— Righteousness – the goodness of God. — Righteousness – the blessed life in action. — Righteousness – setting the world to rights. When seen in its true light, righteousness is incredibly attractive. And incredibly elusive. From its first mention in the bible, “righteousness” is a consuming passion. In Genesis 15, Abraham is taken outside […]
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Glen
In The Life of Brian we join the outskirts of Christ’s audience for the sermon on the mount. “The meek shall inherit the earth” filters through to one listener: “Oh that’s nice innit, I’m glad they get something cos they have a hell of a time.” It’s a brilliant line. But Jesus isn’t throwing out a […]
What could be more nonsensical than this? Or insensitive? “Blessed are they that mourn”? In my Greek lexicons the word that invariably appears next to “Blessed” is “Happy”. It’s a word denoting a prosperous and favourble condition. Some dictionaries list “blissful” as a synonym! So how on earth can Jesus call mourners “blessed”? Well it’s […]
According to Matthew, Jesus comes as King to bring the true end to exile (Matthew 1:1-17). He is named as “Saviour” and “God with us” (Matthew 1:18-25). He is the desire of all nations (Matthew 2:1-12) who is also the true Israel – going down into Egypt and rising back up again (Matthew 2:13-23). He […]
It’s a phrase that sounds quintessentially “King James” – quintessentially 17th century. But as with so many “King James” phrases, it originates with Tyndale in the 16th century. “Verily” (meaning truly) translates the word “Amen” which is a Hebrew word left untranslated in the Greek New Testament. So, most literally, Jesus says “Amen, Amen I […]
The chain-smoker warning her son about cigarettes… The bankrupt lecturing on good business practices… The church riddled with divorce, preaching ‘family values’ to the culture… In all these situations we might use this saying: “Physician heal thyself.” We expect that those promoting healing powers should be the best advertisements for their cure. Well what about […]
What images spring to mind when you think of an evangelist? Often we think of a bold adrenaline junky who could sell ice to eskimos. Yet when we think of the people who helped us to faith we usually think of very different character traits! Simon Peter can be thought of as an arch evangelist. […]
After His baptism, Christ is driven by the Spirit into the desert. (Matthew 4:1-11) In His battle with Satan, Christ is like Adam, like Israel and like David. Like Adam, the devil confronts Him with audible temptations to doubt God’s word and eat. And like Adam the fate of humanity rests on His shoulders. Like […]
For us it’s a description of rain (cf Genesis 7:11). For Ezekiel it allowed him to see “visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1). In the Gospels, the heavens open for Jesus in order that He sees the Spirit descend: “Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were […]
When the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps went ashore at Gallipoli, it was said to be a baptism of fire for these nations. Less tragically, a baptism of fire might refer to a stormy first year of marriage or a difficult first match for a football manager. It is the birthing of something new […]
