Biblical Spirituality

Most of us are not good at prayer. Why is prayer often so difficult—even for the mature believer? In this session, Michael Reeves gets to the heart of our problem with prayer.

All who are members of Christ’s body experience, in him, what happened to that body. Our old identity was slaughtered, speared, buried. He is the third-day first fruit of life and righteousness. All his seed that are in him share his fate. Thus, in him, we are given new life, and we share, are covered, by his righteousness. It all makes for an infinitely more nourishing gospel.

What kind of love is this? What kind of God is this?  The kind who says, “Come.”   “Come to the wedding feast.”  So, come, hungry. Come, thirsty. He has prepared a table for you. And it is only here, with him, where your hunger is satisfied, and your cup overflows. 

Knowing Jesus means knowing the Father. And Jesus doesn’t just whisper that you’re his brother or sister. He writes it large across the pages of the New Testament. He’s never ashamed to look you in the eye and say, “You’re family” (Heb. 2:11–12).

The Father is the lover, the Son is the beloved. The Bible is awash with talk of the Father’s love for the Son, but while the Son clearly does love the Father, hardly anything is said about it.

Too many in ministry are burning out. The weight of responsibility builds up over time, and the responsibility can become crippling. How do we maintain mental health in the context of ministry? Michael Reeves charges the 2023 UST graduates to “Come and Behold” from Psalm 46.

Union with Christ in John’s Gospel and letters is the in-one-another relationship of believers with the Father and Son by the Spirit—the intimate, loving, relational participation of the believer and God, each in the life, affections, ways and work of the other.

The following 15 quotes are from Clive Bowsher’s new title Life in the Son: Exploring participation and union with Christ in John’s Gospel and letters.

Sitting in a cute (technical term for “slightly odd”) Welsh pub with fellow Master’s students on an intensive lectures’ week at Union School of Theology, I was delighted when the owner came over and lit the fire. I love a nice fire, and find nothing more satisfying than keeping it ablaze. Having taken ownership of keeping said fire alight, you can imagine how embarrassed I was, when all I seemed able to do was put it out!

It is necessary not only to pray, but also to pray “as we ought” and to pray for what we ought. Our attempt to understand what we should pray for is deficient unless we also bring to our quest the “as we ought.” Likewise, what use to us is the “as we ought” if we do not know for what we should pray?