Christian Life

One of the most glorious truths is the real hope that God offers his people. It's a real, substantial hope of a future on a renewed earth, with renewed bodies, free of suffering, with God himself living among us.

But many Christians are brought up to believe that when we die we "go to heaven".

Sometimes, the language of "heaven" is a short-hand for this earth-bound future that God promises. But other times, people picture something far more ethereal, and the language is "heaven" is actually quite unhelpful - it sells us short.

A few weeks ago (Trinity Sunday as it happened - this was the lectionary gospel reading this year), I preached on John 16:12-15. That passage includes this sentence concerning the Spirit:

"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth."

A small note for Anglican clergy who read this blog.

Until very recently, when I led the "signing of the marriage registers" after a wedding, here is how I did it: 1. The groom signs 3 copies (the two marriage registers, and what will be their marriage certificate). 2. The bride signs 3 copies. 3. Witness 1, then Witness 2, sign all 3. 4. Lastly I sign both marriage registers, I sign the same box on the marriage certificate, and then I sign the declaration at the bottom of the marriage certificate.

In a couple of week's time, the Lectionary gospel reading will be Luke 7:11-17:

Soon afterwards, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out – the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry.’

Psalm 33:3 says this:

Sing to him a new song; play skilfully, and shout for joy.

Note the three ingredients here of how we are instructed to sing to God.

God doesn't just need to patch us up, he gives us new birth and makes us brand new creatures.

Mounce (paid link) quotes Chrysostom's fifth homily whilst commenting on Titus 3:5. Titus 3:5 says this:

My friend Steve Jeffery posted a short post on his minister's blog.

So short, it's hard to know which bit to quote.

And yet so wonderful, so true, and so necessary to be chewed over, that I think I'll just quote all of it.

I hope Steve doesn't mind - especially if I link to the original post where I got it from

John, in his Gospel, loves the motifs of light and dark. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. When Judas slipped out of the last supper to betray Jesus, it was night.

John's account of the empty tomb records Mary Magdalene going to the tomb "while it was still dark".

This worries a few people, but it need not.

The worry is that Mark records 3 women going to the tomb "just after sunrise". He seems to want to highlight the fact that it was day time, so they could see where they were going and what they were witnessing.

... That was the question I was asked by a member of our church one Wednesday morning, during our midweek Communion service.

We had just had readings on the great Christian hope - that one day, Jesus will return to this earth and renew it. It will be freed from its bondage to decay, all pain and suffering will go, and we'll live with Christ on earth together. Our ultimate hope is not in heaven, but on earth - life as it was meant to be.

I owe to my friend John Goulding the following observation:

In Jonah 4, God provided a plant to shield Jonah from the heat. The verb "to provide" is a key-word in Jonah - it's מָנָה (manah). The worm that ate the manah / the provided plant was a תּוֹלָע (tola`). That's not a common word in the Old Testament (39x). 27 of those are in the book of Exodus, where the usual meaning is (by metonymy) the purple die made from a particular type of worm. But one is Exodus 16:20.