Author Archives: firebrandnotes

Mr Cameron, Please Take Note

According to PM David Cameron in his 2015 Easter speech that most of us have heard, the UK remains a Christian country because the government help to repair Cathedrals and older church buildings that, supposedly, represent the ‘living active force’ who are the local church. Mr Cameron also pointed to the phenomenal welfare efforts of the churchContinue reading “Mr Cameron, Please Take Note”

Hosea 4-10: Facing Our Adultery

Mount Hosea Over the last few weeks I’ve been studying the book of Hosea which I’ve likened to a world-class expedition up Mount Everest. As I’ve read and thought,  it’s been as though the air has been getting thinner and basic, cognitive movement noticeably harder.

Albania

A chicken and gherkin sandwich, a mozzarella and tomato salad, some crackers, one of those sealed tubs of airline water that you only ever see on a flight, and a surprisingly tasty chocolate mouse: We’re en route back to Edinburgh from a week’s mission trip in Albania and I’m very thankful for the packed lunchContinue reading “Albania”

Hosea 2: The Promise of Allurement

There is a higher summit. It hangs overs base camp like a shadowy, silhouetting God, incarnate in ancient rock…God is showing us His deepest, highest, widest affections through the churning heart of a husband bereft of the love and loyalty of his wife.

every time you sense God’s anger, try to instead imagine God as being grieved and as being gutted rather than as just waving His great, big, cosmic stick around in fury. I’ve found this a massively helpful distinction in coming closer to the heart of God.

New Mercies

Because of Jesus’ blood shed on the cross for you and for me, our daily waking reality is one of jubilee – i.e. we get to wake up every single morning knowing that we have been set free from the kingdom of darkness, released from the dominion of sin, forgiven from everything past, present and future and ‘delivered’ or ‘transferred’ into the kingdom of the Son!

Live Like a Limpet

English Riviera Back in the day, one of the best summer-time things to do was to roll down Headland Park Road on our mountain bikes and go crabbing in the rock pools of the English Riviera. We’d raid the ‘fishing box’ (an old Wall’s ice cream container) and arrive at the big pools with aContinue reading “Live Like a Limpet”

Hosea 1- Acclimatising to the Mess (& the wonder)

In order to speak prophetically to a Nation and to achieve redemption and righteousness for them, God invades, exposes and demands the masculinity of Hosea’s ego, his social and spiritual reputation, his lineage, his peace, his joy, his sanity, his sexual satisfaction and purity and, most ultimately, the emotional bed of his heart.

Hosea: History, Style, Theology (Intro)

Letters on a Page Thinking/praying about the historical, theological and literary contexts of biblical passages is pretty darn important if your hope is to grow in love for God. How come? Well, have you ever thought why it is that God decided to make the primary medium of His Self-disclosure to us to be throughContinue reading “Hosea: History, Style, Theology (Intro)”