15 Steps

Love the song.  Love the animation (a finalist in a Radiohead competition)     .What verse springs to mind for you?  For me it’s the curses for disobedience in Leviticus 26:36-39: . “`As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the [...]

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I am not…

Here’s an example of how we shape our own “personality types” which then shape us. I went to bible college saying very strongly both outwardly and inwardly “I’m not a linguist.” Why would I say such a thing? Well not on the basis of terrible school grades or any nightmare disputes with snooty French maitre [...]

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Personality types?

Part of my ordination training involved doing the Myers-Briggs personality test.  Now I realise that this is not strictly mandated by the Pastoral Epistles, but on the other hand it was a good old giggle. (See mildly amusing prayers for the 16 personality types here.)  I came out quite strongly as ENFP which means I’m an inveterate procrastinator, [...]

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Wordled Bloggage

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Who will be the next Apprentice??

  Could you be the next apprentice at my church – All Souls, Eastbourne?  We can offer training through the South Coast Ministerial Training Course and plenty of hands-on experience. Great church, great people  – join us!  (btw we’re looking to hire more than one). Send me an email if you’re interested. .  

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Christ in the Old Testament 13

Ok, let’s continue with this issue of the NT’s handling of the Old. If we take the reformation cry of sola Scriptura at all seriously we must allow the Bible to interpret the Bible. Historical-grammatical hermeneutics, archaeology, even the most careful exegesis conducted by the best scholarship must all bow to God’s own word.  He [...]

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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 God from [...]

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Allah is an idol

These are thoughts that I’ve been sharing over at Between Two Worlds on a post called Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammed? My answer?  Of course not.  Here are some points in no particular order: 1) Let’s let Allah define himself: “He does not beget nor is he begotten.” (Sura 112) The [...]

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The Flesh

In thinking of Substitutes for the Spirit I was surprised at how many I came up with.  But then again, we all know what the Scripture says is the antithesis to the Spirit. Therefore we know that susbtitutes for the Spirit can be summed up in one word - flesh.  Thus we know These substitutes will [...]

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Substitutes for the Spirit

We have endless substitutes for the actual, dynamic, personal presence of the Spirit in our thinking.  Here’s a sketch of just a few off the top of my head. Of course, many or all of these are means by which the Spirit works.  Yet if they are cut off from the Source they have no [...]

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Any help?

I’m preaching on Sunday with the title Why the Cross?  (I think the whole ‘Why can’t God just forgive?’ question is behind the choice of topic).  What should I say? .

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Blog mouth

A few months ago I commented on a blog about Christian kids songs.  I mentioned speaking to an author about the lyrics of one of his better known songs.  Since this conversation happened 7 years ago, my memory of it was very sketchy (I even mistook his name for someone else’s when it was mentioned).  But [...]

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Trusting God’s Sovereignty – Trusting God’s Son

When times are tough – what is your comfort?  When comforting others, where do you point them? In the circles in which I move the encouragements of choice involve variations on the theme of ‘God’s got a plan.’  Many’s the time when a well-meaning brother (usually a brother) has said ‘I guess at moments like this, [...]

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Why is God breaking you down?

Sometimes, when I’m sharing with Christians about tough times, I ask them: ‘Why do you think God is breaking you down like this?’ Almost without fail they say something like, ‘I know, I know, it’s to make me stronger.’ No!  No, no, no, a thousand times no! He’s breaking you down to make you broken.  [...]

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“You and me, we’re not so different really…”

There’s often a point in the crime drama where the bad guy tells the cop ‘You and me, we’re not so different really.’  Well there are two baddies in the history of trinitarian theology who really aren’t that different: Arius and Sabellius.  Arius was the sub-ordinationist.  He defined the One God such that Jesus could not [...]

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Let Jesus be Jesus.

Ok, so the last post put forward church life as an analogy of trinitarian life.  More specifically: ‘Differently gifted members of one priesthood’ is analagous to ‘Differently gifted Persons in one Godhead.’ Once this is seen, then we can all breathe a sigh of relief and just let Jesus be Jesus.  What do I mean [...]

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The Way of the LORD

From Genesis 1, the way of the LORD has always been forming, then filling. The filled-out reality is there by anticipation even in the forming. The intention for filling is included in the forming. But still the order is ‘form, then fill.’: In Gen 1:2 – a formless and empty creation is then formed (days [...]

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The Priesthood of all believers and Trinity 1

When discussing the priesthood of all believers I tried to highlight the corporate nature of our priestliness.  I only find my priestliness in union with Christ and in union with others.  Both are essential. The priesthood of all believers is not a priestliness that is the private possession of each believer.  If we argue like this [...]

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