Christian Life

Psalm 34 is an acrostic. In Hebrew, the first word of each verse starts with successive letters of the alphabet. So, if this were English, verse 1 would start with A, verse 2 would start with B, and so on.

At Trinity Church, we’ve been preaching through Book 1 of the Psalms (that is, Psalms 1-41) from Easter until the end of August. We won’t have had time to preach on all of them; we’ve had 18 weeks, so there will have been time to preach on just under half of them. Nevertheless, we thought it would serve the church better to preach selected psalms from the first book, rather than a selection dotted across the whole psalter.

I've never noticed this before, and it’s a bit of fun.

Whose tomb was Jesus buried in? Joseph of Arimathea, you’d reply, and you’d be correct.

On Tuesday 17th June, MPs voted on amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill that change abortion law in England and Wales. This post explains what those amendments are, summarises their impact, and then offers 4 reflections on how we can make sense of what’s unfolding.

As the funeral of the late Pope Francis is held in the Vatican today, the liturgy has notable points of difference from the Anglican liturgies. Those differences expose some deep differences between Roman and Anglican theology, and the surprise is that the biggest problem is not actually transubstantiation.

I've been studying Deuteronomy chapters 5-7, preparing some notes for our small group leaders. As I've been doing that, I find myself approaching Easter freshly. Here are a couple of questions for us with chapters 5-6 particularly in mind.

Many modern Christians are familiar with Jesus' parable in Luke 14:15-24. The NIV entitles it, "The parable of the great banquet". I wish to give it a new name temporarily: "The parable of the great excuses". Although, once we've looked at it in context, we shall see the NIV has the emphasis right after all.

Over the years, I've taken various different approaches to reading through the Bible on a regular basis. I've tweaked and adjusted as I've discovered what works best for me, and what best feeds my soul and my personal walk with Christ. Approaching new year 2025 is a good time to pick up the habit of reading through God's word. What works for me may not be what's best for you, but this may help you do something rather than nothing. Read what I've been learning about how to get the most from this. Tolle lege!

This morning, at Trinity Church Scarborough, we continued our preaching series in the book of Proverbs, looking at Proverbs 25-29.

Is the idea of an afterlife new to the New Testament? In fact, there is hope of life after death even as far back as the Joseph narratives in the book of Genesis.