Sorry Barack…

From Byron:
Advent is the time when we remember that we are not the ones we have been waiting for.
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Beginning with Jesus

I’ve just realised I’ve never really posted on why my blog’s called Christ the Truth.  That’s a bit of an oversight.  So let me now begin a series on how Christ is the starting point for all true theology.  It’s taken from this paper on my website.
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Christians believe in revelation.
We know God, not through our [...]

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Christian cosmology

Still don’t have the time to write properly on a Christian approach to cosmology.  Never mind I’ll jot down some thoughts as they occur.
 
For now, let me just jot down three thoughts on the multiverse, two quotes from Barth and then a suggestion about how to pursue Christian cosmology.
The multiverse
1) The Bible teaches a division [...]

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Now that’s how to preach the Good Samaritan

We’ve talked about how Jesus is the Good Samaritan.  But seriously – this is how you preach it…

ht Fools Gold
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I was like a wounded man
Jesus came all the way down.
On a Friday evening, He died on a Roman cross
Early one Sunday morning He got up
How many of you believe – He [...]

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Blogging personality

Further to previous discussions on personality (here, here, here, here)…
This site will tell you your Myers-Briggs type based on analyzing your blog. 
(ht: Biblical Studies and Technological Tools)
It came up with INTP for me.  I’m officially ENFP but my E and T are quite weak so that’s a pretty good guess.
Does it get you right?
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PS I’ll [...]

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Falling off either side of the wrong horse

Let me say before I continue that I’ve had no formal training in science and my views on contemporary scientific theories are completely amateur and I’m sure terribly simplistic.  However, if we’re looking for academic credentials, my first university could probably claim to have ‘trained’ me in philosophy of religion and science, cosmological debates etc – that’s [...]

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You know it’s time to stop blogging when…

…in the same week you find out that both Ron Frost and now Paul Blackham have blogs!
Paul’s is less a blog, more of a one man theological mega-resource. 
You will be introduced to his excellent ‘Book by Book’ bible studies.  These are ready-made resources (DVD and all) to be used individually or in groups.  The books covered [...]

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Emergent Jesus meets the Samaritan Woman

This is hilarious!
ht Stephen Murray
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All scientists are believers

Don’t believe me?  Check out this article which seeks to explain the fine-tuning of the observable universe.  (source: MetaCatholic).
Here’s a representative quotation:
Physicists don’t like coincidences. They like even less the notion that life is somehow central to the universe, and yet recent discoveries are forcing them to confront that very idea. Life, it seems, is [...]

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Crushed to Life – part three

Mark 5:21-43

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So we’ve seen how the woman’s expectation was frustrated, she was driven down then lifted up. 
The same happens to Jairus.  He had expected Jesus to come and heal His little girl.  But talk about frustration.
Can you imagine being Jairus in v24?  You’re leading the way back to your place, Jesus is coming but the [...]

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Crushed to Life – part two

Mark 5:21-43

In this story, two people come to Jesus with their needs.  They are very different people.  Jairus is an important man.  V22 says ‘a synagogue ruler’.  He’s a man, he’s a ruler, he has a family, he’s religious and very respectable in the community.
The woman is not even named.  Jesus calls her ‘Daughter’ in [...]

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Crushed to Life – part one

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Mark 5:21-43
In your imagination, picture olives being crushed and pressed together and the oil seeping out at the bottom. 
That’s a picture of Jesus that Mark hints at again and again.  In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is in almost constant danger of being crushed.
 Mark 3:7-9:
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from [...]

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Left behind

Now this is just cruel.
UPDATE:  There used to be a youtube video here where a girl was “pranked”.  They ‘raptured’ her Christian friends and made her think she was left behind. 
On second thoughts, I’ve considered that posting the video participates in the prank.  So I’ve deleted it.
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Would I be correct in thinking pre-millers would be the easiest [...]

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Happy Blogday to me

One year ago I stumbled into blogging the way Aaron stumbled into idolatry.  I just clicked a few buttons at WordPress and out came this blog. (Ex 32:24)  Resemblances to that foul incident could be multiplied.
Anyway, thanks to Bobby for suggesting I start this.  Personally, I think his tactic was to stop me spending so much [...]

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Stronger

 Mark 5:1-20
Jesus is stronger than the storms (Mark 4:35-41).  He is stronger than death (Mark 5:21-43).  In Mark 5:1-20 He takes on an army of demons to prove Himself stronger than the Strong Man (Mark 3:27).
Read the sermon here
Listen here
 
Sermon in brief…
The Before and After shots of this demonized man would be something to behold!
Before: living among tombs, [...]

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What would cheap grace look like?

…The younger brother came to himself and said, ‘My dad’s an old softy.  I reckon if I returned looking sufficiently contrite he’d bail me out.  It’s worth a try anyway.’ he reasoned. 
And so he rose and made the journey back to his father rehearsing his sorry-spiel along the way.  ‘Father, my father.  I know I messed up.  [...]

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Ron Frost has a blog!

I had no idea Ron Frost has a blog (thanks Dan for highlighting it).  Joy of joys.
A spreading goodness is an extremely readable and insightful blog about bible-soaked, Trinitarian affective theology.  Try these posts as an introduction:
Make this the year – getting into the bible
Living by faith - what is faith anyway?
Choosing to rule my emotions? – [...]

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Jesus at the centre

Two quotes from the blogosphere this week.  One on the Psalter, one on christology.  The common link – they both put Jesus at the centre:
From Psalterium
Psalms 1 and 2 were not read as two disparate Torah and royal psalms respectively in the final redaction of the Psalter; rather, both depict the ideal Joshua-like warrior and [...]

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Calming the storm

 
Storms are bigger than we are.
Jesus is much bigger still.
We’re small.
We’re passive.
We’re at the mercy of bigger forces.
Either Jesus steps in or we’re doomed.
When He does step in it’s even scarier!
Jesus is just as unmanagable as the storm
The difference is Jesus loves you, the storm doesn’t.
Jesus is the Ultimate Jonah hurled into the Ultimate Storm [...]

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The perilous danger of sermon introductions

Rediscovered this old quote from Barth’s Homiletics:
“The theological damage of sermon introductions is in any event incredibly extensive… For what do they really involve at root?  Nothing other than the search for a point of contact, for an analogue in us which can be a point of entry for the Word of God.  It is [...]

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Sending our Man to the seat of power

I’m giving this short talk at a prayer meeting tonight
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in [...]

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Election results – latest

Ok so the title’s a lame attempt to get Google hits.  But really this post is about the results of our election.
In the first post on freedom we thought about the blasphemy and bondage of modern, individualistic accounts of freedom.
Next we considered Jesus – especially Jesus in Gethsemane – as the proper starting point for [...]

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Tricky verses

Kyle has asked about this verse from Genesis 4:
23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. 24 If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
Thought it provided a good [...]

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Performance vs Grace

Go and read this wonderful post by Tim Chester.  I’m looking forward to downloading the whole talk.
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Who will be my 1000th comment???

There may be a prize, you never know!
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