Paul Ellis's Blog, page 40
February 15, 2017
When did the Old Covenant End?
The Bible is made up of two documents: the Old Testament and the New Testament. These documents roughly equate to two covenants: the old covenant and the new covenant. I say roughly because the old covenant did not begin in Genesis 1 and the new covenant did not begin in Matthew 1. A covenant is a binding agreement between two parties characterized by promises and obligations. In a biblical context, a covenant describes how God relates to people. The old covenant, which was based on law, was...
February 8, 2017
What Makes a Church a Family?
The gospel of grace has exploded over the past few years. Ten years ago you probably hadn’t heard of Joseph Prince, Andrew Wommack, or Escape to Reality. But today many people are preaching grace, writing about grace, singing about grace, and walking in grace. There are countless sermons, books, and videos on grace, and gazillions of testimonies – stories about how lives have been radically changed by the healing power of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. Given this exciting and globa...
January 31, 2017
Does the Lord Bring Trouble? (Job 42:11)
A few readers have asked for my thoughts on this “troublesome” passage: All (Job’s) brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. (Job 42:11, NIV) Other translations say the Lord brought adversity or evil upon Job. This is clearly a reference to the great loss that Job suffered – he lost his health, wealth a...
January 25, 2017
Get Your Name in Paul’s Book
My new book,Stuff Jesus Never Said, has won a gold medal at the 2017 Illumination Book Awards. Needless to say, I’m thrilled. Here’s another announcement:The ebook version of Stuff Jesus Never Saidis coming out in a couple of months. And if you act fast, your name could be in it! When Stuff Jesus Never Saidwas published,I said I would not release it in ebook form. But some of you said “I want it on Kindle.” So I changed my mind. You convinced me. We’ll put it on Kindle, andPDF too. Although I...
January 18, 2017
How Religion Makes Us Stupid (And Jesus Makes Us Wise)
Religion is an endless car race and I have a trackside seat. I smell the fumes of religious ambition, and I hear the sickening crunch of condemnation. The religious race goes on and on, and I get to watch people slamming into the hard wall of rules and unforgiveness. I don’t particularly want to watch this, but Jesus said to help the hurting, and many of them are lying broken on the religious racetrack. Religion hurts people. The old religion of rules and regulations ministers condemnation an...
How Religion Makes Us Stupid (And Jesus Makes us Wise)
Religion is an endless car race and I have a trackside seat. I smell the fumes of religious ambition, and I hear the sickening crunch of condemnation. The religious race goes on and on, and I get to watch people slamming into the hard wall of rules and unforgiveness. I don’t particularly want to watch this, but Jesus said to help the hurting, and many of them are lying broken on the religious racetrack. Religion hurts people. The old religion of rules and regulations ministers condemnation an...
January 11, 2017
The Three Uses of the Law
This is a pretty special year. If you hadn’t heard, 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The key date if you’re thinking of popping champagne is 31 October. It was on that date in 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg. Actually, forget the champagne. Get a hammer and nail something to the door of your church. Your pastor will totally get the symbolism. The Reformation that Luther and others started led to a whole n...
January 4, 2017
The Feeble Gospel
The number one reason we have a feeble church is we preach a feeble gospel. We will never have a strong church unless we preach a mighty gospel. Do you know the difference? • The feeble gospel says you better love God; the mighty gospel declares he surely loves you! • The feeble gospel preaches God can forgive you; the mighty gospel declares he already has. • The feeble gospel says you need to get holy; the mighty gospel declares that in Christ you already are. • The feeble gospel says you ar...
December 28, 2016
How Your Bible May Be Ruining the Gospel
My wife is a good cook. She does a Danish roast with crackling pork and all the trimmings that is second-to-none. In fact, she is preparing a sumptuous roast dinner as I write. I’m practically drooling on the keyboard. Knowing that my wife is a good cook, which of these two sentences do you prefer? 1. Camilla can prepare a great meal for you. 2. Camilla will prepare a great meal for you. One word is the only difference between these two sentences, but it is a huge difference. Camilla can or C...
December 19, 2016
2016 Christmas Message from Paul
Someone once said life is what happens when you’re making other plans. This is wisdom for me because I am a planner. I begin every day, every week, and every year with a detailed plan. But I am learning to hold my plans loosely so as not to miss out on life. At the start of this year I had grand plans and… I achieved none of them, for my year was marked by three interruptions. Were they life-giving interruptions? I hope so. You be the judge. Interruption #1: The Stuff Jesus Never Said book Th...
