James's Weblog

This Sunday, at Kemsing and Woodlands, we begin a 4-week series looking a single paragraph of the epistle to the Hebrews. We're going to be looking at Hebrews 10:19-25.

This is the time of year when many British people head over to the continent for their summer holidays.

One of the most visited pages on this site is my blog post giving information on how to obtain an electronic device allowing you to sail through the motorway toll booths in France, and pay later on account (by credit card).

At the wedding I'm taking in Kemsing this afternoon, the bride and groom have asked to have Ruth 1:16-17 as their Bible reading, and for me to speak briefly on that passage. It's the first time I've been asked to speak on Ruth at a wedding, and it is a very appropriate part of the Bible to hear on such an occasion.

On another occasion, I might share what I'll be saying at their wedding.

Many will have seen this quotation before. But as I copied it out for a particular purpose, it struck me that this is so gloriously true it deserves to be said again:

“Right there you can see the difference between Christianity and all other religions, including no religion. The essence of other religions is advice; Christianity is essentially news. Other religions say, ‘This is what you have to do in order to connect to God forever; this is how you have to live in order to earn your way to God.’ But the gospel says, ‘This is what has been done in history. This is how Jesus lived and died to earn the way to God for you.’ Christianity is completely different. It’s joyful news.” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross (paid link), page 15)

Waltke (paid link) again:

Scientifically, the fire and cataclysmic destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah may be explained by an earthquake. Heat, gases, sulphur, and bitumen would have been spewed into the air through the fissures formed during a violent earthquake (14:10). The lightning that frequently accompanies an earthquake would have ignited the gases and bitumen.

I've been re-acquainting myself with the second century heretic, Marcion.

In the Lion Handbook: The History of the Christian Church (paid link), there is a very helpful short article by H Dermot McDonald that summarises Marcion and his teaching. (You need the 1990 edition of the Lion Handbook - there is a 2009 edition out which I've never seen, but it seems it is a brand new book so won't have this exact portion in).

I like this description of the irony of Lot's role in Genesis 19, taken from page 274 of Waltke's commentary (paid link):

Next Sunday (24th June), at our 10.30 service, we will sing the hymn Immortal Invisible. It's well known.

And, it turns out, mis-known.

I simply copied the words from the recent hymn book, Praise!, to insert on our service sheet. The version they include is copyright to Jubilate Hymns, but what struck me was that there were more changes here than just modernised words. The last two verses contained (between them) some of the thoughts of the last verse most of us sing, but were clearly two entirely different verses.

In our Christianity Explored group last week, we were discussing Jesus' predictions of Peter's denials, and of his own suffering, death and resurrection, as a prelude to a very good session on Jesus' resurrection.

One of the members of the group asked a question about a detail that I had never noticed before in Mark's text:

I'm disappointed to read more than one assertion in yesterday's Church Times that Jesus never taught that marriage is lifelong.

Perhaps one ought to read Mark 10:2-9