Chalmers' Blog

The Thinking That Hinders the Christian Community

Slightly dramatic? Maybe or maybe not. I’ll let you decide. Can a thought process, or a certain attitude really be that harmful to the Christian community? I honestly think they can. Our thoughts and our attitudes lead to actions, which can have a positive or a negative effect on things.

Maybe your initial thought was “sure, certain thinking can hinder the church. Wrong theology, etc”. Yes, that is true. But I want to go deeper than that.

New resources for kids, for the eyes and ears…

There are so many kids resources out there for children, so many good books that will encourage learning, reading and growth in knowledge and love for Jesus. One of the things I love about some of the new resources I’m sent to review is that they are so biblical! Here are a few resources that will help you, whether you’re a parent or not, teach children about Jesus, the Bible and the world we live in.

Saturday Snippets (October 17)

As well as reading a lot of books, I also read a ton of articles every week. Here are some of the articles that I’ve read recently and have found interesting, helpful, challenging and encouraging. I hope that they will be the same for you, my dear readers…

Dangerous Discipleship

Discipleship is a word that is thrown around a lot in churches and Christian circles today. it’s become a bit of a buzz word. Every church or Christian will have their own idea of what discipleship looks like. For some it will mean sitting in skinny jeans sipping hipster coffee whilst reading the Bible. For others it will mean walking along the beach talking about the ups and downs of the Christian life. For others it will mean opening up your home and bringing someone into the family. Discipleship takes on many different shapes and sizes.

But there’s a type of discipleship that does more damage than it does good. We’re all aware of practices that are harmful to people and so we stay away from them. But there are subtle things that we do that can harm people and you may not even realise it’s happening.

Book Review Batch…

One day I need to send you all a picture of my ‘to review’ shelf. It is a wonderful gift that keeps on growing, which I really enjoy. There are a huge range of books that I try to review one by one. However, it’s been a while since I did a longer post with a good number of books on it. So, here goes. Hopefully this will give you an insight into some of the great books out there, but also the huge variety of stuff that I read.

Saturday Snippets (October 10)

Where is God in all the Suffering?

Suffering is a common experience to the majority of people in the world. It may be illness, it might have been a rough upbringing or it may take the form of witnessing someone else’s suffering. Suffering is not a stranger to the mortal man. Therefore, it makes sense that the question a lot of people ask is “Where is God in all the suffering?” Here’s Amy Orr-Ewing’s new book on that very question…

Saturday Snippets (October 3)

True Friendships and the Church Today…

Friendship, true friendship, is a wonderful thing. It’s much more than just seeing someone on a Sunday and asking how their week was. To maintain a friendship is time consuming, a person much be dedicated and willing to sacrifice. We need friendships like that of David and Jonathan (for example, 1 Samuel 18:1-5) in the church today. Here’s why…

5 Marks of a Gospel Church

1 Thessalonians has been one of my favourite books of the Bible for a long time. I studied it early on in Bible College and thoroughly enjoyed it. So when I was sent Sam Gordon’s easy read commentary ‘5 Marks of a Gospel Church’ I was pretty excited