When Paul urges Christians to, ‘Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’ (Eph 5:19) we might wonder what he’s getting at. Are these all the same, or is there a distinction? We know the early church composed hymns – and surely people made up beautiful songs – why continue with ancient Psalms? […]
Psalms II – Every Emotion for Every Occasion Read More »
Psalms easily tops the rankings of ‘favourite books of the Bible’. But why? Many turn to the Psalms for comfort, encouragement, to fuel-up on joy and wonder, re-connect with God, get a spiritual refresher, or even to find solace in misery, despair, uncertainty. It’s all there – an emotionally rich smorgasbord of food for the
Psalms – Make a Joyful Noise Read More »
What are we made of? Skin, bones and innards? You’ve probably heard that human beings are over 60% water – a solid majority. A more scientific approach might suggest ‘chemicals’. To delve even deeper, atoms and molecules. But apart from the infinitesimal particles of nuclei, the vast majority of atoms are empty space. For that
I wonder how you feel when a preacher says, ‘Of course, in the original Greek this word really means blah blah blah’. You might think, ‘Ooh that makes a lot more sense’ or, ‘How interesting!’ Or you might think, ‘How do I know that that’s right?’ (Or… you might just think, ‘There goes the vicar
It’s all Greek to me! Read More »
Here comes the British summer, the season when many bags are packed with shorts, hats, macs, suncream and… books. Topics are many and varied: possibly connected with the holiday destination or a favourite hobby, tales of adventure, detectives or even… chick lit. For those who have busy working lives a spell of ‘down time’ offers
Summer Joys, and a Good Book Read More »
Who doesn’t love a good feast? We might think of Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving, perhaps a wedding or a graduation feast with friends and family. Personally, the image from ‘The Grinch’ always drifts into mind, where ‘He, he himself…the Grinch…carved the roast-beast!’ Biblically though, feast is one of those words that doesn’t mean what we think
The Feasts of the Lord Read More »
We all know that Christmas is celebrated differently around the world – and sometimes we mistakenly think that the Jewish celebration of Hannukah is simply their variation of Christmas; it falls at the same time of year. But of course the great majority of Jews never accepted Jesus as Christ, so they don’t celebrate Christmas.
The Meaning of Hannukah Read More »
These three similar sounding words are notoriously confusing. You may recognise ‘the Apocrypha’ as the collection of books founds in Roman Catholic Bibles but not in Protestant Bibles (e.g. Judith, Tobit, Maccabees). They were written during the time between the Old and New Testaments, not considered part of the Hebrew Scriptures – yet they were
Apocalyptic, Apocalypse, and the Apocrypha Read More »
As I write this, the whole of the UK (even including, I suspect, staunch anti-royalists), are out celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – along with Commonwealth Nations, and indeed much of the world. After all, she’s the first and only monarch to reign for 70 (adult) years in recorded history – and what a grand
The Queen’s Jubilee – and God’s Jubilee Read More »
Whenever a question of biblical interpretation comes up, the first and foremost consideration must be context. In my days at theological college, the absolute importance of context was drilled into us. So in my very first lecturing role in hermeneutics (interpretation) at Domboshawa College in Zimbabwe, I taught my students to remember the phrase: ‘Context
