I read something this morning that I was blessed by & ordinarily I’d have tucked the accompanying thought away but felt I needed to write an impromptu post instead – I trust this will encourage some of you.
Category Archives: Bible
The Valley of Achor
‘…thus says the Lord, God of Israel, ‘There are devoted things in your midst O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.’ (Joshua 7:13) It can be painfully frustrating to read through the accounts of the people of Israel. They seem to make the mostContinue reading “The Valley of Achor”
Canonically
In 2008 I graduated from St.Andrews University with a slightly random degree in Biblical Studies and French. I had spent four years studying several different books of the Bible including their history, authorship, historical and cultural contexts and linguistic challenges that exist with them.
Hewn Husband: “Come back!”
It’s impossible to journey through the book of Hosea in a casual way. You would never slip into your favourite flip flops to start an ascent of Arthur’s Seat and neither can we receive from this book what we’re meant to receive without the serious footwear of meditation and prayer. There are many lows inContinue reading “Hewn Husband: “Come back!””
Tired of Terror
Our Father Who art in heaven Hallowed be Your Name Your kingdom come, Your will be done On Earth as it is in heaven Give us today our daily bread And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For YoursContinue reading “Tired of Terror”
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.
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.
firebrandnotes.com 