Bridge of Reason

A Weekly Bible Reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – God’s Treasured Possession (Exodus 19:3-5 ) We began last time to look at God’s providence and the unlikely calling of a man, Abraham , out of a pagan, polytheistic world who was promised great things. He was promised a great posterity and that he would be a great nation and God provided a son when Abraham and his wife Sarah were old and barren. The promise of fruitfulness and progeny given to Adam and Abraham (Ge.1:28; 12:2) were fulfilled as Israel multiplied in Egypt. However, God’s people are not invulnerable to the challenges and injustices of this world and the physical descendants of Abraham found themselves in slavery in Egypt. From a position of great office and privilege in the land Israel, within 200 years, became slaves to a king that knew ...

A weekly Bible reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – When You Don’t Need Jesus (Luke 7:36-50) Have you ever heard someone say that “religion is a crutch”? When I hear this I look at the world and answer, “Perhaps, but look whose limping?” The implication of course is that only the weak and infirm in mind and spirit need a religious crutch. This further implies that the speaker suffers no such weakness and can stand on their merit. Perhaps the most tragic figure in the Bible is the Pharisee who takes such an attitude toward Jesus because, you see, the Pharisee is a very righteous person, careful in following the requirements of their religion, and here is the cause of their tragedy – self-righteousness. In this passage Jesus is visiting the home of a Pharisee, and a prostitute has entered unawares and begun...

In a recent radio interview, The Shack author, Paul Young, told the interviewer he did not hold to the traditional view of the atonement in that he does not believe Jesus Christ bore the punishment (i.e., penalty) for man's sins when He died on the Cross. Look at a partial transcript here. He also stated, with regard to this topic: "I don't know if you're aware, but that's a huge debate that's going on in theology right now within the evangelical community." That debate, to which Young refers, is the new theology (or as we call it the new spirituality) that is entering Christianity through contemplative and emerging figures such as Brennan Manning, Brian McLaren, and Marcus Borg. This "huge debate" states that a loving Father would never send His Son to a violent death on behalf of the sins of others. And while they do not deny that Jesus did physically die on a Cross, they insist that His death was not to be a substitutionary act wherein H...

John 8:32 - You will know the truth and the truth will set you free "Thinking her religion had given her what she most longed for, Lali ardently worshipped a goddess. But the woman living in Andhra Pradesh, India, would soon find that it brought her anything but peace... ...Lali seemed unable to bear children, and in India's culture, this is a shameful situation and brings scorn upon a woman. One day, her husband's family took her to see a witch doctor. After the woman performed witchcraft on Lali, she became pregnant and had children. It may seem Lali's hopes and dreams were answered, but then the witchcraft began to manifest itself in other forms." Latest News - Gospel for Asia UK