Restless Wonderer

One of the unusual things about preaching in various different churches is that I find myself having to preach under a title and on a passage I didn’t choose. Sometimes when I begin my preparation, I get a wobble of thinking there won’t be anything helpful for me to draw out of this obscure story or lesser-known psalm. I really must stop that, though, as invariably when I get started in earnest I find more in there than I can fit into a single sermon. That’s certainly the case with Psalm 111, which is my assigned passage for this coming Sunday in Belfast Chinese Christian Church. I still have the challenge of working out how to preach by translation into Mandarin (morning) and Cantonese (afternoon) but I’m not short of material and I’m feeling challenged by the passage myself, which is always the best place to preach from. Psalm 111 is an acrostic poem, meaning that each line begins with a sequential letter of the Hebrew alphabet (already a challenge to explain in a non-alphabetic la...

  Pondering what to write for an article in this week's bulletin of the congregation I'm a member of, I stumbled upon something I never knew.  Today is a special date.  It is … [drumroll] … National Handwriting Day [fanfare].  Who knew that 23 rd January is the day to celebrate the diversity and beauty of hand-written script? In my original profession, there wasn’t much to celebrate (apologies to fellow medics!) and things have not improved since I left it behind. Barring occasional signatures, I write with a keyboard, not a pen. The resulting letters are legible (even if not always rightly ordered!) and uniform (how boring!) There’s something sad about this loss of individuality. I’m sure you’ll agree that hand-written letters connect with the heart in a special way. A person’s personality and passions are conveyed in their handwriting. The apostle Paul knew this. He made a habit of adding a handwritten greeting to his letters, the bulk of which were written do...

At New Horizon in Coleraine next week I'll be working with Valerie Murphy (formerly of Precept Ministries NI) to deliver three seminars under the title 'The Bible the Jesus Way'.  Our aim is to learn from Jesus how to trust, hear and obey God's word in the Scriptures.  If you're free to come to Coleraine why not join us in these seminars from Tuesday to Thursday?  Each day I'll be speaking about Jesus' teaching on and use of Scripture then Valerie will lead a guided study of a related passage.  There'll be plenty of time for questions and feedback. Over the next few weeks I'll be blogging on this same theme of The Bible the Jesus Way.  As I do that I'll come back to this post and add links to each post.  I'm convinced that there is no greater need for Christians today than to have confidence in the Scriptures.  Confidence that they are the Word of God, living and powerful.  Confidence that they can be understood and are relevant to lives ...

One week on from the momentous vote and a single word captures the mood of the nation: ‘uncertainty’.  Uncertainty about future relationships with Europe, our economic stability and the internal cohesion of the United Kingdom.  How are Christians supposed to respond?  One theologically-loaded word that resonated around the debates before the referendum is ‘sovereignty’.  The brexiteers’ slogan was “Take back control” and some have hailed the result as a demonstration of democracy in action – the people have spoken!  Apart from obvious questions about when we will exit and on what terms, the phrase “the people have spoken” is tricky.  Which people?  What about parts of the UK where clear majorities voted to stay?   What about all those who voted ‘remain’ (including 46.6% in England)?  What about those who didn’t vote at all?  How do we cope with the facts that older people were more likely to vote ‘leave’ while a majority of young...

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. The gospel of God’s grace, when grasped fully, poses a serious question about sin.  If God has forgiven our sins on the basis of Christ’s death in our place, why shouldn’t we keep on sinning?  Why should we live differently?  Indeed, why not sin more so that God’s grace can increase?  Paul anticipates these questions in Romans 6.  Faced with this challenge he does not retreat at all from his confidence in our standing in God’s grace through Christ.  Rather, he points his readers back to their baptism and reminds them that it was a re-enactment of the gospel, a tangible parable of death and resurrection.  We died with Christ and now we live a new life with Him. Paul’s teaching is sometimes misunderstood.  How can he say that our old self is dead?  If that’s tru...

A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. Most people know that Jesus taught us to love one another.  In John 13 he describes this as a ‘new command’.  What is new, or fresh, about this commandment is not so much its content as its point of reference.  The Old Testament Law, contrary to common perceptions, was really an embodiment of love.  It was given by a loving God to the people He had graciously redeemed from slavery in Egypt in order to forge them into a theocratic nation, a people of His very own who would enjoy His blessings and demonstrate His character to the nations.  The Law was also intended to draw individual Israelites into a loving relationship with God, by showing them their sin and providing the sacrificial system on the basis of which they could seek His forgiveness and express their gratitude to Him. Not only did the Law express God’s love for His people, it was also intended to guide ...

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. Covenants are powerful things.  They are binding relationships between two parties, consisting of promises and expected responses and usually accompanied by a sign to serve as a reminder.  I am in a covenant relationship with my wife, indicated by the ring round one of my fingers – the one I use as I write this, somewhat strangely since I type with only two fingers, to hit the ‘Shift’ key.  I am bound to Gar-Ling for life, to be faithful to her and to help her to be the person God wants her to be.  She made similar promises to me too.  That kind of covenant I can understand and I’m incredibly thankful for it, but when I begin to translate that experience into the nature of God’s relationship with His people my mind begins to boggle.  How can the eternal God, creator of all things, sovereign and all-powerful, bind Himself...