The Time of Noah Last time we looked at Adam and Eve (whether literal figures or an allegory of humankind’s relationship with God, the message is the same), and how judgement was the pivotal sin that brought about the Great Plummet of the human race. When we appropriated for ourselves the position of Judge – of ourselves, others and God – we laid claim to a platform that is the sole province of the Almighty. Only God is capable... Read more
Part 1 – The Garden of Eden Let’s be honest; the Bible can get a bit confusing when it comes to the nature of God. For instance, the kindness we see in Jesus is absent under Hebrew Law. Does God forgive us freely, as the New Testament teaches, or does he insist we are stoned to death for the picking up of sticks on the Sabbath, as he did in events described in Numbers 15? In this... Read more
To the best of my understanding, God has blessed us abundantly in every area (Romans 8, 32): ‘He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?’ We are inheritors of a fabulous spiritual and emotional life (Romans 14, 32): ‘For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness,... Read more
Discipleship would be easy if it wasn’t for other people. If it were just the Lord and I, communing in the privacy of my home, and that alone determined the quality of my personal growth, I’d be flying. Though discipleship begins with divine connection, its continuance is found in human relationships. We all carry wounds. Some of the deepest were inflicted in childhood, and have festered ever since. They undermine us, send us round the same loop time and... Read more
Sin is such an emotionally laden term. It is often associated with heaviness and accusation – the angry finger of a vengeful God, wagging in our unworthy faces. Any Biblical term, if misused, becomes associated with the misuse itself, and can become misleading. In this sense, the Church, by means of its doctrinal and cultural assumptions, can reshape important Biblical concepts in its own image. I believe this has happened with sin/sinner/sinful. In this post, I intend to... Read more
In this, final instalment of Job – Our Most Consequential Lie, I’ll be covering the remainder of the text, presenting a complete, end-to-end interpretation of the book (based on the text itself and its relationship to the Gospel narrative), and explaining why I consider our understand of Job to be so important, and so potentially destructive when we get it wrong. In chapter 32, Job accusations against God cease. The three friends have given up too, leaving room for... Read more
This post follows directly on from part 1. I’m going to dive straight into the text to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that Job was a self-righteous man, who considered God his enemy. We have got this wrong for far too long, and it has damaged us! Chapters 1-6 work as a subsection of the text, and can be summed up in a simple phrase – Job Holds his Tongue. Chapter 1, 4-5: ‘His sons used to hold... Read more
The way Job is treated and taught in the Church is, in my view, damaging to anyone who hears it, because it confuses believers about the nature of God. Does he want to give us life and life to the full, to prosper and not harm us, to bind up our wounds, to delight over us with singing, or does he hand us over to Satan on a whim, allowing the destruction of everything and everyone we love?... Read more
In 2003-2004, I attended an unusual theological school in Alabama, USA, where I learned how to meditate – a practice that isn’t typically associated with Bible school, or church in general. It was a fascinating time, helping me address personal matters that had plagued me for years, and to understand my motivations and fears, without flinching from the truth. We studied more traditional topics, such as Greek and Hebrew, but learning to meditate was by far the most valuable lesson... Read more
They say you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family. The same is true of church. In essence, church is a big family, within which are people who naturally get on and others who don’t. There are people with varying expectations of life, backgrounds, political and social outlooks, behavioural styles, denominational emphases, communication styles and financial situations, along with a hundred other points of difference. Every gap between us has within it the potential for conflict, suspicion... Read more
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