Christian Life
Prayer, fasting, and the disciplines of walking with Christ.
Comics in these studies
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Teach Us to Pray · The Lord's Prayer: What Jesus Taught Us About How to Pray
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Partakers of the Divine Nature · Partakers of the Divine Nature
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Not My Will · Prayer: Communion with God
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Run the Race · Run the Race: Come to Me, All Who Are Weary
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Salt and Light · Salt, Light and the Aroma of Christ
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Test the Spirits · Test the Spirits: Recognising False Teachers and Wolves
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True Worship · True Worship
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When Love Grows Cold · When Love Grows Cold: The Falling Away and the Remnant
Drawn in these studies
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The shape of the Lord's Prayer · The Lord's Prayer: What Jesus Taught Us About How to Pray
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Daniel at the window · Prayer: Communion with God
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Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3 · Prayer: Communion with God
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One verb for everyone · Submission in Context
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The Prayer in Seven Pictures · Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home
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Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home · Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home
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Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home · Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home
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Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home · Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home
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Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home · Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home
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Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home · Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home
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Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home · Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home
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Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home · Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home
The studies
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Be Prepared: A Reason for the Hope That Is in You
1 Peter 3:13-17 in its setting: the one imperative in verse 15 is 'sanctify Christ as Lord', Peter puts Christ where Isaiah put YHWH of hosts, and the ready answer is what that enthronement produces in a believer under slander.
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Fasting
Fasting in Scripture is humbling yourself before God: going without food to seek Him in repentance, grief, need and decision, while the Bridegroom is away. What the Bible shows fasting doing, what it never promises, and the verses most often misused about it.
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Forgive Us Our Debts
God forgives by cancelling a debt you could never pay, and the forgiveness is received by everyone who repents. A study of Matthew 6:14-15: what biblical forgiveness is, how it differs from love and from trust, what to do when the one who wronged you keeps on, and how to forgive without false guilt.
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How God Answers Prayer
Heard at once, answered by varied routes and on God's own timetable, sometimes missed while it happens, and kept: what Scripture shows about the answers to prayer.
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In Humility
Humility is living before God as someone who depends on Him for everything, as Jesus lived before His Father all the way to the cross. It shows itself in counting others more significant than yourself, and God lifts it up. A study of Philippians 2:1-11.
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Hurt by the Church: Wolves, Weeds and the Good Shepherd
People in church get hurt by the people they trusted. Scripture names four kinds of hurt: brothers who fail you, shepherds who harm, wolves who prey, and the weeds of the world. It answers each one differently, and it points every one of them to the Good Shepherd who stays.
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Know the Truth
Truth is God's own firmness, made flesh in His Son Jesus. You know it by abiding in His word, and it frees you from sin and from the father of lies. A study of John 8:31-47.
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The Lord's Prayer: What Jesus Taught Us About How to Pray
Line by line through the prayer Jesus gave His disciples in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4 -- what each petition asks, the words and background behind it, and how to pray it today.
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Partakers of the Divine Nature
The virtues of 2 Peter 1:3-11 as the fruit of a nature God has given: everything for life and godliness already granted, real effort that is never a burden, the joy that comes with it, and a rich entrance into Christ's kingdom.
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Prayer: Communion with God
What prayer is (a child's communion with the Father), in the order of the prayer Jesus taught: coming to God as your Father through His Son Jesus, seeking His will first, and asking for this day's bread; how Jesus, Daniel and Paul prayed (with Ephesians 3:14-21 worked through in depth); and a pattern to pray by.
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Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs
What Paul meant by psalms, hymns and spiritual songs in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, where the three words come from, the songs Israel and the first church sang, and why a Spirit-filled church sings.
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Run the Race: Come to Me, All Who Are Weary
Jesus invites the weary to Himself and gives them rest under His yoke. Hebrews tells tired believers to run with endurance, looking to Him. Why Christians grow weary, what feeds the runner, and what weighs the runner down.
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Salt, Light and the Aroma of Christ
Jesus told His disciples, "You are the salt of the earth" and "You are the light of the world"; Paul wrote, "we are the aroma of Christ to God." What each picture meant to its first hearers, what it asks of one believer and of a whole church, and the churches Jesus calls lampstands.
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Submission in Context
The verses used to make women submit to men, read in their paragraphs and in the Greek: Genesis 3:16, Ephesians 5:21-33, 1 Corinthians 7:3-5, 1 Peter 3:1-7, and the contested texts on women in church, with plain pastoral guidance on where submission ends.
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Take Up Your Cross
Peter rebuked Jesus for speaking of the cross, and Jesus called it setting the mind on the things of man. A study of Matthew 16:21-28 through two Greek word studies: the mind that keeps itself safe and high, the life saved by losing it, and Peter's own road from that rebuke to his denial, his tears and his restoration.
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Teaching the Lord's Prayer at Home
A seven-week household guide to the Lord's Prayer, one line a week: what each line shows about God, a Bible story, questions for children and adults, a practice for the home, a verse to learn, and Paul's prayers to pray over your children.
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Test the Spirits: Recognising False Teachers and Wolves
The apostles expected false teachers to rise inside the church. Scripture tells you to keep testing every teacher by three marks: the Christ they preach, the life they live, and where they lead you. Signs, crowds and Bible words prove nothing, and the One in you is greater.
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Those Who Sigh and Groan: A Heart After God's Own
In Ezekiel 9 God sent a scribe through Jerusalem to mark everyone who sighed and groaned over its abominations, and the marked were spared. What grieves God grieves His own, and in Christ He gives that heart and seals it with His Spirit.
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True Worship
Worship is bowing your whole self before God because He is worthy as Creator and Redeemer. Before Jesus it came through a place, a priesthood and sacrifice; since Jesus it comes through Him, by the Holy Spirit and in truth, with your whole life; in the kingdom and the new creation every nation and creature will give it. It belongs to God alone: angels refuse it, the beast demands it, and Jesus receives it.
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When Love Grows Cold: The Falling Away and the Remnant
Jesus said the love of the many would grow cold. For the believer watching a friend's faith fade, Scripture adds Elijah's seven thousand, Isaiah's remnant, the disciples who fell away and were called back, and the Lord who knows those who are His.