It turns out you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet. Or at least, if the internet gives you some information, use a bit of common sense to check you've been given an answer that feels right, rather than just taking things uncritically and at face value.
I wanted to know how far it was from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean.
So I asked Google:
You what? 1000 miles?
It's Advent, which traditionally has two focii.
The season is about preparing for the coming of Christ. The more obvious half of that is preparing to celebrate Christmas. The other side to it is about the final return of Christ to this world, when he comes to judge the living and the dead, to usher in the new heavens and the new earth, and to free the cosmos from its bondage to decay. What we, slightly mistakenly, call the "second coming". We remind ourselves that it's coming, and we prepare ourselves for it.
I'd taken a break from reading other people's blogs, but when I had a look to see what I'd been missing I found a superb 4-part essay by Peter Leithart on the subject of paedocommunion - the admission of baptised children to the Lord's Table.
4 times a year, the three main congregations across our two churches meet together for a combined service. They're great times, with a full building, hearty singing, and the chance for fellowship across congregations who don't often get to worship all together.
We've finished a run through Paul's letter to the Philippians. With its themes of partnership in the gospel, grace, suffering, and God's life-transforming power, it gave us some good times as we gather all together.
It's customary to refer to Revelation chapters 2 and 3 as the "Letters to the Seven Churches".
As I've studied, and we've preached, our way through these chapters, I'm not convinced that's the best heading to give them.
In fact, the whole of Revelation is a single letter. It's an epistle, like Philippians is. We get that from verse 4 that begins:
“John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace …”
The whole of Revelation is a letter. It was written to seven churches in Asia Minor.
I've heard Revelation 3:20 used many times in an evangelistic talk: Jesus stands at the door of your life and knocks — will you let him in? Here's the verse:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Sometimes I hear it said that Old Testament ethics can be summed up in the command to fear God, and New Testament ethics can be summed up in the command to love God.
Related, it is sometimes observed that the Old Testament summary of the law is ten sentences that prohibit ("Thou shalt not" - those making this point usually do so quoting the old fashioned way of putting that), whereas the New Testament command is two sentences that are about love ("Love the Lord your God with all …; love your neighbour as yourself".)
As I've been studying the individual messages to the 7 churches (Revelation 2-3), I've been very struck by the way Jesus addresses both each church collectively, and also the individuals within it.
Take the message to Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7) as an example.
"Mum, why did that man say that Jesus was a potato?" So asked the three-year old girl.
Did I say that? Well, not exactly. But it was something like this:
We were looking, a few weeks back, at John 12:23-33 during our all-age service. Jesus has been approached by some Greeks (who were not Jews) who asked his disciples if they could have the chance to meet Jesus, too. Here's what Jesus said in reply:
Here's Paul Gardner on Revelation 1:
