Genesis 1:1-5; John 1:1-5 Right now the whole world is considering beginnings. But usually they’re the beginnings that we will make. “New year, new you” and all that. What about the beginning that God has made? Let’s think about that for a minute. Wind back the clock to the time before people and planets and protons, what […]
It’s universally popular. You can find it cross-stitched on Granny’s mantle-piece and emblazoned on a rock star’s T-shirt. It tumbles from the lips of bible-thumping fundamentalists and soft-spoken gurus. But what does it mean? Let’s consider four points… Because God is love, there is relationship, radiance, room and response. Relationship 1 John 4:8 says “God […]
Imagine two scenarios. Scenario 1: We are on a ship. It springs a leak and starts to sink. While we’re fleeing to the life-rafts, you manage to grab a bag. Unbeknownst to the rest of us, your bag contains a bottle of water and some canned meat – tuna, spam, etc. We all huddle together […]
The Christian life is a life of waiting and working. Advent puts us in mind of the waiting. We look not only to Christ’s first coming, but ahead to His second coming, to judge the living and the dead. Here is how Old Testament saints waited for that first coming: “5 I wait for the […]
Anyone who’s really loved (or feared) knows that the heart is not the only emotional organ. Some of our greatest loves and our greatest fears are felt a little further south – in the guts! So while we might be used to speaking of a sinking heart, the Scriptures are comfortable speaking of churning bowels! […]
William Tyndale gave us the word, “likeminded”, but what gives us the reality? On the internet it’s easy to find “people like us”. No matter how specialist our interests might be, the online world is so large, any subgroup at all can find “likeminded” members. But what about in the local church? What about in […]
The saying is instantly recognisable as religious. Even if few people know where it comes from, most will assume it’s biblical. And they’ll assume that they know what it means. It’s about cause and effect right? It’s saying: ‘What goes around, comes around.’ ‘If you play with fire, you’re going to get burned.’ ‘Everyone gets […]
What is beyond the pale? What behaviour or what belief is out of bounds? How does a group or individual prove themselves to be completely unacceptable? In this context we might say that so and so or such and such is “anathema.” It might be as trivial as the way a Mac user considers PCs. It […]
Heaven is a world of love. So said Jonathan Edwards in a famous sermon by that title. His text was our verse for today: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) It’s a trio that Paul uses often in his letters to describe the […]
How would you compare life now to life when Jesus returns? So often we think of ‘the here and now’ as the concrete reality and Christ’s future as an ephemeral, ‘wafty’ hope. Paul thought of things precisely the other way around. In the final paragraph of First Corinthians 13, Paul addresses our future hope. When compared […]
