The Song of Songs is a strange, unique, beautiful book.
Strange – partly because God isn’t mentioned from beginning to end.
Unique – because it is the one book of the Bible that gives a sustained and detailed celebration of love between a man and a woman.
Beautiful – because it does all of this in wonderfully imaginative poetry. It has every right to be called ‘The Song of Songs’, the greatest love song of them all.…
How far would you be willing to travel in order to meet, or see, or hear, someone you really admired? Your favourite musician, perhaps, or a dear friend.
How far would you be willing to travel to meet Jesus in the flesh? Without the benefit of modern transport? And what would you say to him when you met him?
Well, here are some people who came all the way from Jerusalem to Galilee to see Jesus.…
It seems to me that the message of Jonah lends itself rather well to dramatisation. Here’s an attempt to do that, using three voices.
JONAH: Friends, I want to speak to you about wickedness in the world today. I’m sure that you will agree with me that there are lots of extremely wicked and cruel people around. The world is full of cheats, and tyrants, and murderers, and liars. I think that God should punish these wicked people.…
After the angels went back into heaven, after the shepherds went back to their flocks, after the magi went back to where they had come from, after Mary and Joseph and their their son went back to Nazareth, what happened then? Did Jesus grow up just like any normal child?
In v52 we have nearly 30 years of development summarised in one sentence: ‘Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.’…
The church at Corinth was founded by St Paul some 20 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was a dynamic but deeply dysfunctional church. There was doctrinal errors, with some even denying the resurrection of the body. There were serious moral lapses, including incest. There were divisions, with groups lining up with Paul, others with Peter, still others with Apollos.
Moreover, some had mounted vicious attacks on Paul’s character. ‘He’s fickle’ (keeps changing his mind about his travel plans), ‘he’s exploitative’ (says he doesn’t want any financial support but then pockets the collection), ‘he’s unspiritual’ (lacks mystical experiences and doesn’t do miracles), ‘he’s cowardly’ (a lion in his letters, but a lamb face-to-face).…
A long time ago, a young man finished an evening meal with his friends, spoke to them about various things, then looked up to the sky, and prayed.
I want you to imagine for a moment that it never happened.
I want you to imagine that he did not at this time pray for himself. What would be the point? He had been hated, hounded, and harangued, he had been betrayed into his enemy’s hands, and they were going to kill him the next day.…
Could we be contented with less in order to give away more?
We probably have items – cutlery, crockery, baby equipment, clothing, furniture, toys – that are in good condition but we don’t use or need them. We know that The Besom is able to pass them on to vulnerable people who really do need them.
We could easily identify one area in our everyday lives in which we could practice conservation (water, paper), sharing (books, tools, transport) or recycling (plastic, aluminium).…
‘He restores my soul.’
How pleasant, how delightful, is this psalm! And yet what does it have to do with our lives today? David, the shepherd-king, lived in a world of green pastures and still waters; we live in a pulsating world of silicon chips and space travel. David’s world seems a million miles from ours.
And yet – if ever there was a time when we needed to re-discover the glorious truths contained in this psalm, then that time is now.…
‘History teaches us’ claimed the philosopher Hegel, ‘that we never learn anything from history.’ But here, at least, is one person who is determined to learn something from the history of her own son. Let’s ponder with Mary:-
v1f. ‘In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)’…
Baghdad, July 30th 1919.
Dear Walter,
I’ve got some very sad news to tell you, last night when down at the river bathing poor old Eric was drowned. You must forgive me for putting it so blunt, but I feel too full up with it to say much about it. We were bathing as usual and poor old Eric went down. We dived with ropes round us and swam about for half an hour but nothing was seen of him. …
