Tag Archives: bible

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.

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: 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)”

Cold Feet? Reconsidering the Call

God delights in us enough to have orchestrated the great condescension of Jesus from the glory and majesty of the throne of God to the frailty of human frame and the freezing temperatures and animal muck of a farmyard.

Imagine being a Daddy and having a beautiful newborn baby boy. Imagine laying him on a cross of torture and suffering.

Imagine placing him down naked on a cold, wet winter pavement, turning and walking away from him.

Fight as Though For Yourself

A friend loves at all times,     and a brother is born for adversity.  – Proverbs 17:17 – The bible says this is what friends do and that this is what brothers are born for. Q) Is this your experience? A) Probably not…at least, probably not entirely. It’s more likely that you have been hurt byContinue reading “Fight as Though For Yourself”

Ancient Missional Adrenaline

KFC Church When I read the book of Acts, I really want to be a believer, a lover, a follower of Christ. I’m glad to be. I’m proud to be. When I go to church, I often feel like there’s something very important missing and I can be left feeling like I do when IContinue reading “Ancient Missional Adrenaline”

Russell Brand’s ‘Manifestations of the Infinite’

It’s been another harrowing week on planet earth. The terrible atrocities in Paris and Nigeria (and elsewhere not covered by the media) have again functioned as the exclamation mark for the statement of our times – of threat, fear, violence and deceit – churned out from terrorist groups all around the world: “we will strikeContinue reading “Russell Brand’s ‘Manifestations of the Infinite’”