this method has a better chance of keeping me engaged throughout the year).

Here is a PDF of my plan (Colour-coded Version | Black & White Version) Continue reading →

The Gospel And Who To Vote For – Part 2

Geoff Robson Christian Ethics, Christian Thought , , , , , , ,

Martin Luther KingIn the first of these posts on Christians and government, I began to outline how the Bible describes and understands earthly governments. We saw that governments are God-given authorities, instituted for the good ordering of society and worthy of our respect. So in our second post, it’s time to think more about how Christians should (or can) interact with their governing authorities.

Being good citizens
For starters, Christians should be good citizens. That statement is too general to mean much on its own, so it needs a little unpacking. As we saw in the previous post looking at Romans 13, being a good citizen will mean paying your taxes willingly and honestly. We’ll abide by the law, not just because we don’t want to get punished, but because our conscience tells us that if God has placed an authority over us, we do well to obey that authority. Continue reading →