Four surprises in Mark 8

(I’ll get back to the series soon, just thought I’d break things up).
I was reading some very familiar words again:
 Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 5

This is basically a repost of ‘The Trinitarian Old Testament’ from November last year. I think it’s worth laying out the same material in the context of this series. We are investigating the claim that the Hebrew Scriptures themselves reveal on their own terms and in their own context the eternal Son, our [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 4

The Angel of the LORD continued…
One more post on the Angel, then we’ll look at some other multiple-LORD passages.
Check out Judges 6:11-24:
11 The Angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 3

The Angel of the LORD continued…
 
Let’s look at the Angel in action in Genesis and Exodus.
 
 
His first appearance is to the Egyptian, Hagar:
 

Then the Angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The Angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 2

Who is the Angel of the LORD?
In my last post I laid out my intention to show from the Old Testament that Christ has always been the one Mediator between God and man. 
I find the easiest place to start in these discussions is with the Angel of the LORD.  If a person cannot see [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 1

When we confess that Jesus is our Substitute most people mean this:
Jesus stands in our place – living the life we should have lived, dying the death we should have died
I wonder though how many also have this understanding of Jesus’ substitution:
He sits on the bench for the first half before the Coach brings Him [...]

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What does spiritual health look like?

Praying the Lord’s prayer recently I was thinking about what the prayer assumes about the character of God: Father, in heaven, holy, etc.  Then I thought, what does it assume about the character of the one praying it?
 
Here are some thoughts:

Childlike
Reverent 
Expectant 
Guileless
Obedient
No agenda of our own
Desperate
Dependent for all things
Confident of mercy
Acknowledging sin
Repentant
Merciful
Having a deep appreciation of [...]

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God forms us

Just wrote an essay for my post-ordination training. It was on ‘ministerial formation.’ Anyway this is a little biblical theology on the concept of formation that didn’t make it into the essay…

 

 
 
The Living God is One who forms.  He is the Potter, the yozer,[1] who forms humanity,[2] our hearts,[3] our eyes,[4] our spirit,[5] our days,[6] [...]

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Addiction

I’ve been watching ‘Am I normal?’ – a TV programme about addiction. It asks whether there is such a thing as addiction. What about gambling addiction? Shopping? Sex? Food? Computer gaming? Are these addictions? Are they illnesses? Are you born with them? Do you ‘catch’ them? ‘Suffer’ them? Are you helpless before them?
One doctor, author [...]

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No Intercessor this week… sorry

Hi all,
I’m on holiday at the moment which is why no radio contact.  Just thought I’d let you know that at the local church I visited here in Wales there was this enigmatic entry in the notice sheet:
Intercessor:
There will be no Intercessor this week.
So if things have been going a bit pear-shaped this week you’ll [...]

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