In the Louvre a few years back I saw a bizarre sight, a girl with a digital SLR camera, she was taking selfies! Amongst all the art and sculptures, she only had eyes for herself. Shocking! Augustine and Martin Luther both talked about sin in terms of the mind curved in on itself as selfishness.… Continue reading Sex as God’s Good Gift
Category: Bible Study
The Garden
We’ve seen the big picture of creation. Now, it’s time to focus in on the detail. As we do, we begin to see something about God’s providential care for us. Read Genesis 2:4-14 The phrase often translated as “These are the generations” punctuates Genesis and marks the beginning of different stories within the subplot. It… Continue reading The Garden
Applying the trickier aspects of Song of Songs
Applying Song of Songs isn’t so neat and straight forward, whichever way we take it, either as practical wisdom about relationships or as a metaphor for Christ and the Church. Have a read through the book and spot these things. The lead female character is someone who appears vulnerable, taken advantage of, at risk. She… Continue reading Applying the trickier aspects of Song of Songs
Day Seven
The Old Testament Law rooted its command to set apart the seventh day as a sabbath in the creation account. Read Genesis 2:1-3 God has created the world, he has formed it and filled it. He has named things and ordered them. H has blessed his creation. Now, having blessed his creation, he blesses time,… Continue reading Day Seven
In his image
Read Genesis 1:26-30. This describes the creation of humanity. Men and women are made equally in God’s image. As his image-bearers, this means that we in someway reflect his likeness. There are characteristics we share with him. On this basis, if God is holy then we too should be holy and pursue godliness. If God… Continue reading In his image
He also made the stars
In Genesis 1:14-18, we are told about the part of creation where God populates the heavens with lights. The sun and moon are appointed as rulers over day and night. In other words, they will be the dominant lights and the basis for things like telling the time, seasons and location based on their appearance. … Continue reading He also made the stars
The God who speaks and sees Genesis 1v1-25
The Bible begins with the big picture story of God’s creating work Read Genesis 1:1-25 Notice three things about God here. There are a few dominant phrases that echo through the passage. First, there is the repetition “God said” each time that God speaks “let there…”, it comes to pass, so that another repeated phrase… Continue reading The God who speaks and sees Genesis 1v1-25
First things
The first thing we need to know about everything is “God.” Read Genesis 1:1 The first book of the Bible tells us with its first words that “In the beginning, God created.” This introduces us to two important truths about God. First, the God who was there at the beginning is eternal. God predates the… Continue reading First things
Notes on Song of Songs
Genre Wisdom Literature and Poetry. Wisdom literature is a specific genre within Scripture. My definition is that “Wisdom Literature enables us to discover God’s wisdom for life by reflecting through poetry on God’s Law (Torah) and the redemptive history of God’s people.” For Christians we must first of all see this applied to and through… Continue reading Notes on Song of Songs
The whole Christmas story
A few weeks back, Glen Scrivener commented on twitter to the effect that the Gospel was the best story, it was complete, incomparable, unbeatable. There was general agreement with this although some asked whether he would concede that the prequel found in the Old Testament came pretty close and was essential to the strength of… Continue reading The whole Christmas story
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