Tag: discipleship

Once and for all sacrifice

Reflection based on Hebrews 10:1–14.

This chapter starts with a reminder of what a poor, temporary job animal sacrifices did. The first few verses point out that they could never free us from our sin and make us holy – but simply served as a reminder of sin. The old system was, by its very nature, unfinished. The priest had to make sacrifices day after day, and go into the Most Holy Place year after year on the Day of Atonement, but Jesus made a once and for all sacrifice. It does not need to be repeated, as it was perfect. 

The verses in Hebrews 10 talk about how constant sacrifice was the rhythm of a priest’s life, and yet, once Jesus had made His sacrifice, He sat back down next to the Father. He had completely opened the way for God to commune with His people. This does away with any notion that we as humans may be made holy through our own efforts. There is nothing we can do. Yes, when we respond fully to the amazing truth of our salvation, we willingly serve and obey God, but that is not the means of our salvation; Jesus has already provided that through His sacrifice.

Interestingly, verse 10 describes us as having ‘been made holy’, whereas verse 14 talks about us ‘being made holy’. This is the difference between justification (I like the explanation ‘just as if I never sinned’) and sanctification (the process of being made holy). When we accept Jesus, God looks at us and sees us as holy, and yet we are on a journey of discipleship – we still need to grow in our holiness.

Reflection: Think about any times when you have tried to ‘earn’ your salvation through your own efforts, say sorry to Jesus and thank Him for His once and for all sacrifice. 

How well do we support parents?

I recently attended a day at a nearby church focused on equipping Christian parents. Whole families were able to go, and the organisers did a fantastic job of keeping our children engaged and excited about the activities they did while we had teaching and discussions.

I was really struck by one of the questions we were asked:

“What is the best piece of advice you have been taught about parenting in church?”

We were then given a few moments to discuss it with the person next to us.

Those of us sat together all said the same thing – we couldn’t think of anything we had been specifically taught about parenting on a Sunday morning (apart from the few comments preachers had given about what they’ve learned about parenting from their own kids and their own mistakes). This made me wonder: how intentional are our churches about teaching and equipping parents?

To read the rest of this article please click here.

Why faith should hurt

God never promised that staying close would be easy.

Westernised Christianity doesn’t seem to cost that much these days. Has it become too sanitised, or compartmentalised so that it doesn’t intrude onto the rest of our busy lives? Having grown up in a US church that fell apart due to an overbearing pastor I’m wary of being prescriptive. But a lot of the ‘discipleship’ I see around me doesn’t have much sense of ownership. People just don’t seem to take responsibility for their faith anymore.

For the rest of this post, please click here to read my guest blog for Threads.

Thanks 🙂