Tag: Bible
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Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
One of the greatest songs of all time, Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen opens with these questions. I recently had an experience that led me to ask similar questions about myself. In the summer I was interviewed on zoom for a magazine. It was a fun interview and the interviewer said some kind things about me.…
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what’s the point of shouting?
As I sit in my office at the church building where I serve I can hear a man shouting very loudly in the street outside. I can’t hear what he is bellowing but his tone is very aggressive and I can hear a female voice being drowned out by his shouts. It is distressing to…
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When a welcome is not enough
Many years ago, Sally and I visited a church for a morning service. I won’t embarrass it here by naming it as I would hope that things have changed in the past 30+ years! We were looking for a new church to call our spiritual home, but had to leave soon after the service ended,…
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new blog post this is
Ever since I was a ten-year-old who went with his Dad to the cinema to see a new film called ‘Star Wars (a new hope)’ I have been a fan of that film franchise. There’s something about the galactic struggle between the forces of good and evil (or the light and dark side of ‘the…
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splashes of grace
On Easter Monday my wife, Sally, and I went for a walk at a local reservoir. It was a mild day and we decided to walk all the way around the reservoir. After a while we stopped and I took this photograph, and then we saw a bench so sat on it to have a…
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the certainty of uncertainty
Some things are certain. Scientific laws are an example, such as gravity: you can’t stop it, it’s always true. I remember as a child finding it amusing to read: “Gravity is a myth, the earth sucks!” But the reality is that gravity is always gravity. The strength of it may change (for example it’s different…
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changing the way I read the Bible
This coming Sunday morning I am preaching as part of our series looking at God through the eyes of Elijah and Elisha (in 1 and 2 Kings in the Bible). We are looking at Naaman (2 Kings 5), a Syrian general who had an incurable skin disease and found healing from God not only for…
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another thing I got wrong
I have a lot of issues with some of the ways in which the Genesis Creation narratives are used by Christians. They are theological poetry (look at the way that the verses in Chapter 1 are set out in your Bible – not like prose, more like the settings of the Psalms) and narratives that…
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what Jesus forgot to say
I’ve been wondering recently whether Jesus forgot to say a few things. Did he stop too soon when he was saying the amazing things he was saying? I am only asking because, from what I can observe, it looks like we have worked out what he forgot to say… I wonder, for example, when he…
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armour-plated praying
This bloggage was first written as a ‘Thought for the week’ sent to all of the ministers of the Eastern Baptist Association… Isn’t it interesting how easily we can overlook things? I have recently been reminded that when reading the New Testament letters it is important to remember whether they were written to an individual…
nukelearfishing 