Stephen Steele

Hymns

Teaching God to Speak like a Christian? Isaac Watts at 350

December 19, 2024

Watts said that in all places he had kept his grand design in view – ‘to teach my Author to speak like a Christian’. He did not specify whether he meant David or God.

Pardon and Forgiveness

Hunter Biden and a Father's Pardon

December 05, 2024

Biden declared in May that ‘no one is above the law’. It’s a sentiment most of us agree with – yet somehow we expect God to act differently.

Christ in the Psalms

The Bishop's Predictions

November 19, 2024

Without an intense conviction in the hearts of God's children that Christ is in the Psalter, that it is in sympathy with His Passion and His Glory, its words would, after a brief season of deference to ancient custom, be almost unheard in our Churches and Cathedrals.

prayer

The Lord's Prayer (Westminster Expanded Version)

August 20, 2024

My friend Daniel Sturgeon, pastor of Stranraer Baptist Church, recently turned the Heidelberg Catechism's exposition of the Lord's Prayer into a prayer itself. As he explained: "The question/

Global Church

On the Advantages of Pulpit Swaps

July 16, 2024

I wrote the following for our local newspaper to introduce the concept of a Scotland/USA pulpit swap. I'm sharing it here as it may be of interest to a wider

Samson

The Bible Verse in Every Supermarket

June 18, 2024

Did you know there's a Bible verse in every UK supermarket? Its presence gained some attention lately as both it and the dead lion accompanying it were removed from the packing

original sin

Adam Poisoned Me

May 21, 2024

A few years ago, the BBC interviewed Toronto artist Gillian Genser. The headline was: ‘How a sculptor’s artwork slowly poisoned her’. Genser was experiencing headaches, vomiting, hearing loss, confusion and suicidal thoughts.

Church Membership

An "Ordinary" Church Member

April 16, 2024

Christian biographies tend to focus on missionaries, ministers and others who have played prominent roles - yet surely it is also right to celebrate those who have served in less upfront ways.

kingdom

When God blesses others and not us

March 19, 2024

How do you react when God blesses others and not you? When a neighbouring church sees conversions and yours doesn't?

Church

Britain's Loneliest Sheep

February 20, 2024

If we see a sheep on its own, we know something is wrong. We should look with similar concern on someone who claims to be one of Christ’s sheep, and yet shuns involvement in Christ's church.

Christ in the Psalms

The Psalms: Maximally or Minimally Messianic?

January 16, 2024

Charles Spurgeon once recommended a commentary on the Bible with an interesting caveat - the author had "the peculiar idea that Christ is in every Psalm".

Incarnation

Veiled in Flesh?

December 19, 2023

The great truth of the incarnation is not God veiled – but God revealed.

Gravity & Gladness

This & Tat in a Christian Bookshop

November 21, 2023

A surface understanding of God and his Word means we will not be able to cope when the trials and difficulties of life meet us. We need that sense of the grandeur and majesty of God.

Retirement

Retirement: The New Afterlife?

October 17, 2023

Take away the hope of a glorious future beyond this life and we have to try and find it here and now.

Christ in Scripture

Jesus in Every Book

September 19, 2023

Lists like the one below may be a means to help us follow Isaac Ambrose’s exhortation: ‘Keep still Jesus Christ in your eye, in the perusal of the Scriptures, as the end, scope and substance thereof’.

Christ in the Old Testament

Jesus: True and Better (from Calvin to Keller)

August 15, 2023

A memorial service for the late Tim Keller is being held this afternoon. One of the things Keller will be remembered for is his Christ-centred approach to the Old Testament. He often summarised

Westminster Confession

Reading the Confession in Context (1): 'Authentical'

July 05, 2023

Responsible preachers – and thoughtful Bible readers – are aware of the danger of taking verses out of context. A similar danger, which many of its adherents are less aware of, applies to the Westminster

heaven

Jesus can’t wait to see you either, Tim

May 19, 2023

It’s not unusual for us to think of the believer’s desire to be with Jesus. But how often do we think of Jesus’ desire for us to be with him?

discouragement

Serving God in Unglamorous Places

May 16, 2023

Lentil fields need defended because God's people need fed. And because once you lose them to the Philistines, it's very hard to get them back again.

Controversy

It's Not Enough to be Right

March 21, 2023

It’s been well said that it’s possible to win the argument but lose the person. Similarly, it’s possible to be on the right side of a debate, but conduct ourselves

Tragedy

Killed by what they thought would save them

January 28, 2023

Seventy years ago, on the last Saturday morning in January, the MV Princess Victoria left the port of Stranraer in South-West Scotland. She was heading for Ireland with 179 people on board – but

unity

What Majoring on the Minors Will Do to You

January 17, 2023

One of my favourite books of 2022 was the republication in one volume of three works by the nineteenth century Irish Presbyterian Thomas Witherow, under the title I Will Build My Church. (For

Westminster Confession

A Westminster Divine and an Alexandrian Codex

November 15, 2022

At the heart of the critique of modern Bible versions by some in the Reformed world is their assessment of the Greek manuscripts on which they are based.

Textual Criticism

Textual Confidence

August 27, 2022

Has God’s word been deliberately tampered with over the years? Have verses teaching the deity of Christ been systematically removed from our Bibles? Are the differences between ancient, modern and Reformation-era Bibles

The Moon is Always Round

January 25, 2020

How would you go about explaining to a 3-year-old that the baby sister he’s been excitedly looking forward to meeting isn’t going to be coming home? That at 39 weeks she’