Bridge of Reason

You have left a cult, or you are helping someone come out; so what comes next? The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: 'But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.' 1 Cor.3:1,2 There is a process of growth every Christian needs if they are to come to full maturity in Christ. The same is true for Christians coming out of cults. What are stages of this growth? How might we think about, and identify where people are in this process of sanctification? How are we to help them move on and grow further, from the milk to the meat? Recorded at the Reachout Trust Conference, September, 2024.  

  People are looking for answers. One of the key attractions of a cult is certainty, the claim they have all the answers, a plan that is God’s plan. When someone leaves a cult this is one of the hardest things to deal with, letting go of the plan. There is an apparent uncertainty as the plan is taken away and replaced with simple trust in Jesus in a Western Church that often seems to fail in offering focus and direction. Something I have warned about over the years is the danger of being an ‘ex,’ allowing your past to define you. Let’s be frank here, the fault lies with the church that fails to have that focus, making some fall back on an identity defined by their past. Focus and direction are there in the Bible but churches can get so caught up in putting on programmes, events that attract unbelievers, serving the wider community, it can forget it’s primary purpose – making disciples. Are your surprised this is the church’s primary purpose? Perhaps you have been told the primary...

 Have you noticed how easily people swear these days? Cursing has become commonplace, casual and fixed as a part of the way so many people talk today. If you want to know where this comes from you just need to watch TV, especially one of the streaming services available. Or perhaps not. It is amazing how casually people adopt what they see and hear on their TV screens. Something else that has become commonplace is ‘partners.’ I have a wife, my wife has a husband, but most people today, even if they are married, have a partner. I had a conversation with a lady who began speaking about her husb...and corrected herself, ‘my partner.’ Of course, my wife is my partner, but ‘wife’ means so much more in this age of casual relationships. Why do I speak as I do, act and live my life this way and not that? Most people don’t give a second thought to it. There is very little of ‘not that,’ just ‘what now?’ My old mother, looking out on an increasingly confusing world, used to say, ‘Well, that...

The message of salvation is wonderful. Paul writes, ‘As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive’ (1 Cor.15:22) John writes, ‘Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life’ (1 John 5:12) Jesus himself declared, ‘I came that you may have life and have it abundantly’ (John 10:10) Salvation is more than escaping eternal punishment, it is about life, abundant, full, and eternal, deliverance from sin-slavery. If we are saved, trusting in Christ for our eternity (2 Tim.1:12), that is a good thing. More, if we are made disciples, which Jesus commanded (Mt.28:16-20) and set our face towards obedience (Mt.7:21-23), that is a fruitful thing. We have looked at a possible Christian rule for life , the question of Am I Saved? and we have looked at obedience . We will go on in future posts to look at sanctification and perseverance, but now we look at purpose. Sinai Still Speaks God, through Moses, explained his purposes to the children of Isr...

Paul's letter to Titus in the New Testament contains a remarkable and disturbing observation. Paul writes: 'One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in faith…' (1:12/13) Titus was a Greek convert to Christianity, Paul referring to him as, 'my true child in the faith.' (1:4) He had a challenging assignment, so Paul wrote words both of encouragement and of instruction, 'as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.' (2:1) This is a theme throughout this letter, indeed, in his whole ministry. The fact Titus was to appoint elders in every town tells us this was a new church plant. The above quote gives some insight into what Titus had to draw on to accomplish his task. It is a shocking thing to read, xenophobic one might think. Paul, of course, was making a generalisation, not implying every citizen of ...

How are things with you these days? I imagine there have been significant changes to your normal routine. Confinement has seen me running out of excuses and actually tacking the mess I laughingly call my study. (Starting to tackle) My local shop is allowing just two customers in at any one time. He has considerately marked out the floor into metre squares in black and yellow tape. Shopping is now a dance class, but we are all grateful. I like chunky rolled oats for my porridge and it is not easy to come by these days. But my local shopkeeper, who doesn’t usually carry them, found a box for me and made a friend for life. I needed to visit the chemist in the city centre and the roads and pavements were quieter than a wet Sunday morning in November. I knew the police were stopping drivers to ask if they have a legitimate reason to be out. I did, but I still felt somehow guilty, waiting for that tap on the shoulder. We had to go to the hospital and that journey has never been so ...

The Proof of Obedience When it comes to discipleship Jesus made it clear that words are not enough. Many find the message of Jesus attractive, and are prepared to look further into it. Like the rich young man, they are curious, ask questions, but come with the baggage of assumptions we all can carry. It’s a lazy kind of curiosity that assumes the answer is going to be just the one I already decided is right. In Jesus’s day it was assumed riches were a sign of God’s blessing, a sure sign someone was heading for eternal life. Jesus put his finger on what was always going to hold back this young man and issued the challenge. ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.’ Read the whole account in Mark’s gospel to see how prevalent this thinking about riches was (Mark 10:17-27) Discipleship costs, more than riches, more than reputation, more than comfort, which is why the first test of discipleshi...