word | spirit | world | church
You’d be forgiven for thinking I was speaking of January, named after the Roman god Janus who had two faces to look forwards and backwards in the year. Rather, Advent—the first season of the Christian year—has two faces. One face is a face of joy, the face we associate with our Christmas traditions, with chocolate… Continue reading The Month with Two Faces
I wonder if you’ve ever cut down a tree? I’ve done a few small ones over the years, and it’s a hard job. We’ve mostly gone the route of chopping off all the branches with a big pair of loppers or a reciprocating saw, so that you’re left with a tall trunk in the ground… Continue reading The Axe is Laid at the Root of the Tree
This is the next part of my ongoing series exploring the letter written by St Polycarp to the church in Philippi, collaborating with my friend Adsum Try Ravenhill of the Raven’s Writing Desk. You can read the previous parts at these links: I; II; III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI. Dear Adsum Thank you for your last letter, sobering though it… Continue reading Learning to be Angry Well: Polycarp XII
No. That was easy. Except, I think most readers will expect me to say ‘yes.’ Aren’t we all without excuse before the wrath of God (Romans 1)? Yes, we are. Yet this is not saying the same thing. Having been fed—mostly evangelistically—on the (true!) idea that even the smallest sin is the enough to damn… Continue reading Is all sin equal?
This is the second part in an ongoing series where I’m collaborating with my friend Adsum Try Ravenhill to blog through St Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians by writing each other letters. You can read the first part on Adsum’s blog here. Dear Adsum Thank you for your letter and for suggesting this little endeavour… Continue reading Prepare for Action: Polycarp part 2
Are we supposed to judge others, or not? D. A. Carson has quipped, and is often quoted, that John 3.16 is no longer the best known verse of the Bible in western cultures. Instead, it’s Matthew 7.1: ‘judge not, that you not be judged.’ Which tells you a fair bit about our culture’s reception of… Continue reading On Judging Others
You’d be forgiven for thinking I was speaking of January, named after the Roman god Janus who had two faces to look forwards and backwards in the year. Rather, Advent—the first season of the Christian year—has two faces. One face is a face of joy, the face we associate with our Christmas traditions, with chocolate… Continue reading The Month with Two Faces
Adam had a job. It was given to him and Eve in Genesis 1.28: And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that… Continue reading Image & Mission
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