Two Ways News

Dear friends, Can I humbly submit that it would be worth us talking about submission? And before you say, ‘Oh no, not another go-around about men and women and church roles’, that’s not what I mean, nor is it what this episode is about. ‘Submission’ is a much bigger concept—and bigger problem—than that. In fact, thinking about ‘submission’ and why we tend to recoil from it in most of its forms, ta...

Dear friends, We love getting your emails and questions, and recently one of our regular listeners, Hannah, wrote in with a follow-up question to our episode on ‘ spiritual discipline ’. She asked: I've been wondering whether you might consider using a podcast episode to speak to the current trend towards formation as a major strand in Christian discipleship. I understand that it’s particularly pr...

Dear friends, Our long journey through the book of Romans is coming to an end. And after the theological glories of chapter 3 and chapter 5 and chapter 8—well, of all the chapters between 1 and 15 really—chapter 16 often feels like an anti-climax. We are tempted to read it as a hurried postscript with some personal greetings, and other bibs and bobs. But if we take a closer look, the final chapter...

Dear friends, As we near the end of the extraordinary letter to the Romans, we find the apostle returning to the purpose for which he was writing to them—which he had broached in chapter 1 but now comes back to, after explaining in such majestic terms the gospel that is the foundation of his missionary enterprise. As Paul does so, he reiterates why the gospel he preaches is for all of humanity and...

Dear friends, While Tony is away at Evangelize 2024 in Denver, Colorado, USA, Phillip is joined by his brother Peter Jensen as they take a deep dive into Romans 14. It seems that regardless of the century we live in, people always find something to fight about, unable to extract ourselves from the sinful temptations of pride and passing judgment on others. It is no different in this passage as foo...

Dear friends, We are a nation in deep debt, both corporately and personally. But despite how much we owe, the debt of ‘love’ doesn’t figure on our balance sheets. Romans 13 says that it should, and that ‘love’ is in fact the fulfilment of the Old Testament law. How can this be? And what is ‘love’ anyway? That’s our topic on this week’s episode of Two Ways News. Your brother Tony This is a public e...

Dear friends, I’m writing this introduction in an Airbnb in Denver, Colorado, with a ‘HARRIS-WALZ’ sign in the front yard. I’m not sure (nor am I going to say) whether I’d be happier with a TRUMP-VANCE sign. I think no sign at all would probably suit me best, and I imagine that there are many Americans who feel the same. But it makes me think: is a studied non-involvement in politics, government a...

Dear friends, As we turn to the next part of Romans 12 this week (verses 3-13), we confront two ideas that our society finds it hard to hold together: individualism and communalism. What’s the basic truth about us? Is it that we are unique, sovereign individuals who should have the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness in our own particular way? Or are necessarily and primarily herd animals,...

Dear friends, Well after several weeks bouncing from subject to subject, and answering your questions, it’s back to Romans! This week, we come to a turning point in Paul’s monumental letter. At the beginning Romans 12, he turns from the deeply theological discussion of the nature of the gospel that has dominated the first eleven chapters to its practical outworking in Christian life and community....

Dear friends, Debates about real nature of ‘church’ have been around even longer than Phillip’s and my combined age. It’s a complicated and perennial topic, but we thought it was worth another outing in this week’s edition because it’s also very practical. It’s practical not just because what you think a ‘church’ is will shape what you do in church. What you think about ‘church’ will also have big...

Dear friends We continue to be enormously grateful for your fellowship, which (I suppose if we’re honest) largely consists in us talking and you listening! But it’s especially nice when you speak back, which a very encouraging number of you do—either in person when we bump into you round the place, or by email as you comment and raise questions. Quite a few of you have said how much you’ve been en...

Dear friends Today we belatedly answer a question that regular reader/listener Richard sent in some time ago, but which got lost in the bilge of my inbox—which is a shame, because it is an excellent question! Richard asks about those voices today that are calling for a recovery of the ‘spiritual disciplines’—things such as contemplative prayer, solitude, fasting, sabbath-keeping, and so on. He wri...

Dear friends, There was a time, not all that long ago, when the Ten Commandments were a central part not just of church culture and Christian living, but of the cultural landscape of our community. This no longer seems to be the case—certainly not in our very secularized society, but also not in our churches either. A recent and somewhat surprising Sydney Morning Herald article got us talking abou...

Dear friends As the Paris Olympics slip down into the long feed of events below the screen horizon of our consciousness, what will stay with us? The hilarious, kangaroo-hopping breakdance of RayGun? The golden triumphs of the Fox sisters? The controversial tableau of the opening ceremony? What will we still remember and talk about in 12 months time? Not much probably. In fact, how long will it be...

Dear friends Time for another Q&A episode, but with a twist this time. Regular Two Ways News contributor Marty Sweeney joins us from Ohio to pitch me a number of questions about the Bible, theology and ministry—questions that have come from his regular conversations and seminars with pastors and ministry people in the US. The questions revolve around the Bible, theology, ministry and evangelism—al...

Dear friends, Time to take a break from Romans for a few weeks, and deal with some other issues that have been on our minds. This week we turn our attention to a moral question: How should we respond when our workplace or school wants us to take a stand about some social issue that we think differently about? What should we do, for example, when ‘Wear it Purple Day’ comes around in support of LGBT...

Dear friends Well once again, I have to open with an apology for the lateness of this week’s edition, again due to sickness in the team. (Please bear with us as we try to get back on track and on schedule over the next couple of weeks.) There are deep waters in Romans 9-11, which we’ve been discussing over the past couple of episodes. And today, we get to the deepest mysteries of all—how God’s pla...

Dear friends, Apologies for this week’s episode being a couple of days late — some unavoidable delays due to sickness in the team. And sincere apologies too that (for the same reason) we’re not able to bring you a transcript of the conversation this week. For those of who you are readers rather than listeners, we’ve provided a few choice quotes below that might tempt you, just this once, to listen...

Dear friends It’s been a history making few weeks—a presidential debate in the US that seems likely to change the course of the election, elections in France and the UK that seem likely to change the direction of both countries, and so on. But why do we choose some events and declare them to be the stuff of ‘history’ (as opposed to other events)? And is there any point or direction to history? Or...

Dear friends As we continue our meander through the riches of Romans, we begin this week’s episode by thinking again about mind and heart and emotion (following our episode a couple of weeks ago). Why does the Bible see our emotion as located in our ‘guts’? And then it’s on into the majestic second half of Romans 8, one of the richest passages in the entire Bible. It’s all to much, of course, for...

Dear friends, I’m currently deep in the drafting of my next book, which is all about the ‘one-another word’—what the Bible says about the mutual word ministry of Christians, and how that should play out in practice in our churches. A question I keep coming back to is how the gospel-based conversation of Christians with each another relates to their conversations with outsiders or unbelievers. The...

Dear friends, Just me this week, with Phillip away on holidays. And I’ve found myself thinking quite a lot in the past few days about … thinking. In reading Romans 7 and 8 in recent weeks, I’ve been struck by how much Paul talks about the ‘mind’. The contrast in Romans 7 is between what we know with our mind to be good and true, and what the ‘fleshly’ part of us just goes ahead and does anyway. An...

Dear friends, Reading the book of Romans is like hiking in the mountains. You come to a high point, and think that it couldn’t get more grand or majestic than this, only to discover that there’s another glorious mountain peak to come. Romans 8 is one of those mountains, coming after the valley of Romans 7. It’s a very ‘spiritual’ chapter—Paul has mentioned the Holy Spirit only three times so far i...

Dear friends One of the first resources I was given as a keen but confused young Christian in the early 1980s was a little book called The Fight . I can’t find my copy any more, and don’t remember a great deal about the book’s argument—apart from its main metaphor and message, which was pretty much summarized in the title. The Christian life is wonderful, joyous, liberating and ruled by the peace...

Dear friends, Would you say that the modern Western world we live is a very open, permissive culture in which people are free to do whatever they want, without being judged for it? Or would you say that we’re a quite intolerant culture that scolds and criticises and cancels each another without mercy? The strange thing is that we seem to be both. Perhaps it’s a case of mercy for me, but judgement...