Posted in apologetics, evangelism, mission, tagged apologetics, evangelism, mission on 31 March, 2009 | 8 Comments »
Like many churches across the country, we’re planning our involvement with the Passion for Life mission initiative taking place in Easter 2010. Here are ten thoughts on these kinds of missions in no particular order.
‘A mission’ should be part of a church’s ongoing life of mission. The one-off sports event with gospel talk at half [...]
Posted in Old Testament, covenant continuity, sermons, tagged covenant continuity, Old Testament, sermons on 29 March, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Audio of sermon preached today on first two servant songs
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Posted in comedy, culture, sermons, tagged comedy, culture, sermons on 28 March, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Here tis
Lots of other posts on the topic here.
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Posted in bible, pastoral theology, tagged bible, pastoral theology on 27 March, 2009 | 5 Comments »
A semi-imagined conversation
– Right. Bible reading. Here we go – Speak Lord, your servant is listening. Ok, Matthew 11:28. Jesus said “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” Ok, good verse. Thank You Lord. But now let me think. What is this verse really saying to [...]
Posted in comedy, culture, pastoral theology, tagged comedy, culture, pastoral theology on 26 March, 2009 | 6 Comments »
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Here’s the audio of my talk on the subject
All this began here.
Then I had some initial thoughts on the usefulness of comedy here
There’s an excellent CS Lewis quote here
Here is a very expanded early version of the talk: part one, part two, part three, part four.
Then some follow up thoughts on blasphemy here and here.
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Posted in Old Testament, covenant continuity, hermeneutics, mediation of Christ, tagged covenant continuity, hermeneutics, mediation of Christ, Old Testament on 24 March, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Isaiah’s servant songs are:
Isaiah 42:1-7
Isaiah 49:1-6
Isaiah 50:4-9
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Now in the songs, the servant is clearly a figure who acts on behalf of the people. He is a covenant for the people (42:6). He will bring Jacob and Israel back to the LORD (49:5,6). His word is the word the people should fear (50:10). He is rejected [...]
Posted in comedy, culture, tagged comedy, culture on 24 March, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
… Interesting that the city clerk of Ephesus did not consider Paul to have blasphemed Artemis, their goddess. (Acts 19:37) Along with strong and clear proclamation, Paul was obviously respectful in a way that gained the notice of the pagans.
Just something to bear in mind as we speak about other religions.
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Posted in comedy, culture, tagged comedy, culture on 23 March, 2009 | 5 Comments »
After my comedy and christianity talk I was asked a question on blasphemy. I had a Romans 2 quote up my sleeve which a) wasn’t much of an answer and b) I forgot on the day. So here are a few extra thoughts. To be honest I don’t really know about blasphemy – any ideas [...]
Posted in other blogs, pastoral theology, quotes, tagged other blogs, pastoral theology, quotes on 23 March, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Here’s a snippet from Watchman Nee, read the whole quote from Dev:
Now the breaking of the alabaster box and the anointing of the Lord filled the house with the odor, with the sweetest odor. Everyone could smell it. Whenever you meet someone who has really suffered; been limited, gone through things for the Lord, willing [...]
Posted in Anglicanism, awful, humourous, tagged Anglicanism, awful, humourous on 19 March, 2009 | 16 Comments »
I was at a meeting of local Anglican clergy yesterday and got talking to a local minister at the coffee break. I offered to pour him a brew and he said, “Oh I’ve given up coffee for lent. You’d better make it half a cup.”
“Oh right. Shall I make you a tea instead?” I offered, [...]
Posted in comedy, culture, evangelism, sermons, tagged comedy, culture, evangelism, sermons on 18 March, 2009 | 10 Comments »
…And so idolatry is not the way back to paradise, and neither is worldly success and neither even is biblical religion. All those ways are ridiculous. Here is the way back to paradise – it’s the LORD Jesus Himself.And this is the very deepest irony of the bible – the very deepest irony of the [...]
Posted in comedy, culture, evangelism, sermons, tagged comedy, culture, evangelism, sermons on 17 March, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As I close let me highlight three ways the bible says we try to get back to paradise, all of which the bible ridicules.
First is we redefine God. It happened as soon as Adam and Eve disbelieved the LORD. The devil said ‘Are you really going to let the LORD be God?’ And we constantly [...]
Posted in comedy, culture, evangelism, sermons, tagged comedy, culture, evangelism, sermons on 17 March, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Here’s my central contention:
Comedy is serious. And Christianity is comedic.
Now maybe that’s a shocking shift in perception for you – in some ways I hope it is. But that’s my contention: Comedy is serious. And Christianity is comedic. The bible is comedic. The Christian message is comedic:
I mean that in two senses.
In the classical sense [...]
Posted in comedy, culture, evangelism, sermons, tagged comedy, culture, evangelism, sermons on 16 March, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I’m giving an evangelistic talk on the above subject on Thursday. I have way too much material and I’m toying with tackling it from a totally different angle – but, well. Here’s some stuff that I have at the moment and maybe you can help me. I’ll lay out what I’ve got in installments and [...]
Posted in comedy, culture, evangelism, humourous, tagged comedy, culture, evangelism, humourous on 16 March, 2009 | 2 Comments »
On Thursday I’m going to speak about Comedy and Christianity (see here and here).
The Screwtape Letters is itself a wonderful argument for the positive Christian use of comedy. In fact I once heard John Cleese read the book on tape – hilarity itself!
Lewis’ book consists of the letters of Screwtape, a senior demon, to his [...]
Posted in evangelism, islam, mission, tagged evangelism, islam, mission on 12 March, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Thanksgiving and prayer called for. Wise as snakes, innocent as doves.
H/T Paul Blackham
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Posted in culture, tagged culture on 11 March, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Matthew Syed in the Times today. He writes about cyclist and Olympic Gold medalist Victoria Pendleton. She has spoken of the tremendous let-down that follows even world-beating success.
…The Great Britain cycling team have always been up front about their raison d’être: winning Olympic gold is everything, all else is detail.
Pendleton worked harder than ever in [...]
Posted in sermons, trinity, tagged sermons, trinity on 11 March, 2009 | 5 Comments »
A bit of personal testimony, some Gethsemane, a good measure of trinity, some ‘clothed in Christ’, liberally sprinkled with Reevesisms and presented with some slides that refused to work on the day.
Actually the slides might help if you’re interested.
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Posted in sermons, tagged sermons on 11 March, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dev’s done the real deal. 1 Corinthians 7 in trinitarian context – and a very healthy and counter-cultural emphasis on undivided devotion to the Lord.
Go here to download (27 Meg). The sound improves after a while.
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Posted in preaching, sermons, tagged preaching, sermons on 11 March, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s an all-age sermon on Isaiah 6.
Sermons on the passage tend to follow a three-point model – and mine’s no different actually.
Look up – WHOAH!
Look in – WOE!
Look out – GO!
Usually the preacher works Christ into the middle point – His altar (the cross) is the source of our forgiveness.
But I think it’s important that [...]
Posted in marriage, pastoral theology, sermons, tagged marriage, pastoral theology, sermons on 8 March, 2009 | 21 Comments »
Here’s a sermon on 1 Corinthians 7.
Basically I think the chapter’s about contentment. Marriage and singleness etc are a presenting issue (v1). But really Paul’s telling us to stay put in our circumstances.
And to do it we need to remember calling, timing and gifting.
God’s call (v15, 17, 18, 20, 22) is His call to fellowship [...]
Posted in bible, christology, covenant continuity, hermeneutics, tagged bible, christology, covenant continuity, hermeneutics on 7 March, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I recently re-read Nathan Pitchford’s excellent short article on the reformers’ hermeneutic.
His basic point is that Sola Scriptura always leads to Solus Christus. The literal reading simply is the christocentric reading.
For Luther, the grammatical-historical hermeneutic was simply the interpretation of scripture that “drives home Christ.” As he once expressed it, “He who would read the [...]
Posted in sermons, trinity, tagged sermons, trinity on 6 March, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I wouldn’t bother with the rest but the middle hour of Rowan Williams’ lecture here is beautiful and heart-warming. Listen from 1:00:10 till 1:54:50.
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Posted in humourous, tagged humourous on 6 March, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I especially like the freeze frame at 1:22
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Posted in other blogs, tagged other blogs on 5 March, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Go and read Dev’s posts on kids.
Here he reflects on the theological lessons learnt from having a baby.
Here he discusses what childlike dependence on our Father means.
Great stuff.
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Posted in pastoral theology on 5 March, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Come to Eastbourne! 1-4 May, a conference including Terry Virgo, Kent & Barbara Hughes, Wallace Benn, Paul Williams and music lead by Stuart Townend. Book here.
And you never know – you may just get to meet me! I’ll try to maintain my quizzical Avatar pose throughout the weekend so you’ll recognize [...]
Posted in bible, hermeneutics, theological method, trinity, tagged bible, hermeneutics, theological method, trinity on 4 March, 2009 | 13 Comments »
This is a repost of Theology – the end of the process??
Is “systematic theology… the end process of exegesis and biblical theology”?? Ben Myers writes brilliantly against such a conception. To imagine that a pure biblical scholar can dispassionately read off the meaning of the Bible through the use of objective interpretive tools is ludicrous. To [...]
Posted in Hebrew, tagged Hebrew on 3 March, 2009 | 19 Comments »
Ok maybe people need selling on learning biblical languages. Let me just list a few things that I very quickly found to be cool about learning Hebrew.
Each word has a root of three letters. The three form the one!
God (Elohim) is a plural noun that, wierdly enough, always takes a singular verb. The Plurality always [...]
Posted in preaching, sermons, tagged preaching, sermons on 3 March, 2009 | 31 Comments »
My preaching theory: When preaching, it is best not to disagree with the translation people have in front of them.
It cultivates the sense that people can’t read the bible for themselves. I know that personally I have held many difficult passages at arm’s length merely under the suspicion that the underlying greek might be ambiguous. Maybe in [...]
Posted in gospel, judgement, salvation, sermons, tagged gospel, judgement, salvation, sermons on 2 March, 2009 | 6 Comments »
I’ve been preparing sermons from Isaiah recently. What’s really striking me is the universal judgement pronounced by the LORD.
The book has rightly been called a tale of two cities and the remarkable thing is that both cities are Jerusalem. Jerusalem stands at the head of both old and new creation. The earthly Jerusalem has its earthly [...]
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