How do we react to what Scripture has to say about judgement, not just the historic judgement of Israel or even the discipline we go through but also what Scripture has to say about God’s judgement on sin and evil, what it has to say about eternal judgement and hell. Read Isaiah 34 It’s judgement… Continue reading Judgement Day
Posts
TV, culture and curiosity
I’m following up on the discussion around TV and pastoral visits from the other day with some further thoughts, less to try and reach a definitive answer on the original question and more to work through some things that started to come out of the discussion. One key thing that I think came out of… Continue reading TV, culture and curiosity
Should publishers only publish genuinely original books?
My friend and fellow writer/blogger Alistair Chalmers, shared this tweet recently. Now, Alistair as well as being a great writer is a phenomenal reader (the two often go together). So, he reads and reviews a lot of books, far more than I get through, so I suspect his comments reflect some observations he is seeing… Continue reading Should publishers only publish genuinely original books?
Destroyer
Isaiah as prophet speaks for God to the people but the prophets would also often speak to God for the people, this is especially true when their role aligned with that of priest as Isaiah’s did. Much of the poetic literature takes the form of poetry or song and so you’ll see close parallels with… Continue reading Destroyer
Why it might be good to switch the TV off when the pastor visits
Jeremy Walker posted on twitter recently that a particular challenge with modern pastoral visiting is the phenomena of the TV being on continuously in the background. Now, I presume that by “modern” he’s referring to the past 50 years or so because this isn’t a particularly new thing. Steve Kneale has written here about why… Continue reading Why it might be good to switch the TV off when the pastor visits
The promised king and the promised Spirit
How would God’s people know that the promises were coming true and that they no longer needed to fear judgement. Isaiah makes it clear that there were two crucial people who would come to confirm that hope had arrived. There was the promised king and the promised Holy Spirit. Read Isaiah 32 God promises that… Continue reading The promised king and the promised Spirit
Endorsements
One fall out from the recent TGC debacle over the article that was pulled, replaced with a longer book extract and then replaced with a resignation announcement has been greater attention on the Christian publishing world and how book endorsements work. A couple of the people who endorsed Josh Butler’s book have since withdrawn their… Continue reading Endorsements
You can go your own way
Our temptation is consistently to wander away from God and to look elsewhere for help. This is particularly true when we sense danger, like nervous sheep we seek to get away from the threat but this often means running away from the shepherd who can protect us and further into different danger. Read Isaiah 30-31… Continue reading You can go your own way
Why we need a radically different approach to Gospel Training
You will know by now, that I’ve been passionately arguing for -and practically working towards a different approach to training for Gospel ministry. So, I was interested to see this comment recently from church planter, Jonny Pollock. I believe that Jonny is working in a more rural context in Ireland, so it is fascinating to… Continue reading Why we need a radically different approach to Gospel Training
In that day
Throughout the theme of gloom and judgement, Isaiah weaves a different thread that brings light and hope. He speaks of a future day when there will be vindication for God’s people, when his enemies will be judged and defeated, when God will restore the land. Quite often, it seems that God has in mind more… Continue reading In that day
Faithroots 