word | spirit | world | church
I’m a charismatic, and an occasionally whacky one. It’s not uncommon for people in my circles to highlight the importance of a 'spiritual realm' to how we understand the world. That’s where it can start to go off the rails. There are many mad things said under that heading, but it’s having a resurgence in… Continue reading Seen and Unseen
Over the next eight weeks I’m going to explore the tabernacle in Exodus and the way we find Christ represented in it. The conviction that this is appropriate comes first, because Jesus is described as ‘tabernacling’ amongst us in the incarnation (John 1), second because he refers to himself as the Temple—a later, larger, developed… Continue reading The Ark of the Covenant
Autumn’s final blast of anger against Winter’s unthinking hate is over, every leaf that cannot cling to life has lit the match to self-immolate in protest. We have enjoyed the beauty of that unconstrained rage. This is the story the seasons tell—or one of them at any rate. Snow lay on the ground earlier this… Continue reading Winter’s Story
In evangelical theological thinking we tend to use the category of whether or not something is ‘allowed’ a lot. Our disposition is that if it is not disallowed, then it’s allowed, and we can pragmatically decide whether that might work for us. You see this on display especially in relation to questions of ecclesiology: how… Continue reading Is it Fitting?
In Acts 20, as he is speaking to the elders of the church in Ephesus, Paul tells them that he has taught them ‘the whole counsel of God.’ In context he means that he’s told them all of God’s plan, meaning his plan to redeem the whole creation in Christ. He’s told them all of… Continue reading The Whole Counsel of God
The seed that dies is the one that bears fruit. That’s what Jesus said in John 12, Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12.24 A biologist might take issue with us saying… Continue reading Bearing Fruit
Christian Formation IV Our formation involves our minds, freeing them from sin and growing in knowledge of God, and our lives—learning habits and being embedded in Christian community—but it also involves our hearts. To grow to be like Christ is to gradually change our loves, to war for them, so that we love God above… Continue reading The Matter of the Heart
Dust hung in the air. My skin was rough from living in this house for so long. The taste thick at the back of my mouth, though I was getting used to it. Somehow that was the scary bit. It was brick dust, the one with the thicker, grittier texture and almost biscuity taste: dry… Continue reading The Mess of Making
If I asked you to summarise the story of the Bible, I wonder what you’d say? I do often ask this in classroom settings with Christians and there are a whole host of frequently given answers. Typically, people tell some version of the story of redemption from sin involving the fall and then Jesus’ incarnation… Continue reading The Bible’s 3 Stories
In the Old Testament, the Temple was a microcosm, a miniature copy of reality. We see this in the way it’s structured; it’s built as a copy of the Garden of Eden: a mountaintop land with trees. The Temple is on the apex of a mountain, it’s full of trees (the lampstands and the decorations),… Continue reading Church as Blueprint
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