When people speak of God, Martin Luther said they can take two paths. There’s the way of “glory” or the way of “the cross.” One method builds a picture of God according to what seems reasonable to man. The other looks to God’s revelation in Christ and Him crucified. The one is the pathway to […]
Yesterday we saw Jesus in amongst a clamouring, needy mob. Though He was grieving, though He was hungry, though He wanted space to rest with His friends, yet He serves. When He sees the crowd – like sheep without a shepherd – He has compassion on them (Mark 6:34). The disciples want to send them […]
A stammer. An irritating workmate. An infirm parent. A complaining parishioner. An unpleasant duty. A chronic illness. We might be tempted to call these things “my cross to bear.” But we shouldn’t. Jesus means something very different by the phrase. But it’s not just the world-weary grumblers who get it wrong. The zealous do-gooders can […]
Recently a friend emailed me with a question. He’s not yet a Christian but he’s been attending bible studies for a while. The previous night they had used Christian-sounding language that he didn’t understand. He wrote: “They asked me if I had ever ‘given my life to God.’ I was unsure. What does that mean? […]
Recently I wrote a post on my other blog about open-air preaching. One commenter responded: “Do you have to bother people with this stuff? Can’t you just stick inside the churches.” This man (not a Christian) perfectly expresses the spirit of the age. We are happy with privatised beliefs. We are content that folks practice […]
“He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:39) We can think of many examples of it… — The musician lost in her music yet, at the same time, most fully herself. — The athlete pushed beyond his ‘limits’ but finding new […]
When we were moving through Exodus we came across the Old Testament law: “an eye for an eye.” It limited the kind of retribution the injured party could pursue. The law says you may exact only as much as it cost you. There is to be no escalation of violence according to the law of […]
John the Baptist was a wild and holy prophet whose whole mission in life was to prepare the way for the LORD Jesus. John was prophesied in the Old Testament as one who would cry out in the wilderness and introduce Jesus to the world. (Isaiah 40:3ff; Malachi 3:1) And when his big moment came […]
Isaiah could be called a tale of two cities. Yet both cities are Jerusalem. There’s an old Jerusalem – the Jerusalem in which Isaiah’s listeners live. They face a terrifying judgement that is first threatened by Assyria and then effected by Babylon. The city is sacked, the house of God (the temple) is destroyed, the […]
When we use this phrase it’s usually in the negative: “I’m afraid, we don’t see eye to eye on this issue.” Not seeing eye to eye is about disagreement and the very nature of the phrase communicates an inequality of stature, perhaps also of power. What would it take for two antagonists to start seeing […]
