word | spirit | world | church
The music swells, the symphony approaches its glorious end. You’re swept up in the majestic writing and the promise of what is to come. You’re noticing the intricate detail and the way the rest of the story is being recapitulated here at the eventual end. There is a new heaven. Wonder of wonders. There is… Continue reading The edge of the sea
In John chapter four Jesus encounters a Samaritan women. I think it’s a fascinating encounter that tells us more about ourselves than I’ve previously allowed. Jesus is on his way to Galilee, and to get there he has to pass through Samaria, John tells us. Thing is he didn’t ‘have’ to, lots of Jews would… Continue reading A woman at a well
Our American cousins are insane. This isn’t news, we’ve known that since they threw off the pleasant yoke of our tyrannical monarchs and forged out on their own with the bizarre notion of forming a nation around an idea. It’ll never catch on. I suspect they feel much the same way about us. We are,… Continue reading Political Sins
The Bible is music. Or so Alastair Roberts and Andrew Wilson claim in the introduction to their superb Echoes of Exodus. I don’t know a lot about classical music, but the crux of the point is that we see various themes in the scriptures, and they are picked up and repeated by repeating stories or… Continue reading The Bible is Music
A friend contacted me recently to say that she’d re-listened to a message I preached a couple of years ago on idolatry from Exodus 32, when the Israelites built themselves a bull to worship. You can listen to it here if it takes your fancy. She then asked me an intriguing question, “what does idolatry… Continue reading Idols in Lockdown
The sky was beautiful tonight. There was light snowfall, a little snow on the ground, and heavy grey clouds. Then, just before the sun set, in what photographers call “the golden hour”, the sky was suffused with light for around five minutes. The trees looked like they were lit from within by holy fire. It… Continue reading Golden Hour
The last year has upended our lives, to say the least. Most of my friends have been reflecting on how it has upended our emotions as well. Have you noticed that? There’s a generalised malaise in the air. Sure, there’s ambient anxiety caused by the way we consume news like there has been for decades,… Continue reading Naming the Hydra
I was speaking to my friend Duncan and he suggested a startling thought: we want our discipleship to be gamified. On the face of it I could shrug it off, Duncan and I are millennials, gamification is a Gen Z problem. They’re the generation that sees progress in terms of levelling up. We’re the I’m… Continue reading Next Level Discipleship
Christians believe in life after death. We believe that God is in the heavens and we are on earth, and that death isn’t the end. We often would say that when we die, we “go to heaven” forevermore. While that’s not wrong per se, the Bible doesn’t teach what I think most people imagine. Having… Continue reading On the hereafter
Christianity is practiced around the table. Maybe you’re hearing the call to increase your hospitality, but your house makes it hard. I can imagine, we lived in a building site for over a year as we slowly renovated our house through the pandemic. There are two answers to this: 1) we’re trying too hard, and… Continue reading When hospitality is hard
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