SCRIPTURE: John 1:6-18 Who was John the Baptist, Who was Jesus – the early Jesus-followers had to figure this out. They knew what a prophet was, they had a long list of prophets they knew of. John was definitely a prophet, someone who pointed the way to the truth. But Jesus was different; though something of…
Confession time
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 106 Think of a world with no human rights, no constitution, no protection for the innocent. No legal system or justice system or fair law, except what was enforced by the non-elected king. Imagine extreme poverty, extreme immorality, extreme violence, extreme abuse of the vulnerable. Into that setting, you have been placed to represent…
Great Is Your Faithfulness!
SCRIPTURE: Lamentation 1-5 “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope…” (Lamentations 3:21) Amazing words of faith, coming from a person experiencing horrific trauma. Reading this book of tears, one is surprised to find these nuggets of hope. It is structured as acrostic verses (the sentences start with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet)….
Absurdity of life without God
Here is William Lane Craig’s take on the absurdity of life without God: Man, writes Loren Eiseley, is the Cosmic Orphan. He is the only creature in the universe who asks, “Why?” Other animals have instincts to guide them, but man has leamed to ask questions. “Who am I?” man asks. “Why am I here?…
The three dimensional fullness of God…
SCRIPTURE: John 1:1-5 Some explanation is needed to make sense of this mysterious language. John ties his version of Jesus’ story to the beginning of creation: ‘In the beginning’ (Genesis 1:1). God creates the world through the creative, powerful word: ‘Let there be…’ (Genesis 1:3) This ‘word of God’ is how God interacts with us, relates to us…
A new day will come!!!
Sam inspires Frodo to not give up, no matter how dark the story gets. “They kept going, because they were holding on to something!” What Sam describes as ‘some good in this world’, I believe, points to God. If there is no God, no standard of good or evil, then there is such thing as…
Transformed by Jesus!
SCRIPTURE: Luke 24:50-53 Jesus blessed them, then left them. Were they disappointed… probably a little. But notice their demeanour or state of being: they worshiped Jesus, with great joy, praising God. They had something now that not even His physical absence could dampen. They knew – beyond a shadow of doubt – that Jesus was alive….
Plugged in!
SCRIPTURE: Luke 24:44-49 “Clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49) God created humans to be His representatives (image-bearers), to rule and care for the world. He equipped them with ‘power from on high’ (ie the Spirit/Breathe of life) to fulfill their calling. “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and…
Fully alive, fully human!
SCRIPTURE: Luke 24:36-43 This is not Caspar the friendly ghost. Jesus is physically alive, it is His own flesh and bones. But how does He just ‘appear’ or ‘disappear’ (Luke 24:31,36; John 20:19,26), if He is flesh and bones? A seminary professor suggested that this may be an indication of what our resurrection bodies will be like. “So…
Spiritual dementia
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 105 Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced… (Psalm 105:5) He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations… (Psalm 105:8) How little we appreciate the gift of memory, until we start to lose it. Alzheimer’s disease is the death of brain cells that causes memory…