It is hard to find words to adequately describe Daniel. He was at once: in exile, an aristocrat, handsome, a smart student and wise administrator, an interpreter of dreams, an apocalyptic prophet, and might we add, a survivor.
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Paul’s prayers, you’d think, are of significance. Maybe none more so than the prayers he prayed for the nascent community in Christ in Colossae (southwest Turkey today). 1.3-14
To begin with, he was thankful for their faith in Christ and their love for all the saints. This, he said, was due to the hope laid up for them beyond the fragile borders of this world – in heaven. Their hope was not in better conditions but in a better world. They were long-sighted, therefore patient. 1.3-8
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Recently my wife and I heard some excellent teaching by a couple on marriage. They were charming and disarmingly honest, their weaknesses were not hidden, nor were their tough relational seasons shied away from. Scripture was their inspiration and foundation. The likelihood of them doing the journey, long term, is high. I’d be surprised, even though nothing surprises me, if their marriage failed.
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George Orwell’s prescience about language, therefore expression, becoming state-controlled is proving eerily uncanny….
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I am dismayed at the folly of believers airing their grievances (petty or otherwise) to the media, the world, about God’s church. What are we thinking? Or more to the point, we aren’t thinking!…
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‘The Revelation to John’ (NRSV) is a remarkable, troubling, and profound piece of apocalyptic literature. There is only one other book in the biblical canon like it: the Old Testament book of Daniel. And remember Daniel was as overcome and terrified by what he saw as John was. (Dan 4.19; 7.15, 28. Rev 1.17; 22.8-9) In other words, tread carefully, ye who would interpret.
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Like a good fast this won’t take long, but unlike a good meal it may not go down well. It is fasting season for many churches right now. The beginning of a New Year is often a reset time for churches: refreshed vision, goals for prayer, lives reconsecrated – all good….
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The apostle John is the only New Testament author to identify the woman Jezebel, or her spirit. Not that this stops some preachers calling out people for having the spirit of Jezebel. If I was given a dollar for every time ... Clearly, she was a none-too pleasant person – her awful death summing up her equally awful reign over the people of God, to whom she was a stumbling block and pariah.
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Recently we considered approaching the apostle Paul, yes, the Mediterranean maverick, to speak at a Leaders Conference…
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What is remarkable about Joel’s prophecy is that God’s Spirit would be poured out on all flesh, and not as it had been, upon prophets, priests and Kings only - upon specific individuals who represented the community of God’s people and represented God to the same. Joel speaks to the democratisation of the Spirit – something virtually unheard of, and as was the case in Acts 2, not easily accepted, especially by those in authority.
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In Matthew 16 Peter was given the keys of the Kingdom, a staggering authority. He was told by Jesus, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Little has been less understood…
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The Uber driver had an FM station playing love songs. I guess he was anticipating that his passenger would appreciate the selection. Whether he guessed correctly or otherwise (he didn’t) the songs piqued my curiosity about the content of love songs.
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We live in a neighbourhood that is mostly orthodox Jewish. Come Friday afternoon, many of them are doing last minute shopping in preparation for the sabbath, or, more properly, ‘shabbat.’ Families gather in homes before sundown, as it delineates the beginning of shabbat. On Saturday many walk to one of the two local synagogues. Jewish shops and businesses owned by the observant are shut for the day.
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It would seem (Mar 2022) that the worst of Covid is over, or is it? I am not referring to Covid itself; that I know little about. I refer to the aftermath of fatigue. The enforced isolation we faced has had a significant impact on our health, wellbeing and relationships - on just about everything human. People have adjusted (even if poorly) to isolation and are finding physically reconnecting tiring and emotional. (It’s plain hard work.) This will pass, but it would be churlish to dismiss the impact it has and is having.
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We went to a great church recently and heard an excellent message on the hot topic of anxiety – mental health. It was well delivered, employed scripture, and hit the spot with many people struggling post covid. Whether we really are post covid is another matter, but that thought is only likely to cause more anxiety.
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Have we made the art of communication of more value than what is communicated? Marshall McLuhan famously quipped, “the medium is the message.” Is that where we have ended? If so then we are in line for the same adjustment Paul meted out to the Corinthians, some of whom placed great store in the rhetorical art of persuasion.
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Two alternatives, that further explicate this theme are: “Let your name be kept holy,” and, “Let your name be treated with reverence.”
It would be a poor theology that thought God kept his name holy by dint of our prayers. God is, in his triune and essential being, majestically holy, separate, and other. No proofs required, no case to state – “I Am who I Am.” What is being said in the Lord’s Prayer is we are to treat God’s name with reverence and fear; we are to make his name holy in our demeanour, intentions and behaviour.
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Raised in a Pentecostal church, I have benefitted enormously with an experience of the dynamic of the Holy Spirit – the third person of the trinity. I mean, what’s not to like - no intention of converting sideways nor deconstructing.
Like everyone, we have our strengths that are our weaknesses, extemporaneous prayer being one of them. We have no need to write them down, repeat someone else’s, or feel bound to formatted prayer - it’s spontaneity all the way, and therefore more spiritual. Sounds good and sounds freeing, except it isn’t either necessarily.
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The church the apostle Paul saw, the church he lived and died for, was often, if not largely, a church situated around the table. It was formed around prayer, scripture, song, the Lord’s Supper, and a meal – all at the table. Some theologians believe that the Lords Supper is the meeting that gives the church her true gathered identity; it was what marked God’s people out.
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