Author: David Ellis

Don: Jesus said: “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:22) And: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be…

‘God told me to kill the kids’ 2006-05-24 08:10 San Francisco – A woman accused of murdering her three young sons by tossing them into frigid San Francisco Bay said God summoned her to sacrifice her children, her lawyer said on Tuesday. Lashuan Harris, 23, who faces three counts of murder in last October’s drownings,…

Don: Much of the Book of Genesis is taken up with the extraordinary story of the faith journey of Abram, who later became Abraham. The Apostle Paul, in his letters to the Romans, emphasized the contrast between Abraham’s works and beliefs. And the “faith hall of fame” given in Hebrews 11 made a place for…

Don: We often conflate faith and religion, but they are different (albeit related) things. To me, faith is primarily internal, personal belief that exists independently of whether or not it is shared with or by others. Religion, on the other hand, is external, a sort of faith organized around a group of people who share…

Don: Last week we discussed four instances of people born into different faiths and cultures. It raises the question: Did God orchestrate that we would have different religions in order to lead us to Him by making us confront their anomalies? Are the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) more valid than Hinduism, Shintoism, Buddhism,…

Don: It is a key theme of the New Testament that faith connects Man to God: For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to…

Don: What effect do our senses of sight, sound, smell and touch have on faith? Scripture has many references that suggest the senses have some effect: O taste and see that the Lord is good…. (Psalms 34:8) So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17) “Things which eye has…

Don: Faith is often mentioned alongside grace. works, and will; as well as alongside two sort-of subsidiary words: belief and hope. Metaphorically, we are on a sea of life which is sometimes tumultuous, stormy, violent, and always unpredictable. It is comparatively quieter and safer to remain on land. But the grass seems greener on the…

Jay: Last week we ended with a mention of the incident where Jesus walked on the water. Matthew, alone among the Gospels, recounts that Peter tried to walk on the water too: Immediately He [Jesus] made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the…