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Guidance (Numbers 9:15-23) The pillar of cloud that has accompanied the Israelites all the way from Egypt is now located over the Tabernacle. It is a reassuring sign of God’s continuing presence, and is visible even during the hours of darkness because of the fire within it. This same pillar...

Healing and other miracles When people talk about spiritual gifts, these are the ones we immediately think of - even though they are not the commonest nor even necessarily the most important. There are indeed gifts of healing and other miracles (including exorcisms), and we read many instances...

Thankyou for the reminder - it was so long ago that I had forgotten where it was. I've done my best to answer your questions in that thread, but there were two that I couldn't work out. Well no, they aren't the same thing. Little words can make a very big difference to the meaning.

You evidently have the gift of healing, then. But as Paul says, not every Christian does. I don't. Nor do we all have the gift of tongues. This I have explained. When did I change my mind? I think you have simply misunderstood me. I've been going back through the posts and trying to work out...

Holiness (Numbers 5:1-4) The Israelite camp is where God manifests His presence on earth, and like any ‘sacred space’ must be kept holy. And so the final stage in its re-organisation is to exclude all those individuals who are seriously ‘unclean’, either temporarily (such as through contact...

Sorry, but this is simply wrong. First, you are misquoting James. He does NOT say, "IF you are sick..." The word 'if' is simply not there in the sentence. So there is no implication that Christians should not be sick. Secondly, you are taking it out of context. This is what James actually says...

I don't believe that you can 'learn' any gift of the Spirit. If there is some kind of technique that can be taught to anyone, then it isn't a gift, is it? There's nothing supernatural about it. I wasn't 'taught' to speak in tongues. My first tongue came rising up out of my throat, and I...

Faith This is not to be confused with the faith in Jesus by which we are saved. The gift of faith is an inspired confidence that God will act in a particular way at a particular time (e.g. to heal), leading us to pray definitively and with conviction for that outcome. This is the faith that...

Organisation (Numbers 1-4) After a year camped at Mount Sinai, the Israelites have built a sanctuary at which to worship, and have received a law to regulate their everyday life. All that remains is for them to be organised into a coherent and disciplined community, capable of tackling the...

Repentance and reconciliation (Exodus 33 & 34) As a result of Moses’ impassioned intercession (Exodus 32:11-13), Yahweh does not destroy the Israelites; but that does not mean that what they have done can be brushed under the carpet. His presence is temporarily withdrawn - and the people mourn...

People either love them or hate them. I think it may be a genetic thing (perhaps some of us can't taste the chemical that gives the bad taste) - certainly everyone in my family loves them, despite their terrible reputation. They also taste better if harvested after a frost, so better later in...

Someone asked me recently how I knew which spiritual gifts I had, and indeed how anyone finds out which gifts they have. That's not an easy question to answer briefly, because to some extent it depends on the gift. With the more 'supernatural' gifts (such as miracles and healings, I would have...

Except in I Corinthians 12 The point of quoting other people is simply to demonstrate that Wormwood is not a 'lone voice'. God said yes and you said no. Who should the people in the fprum follow me included? God said wiether it was through paul or God himself matters not a jot. The whole bible...

You are not looking at the context. In I Corinthians 12, Paul is talking about the diversity of the Body of Christ. The whole point he is making is that we are not all the same - and God does not intend us to be all the same. If everybody had all the gifts, there would be no diversity. Instead...

Paul is saying it, not me. Are you accusing Paul of "holding people back"? The gifts (as a whole) are for all - and I have never said otherwise. No, it doesn't. We have to ask in Christ's name - in other words, with His authorisation. And He has not promised to give us absolutely anything we...

In I Corinthians 12, Paul talks about the diversity of the Body of Christ - how we are all different (verses 7-11), and therefore interdependent (verses17-21). At the end, he asks a number of questions that in the Greek are worded to anticipate the answer 'No' (something almost impossible to...

Well, none of the gifts are for everyone - otherwise we'd all have every single gift and we wouldn't need each other! No one gift - not even the gift of tongues - is a sign of God's special favour. He gives all of us gifts - but they are different for each person.

This is nothing new. C S Lewis was well aware of it.

All semen emissions are natural. An abnormal discharge in a man is usually a symptom of a sexually transmitted infection.

Offerings were prescribed only for UNnatural discharges (Leviticus 15:1-15) Any natural semen emission just made a man unclean for the rest of the day (verses 16-18) It was the same for a woman: a normal period made her unclean just for a week and didn't require any offering to be made (verses...