iChaplain

Photo by Alena Plotnikova on Unsplash . Recently I've been reading through the book of James. I mention that only because sometimes Scripture has a way of catching us by surprise. A passage we've read many times can suddenly challenge us in a way it never has before. James 2 has done exactly that for me. Few passages in Scripture address such a deeply human problem as clearly as this chapter does. The issue is favouritism. We may like to think we've moved beyond judging people by wealth, status, or appearance, but James exposes how easily we can value some people more highly than others. His words are uncomfortable because they reveal something about the human heart that hasn't changed very much at all. James begins with a simple but challenging command:  " My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism." (James 2:1) James, the brother of Jesus and a leader in the Jerusalem church, wrote to Jewish Christians who...

Have you ever discovered that something you've believed for years isn't actually true? Not because someone lied to you. Not because you weren't paying attention. Simply because you'd heard it repeated so many times that you assumed it must be true.  That happens with Jesus more than we might realise. Over the years, we've attached all sorts of sayings to Him that sound spiritual, inspirational, and even biblical. Phrases like  "Follow your heart,"  "Believe in yourself,"  "Be true to yourself," "Everything happens for a reason,"  "God helps those who help themselves,"  "Money is the root of all evil," have become part of our cultural vocabulary. Many people assume they came from Jesus or at least from the Bible. The problem is that Jesus never said any of them.  In fact, one of them isn't even an accurate Bible quotation. The Bible doesn't say, "Money is the root of all evil." It says, ...

What if the church's discomfort with evangelism is telling us something important? Few words make Christians more uncomfortable than evangelism.  For some, it evokes memories of pressure, awkward conversations, or techniques designed to persuade. For others, it raises feelings of guilt and inadequacy. We know Jesus commissioned his followers to make disciples, yet many churches struggle to know what faithful evangelism looks like in today's world. This is not to deny that there are times when evangelism requires words. The New Testament is full of examples of faithful and courageous proclamation. Peter preached publicly at Pentecost (Acts 2:14–41) and before hostile authorities (Acts 4:8–20). Paul reasoned in synagogues and marketplaces (Acts 17:17), defended the gospel before rulers (Acts 24–26), and declared, "I am not ashamed of the gospel" (Romans 1:16). Yet alongside these examples of proclamation, we find something equally important: communities whose common lif...