Meeting Jesus "today", for ourselves, at Easter
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.
The Parable of the Excuses (Luke 14) and Deuteronomy 20
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.
Sabbath rest in Matthew 11 and 12
This is not a long post, but I've just seen something I've never seen before.
Matthew 12:1-14 illustrates and adds colour to Matthew 11:28-30.
Matthew 11:28-30 are some of the most beautiful words in the New Testament:
The shepherd's hand
Here's a detail I've just noticed, and rather love.
Psalm 95:7 in the NIV reads as follows:
"For he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture
and the flock under his care."
Take that phrase "flock under his care" and look more closely.
וְצֹ֣אן יָד֑וֹ
Literally "the flock of his hand".
The storyline of Revelation 4-22
In November, I ran a series of blog posts on the book of Revelation. Preparing to preach it, some day, I've been trying to get to know the book, to work out how it functions, how it communicates, and so on. I've wanted to do this deductively at first, which means reading the text lots and lots of times, and noticing things.
So far, I've had 3 posts:
Tuning in for Revelation applications in chapters 2-3
This post follows on from two previous posts on the book of Revelation. In the previous posts I argued that the vision of Revelation 4-22 is telling a single, coherent story, and then explained how the first 3 chapters of the book connect to what follows. That structure indicates that it is important to be clear of the messages given in Revelation 2-3 if we are to hear Revelation 4-22 correctly. This post attempts to draw out those messages to the 7 churches, so we can tune in correctly to the visions that follow.
How does Revelation 1-3 connect with Revelation 4-22
The other day, I wrote about my reading through the book of Revelation, as I seek to work out the kind of book and how it communicates. This post follows on from that, and looks at how Revelation 1-3 connects with Revelation 4-22. Where do the letters fit in? What is the structure of the book as a whole?
Revelation as Story
I've been reading through the book of Revelation, asking myself what kind of book it is, and how we are meant to read it to hear its message. I've found myself wondering if I've been asking the wrong questions. I used to see the most important step in interpreting Revelation to be finding the key to map it onto the real world. I now wonder if the most important step is to enter into and follow the story. Stories have power to teach without needing to be an exact allegory.
Sexuality - just the symptom of the Church of England's problems
This post is prompted by a discussion on a friend's Facebook post. That friend was horrified to see a post on the Facebook Page of Truro Cathedral, and said as much on their own Facebook wall, and I shared a comment in response.
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