Isa Glaser suggests that the book of Hosea is interesting to read with Islam in mind because of (a) its critique of idolatry, (b) its scandalous sexual imagery, and (c) its even more scandalous record of a prophet being called to marry a prostitute.
In Islamic teaching, a prophet is kept from major sin, and it would be shameful for a man to take back an adulterous wife. Hosea 11 is about about the scandal of God taking back of adulterous Israel.…
Commenting on Psalm 6:5, Derek Kidner provides an excellent summary of Old Testament teaching on ‘sheol’ (the grave; the abode of the dead) and what lies beyond:-
…Sheol can be pictured in a number of ways: chiefly as a vast sepulchral cavern (cf. Ezek. 32:18–32) or stronghold (Pss 9:13; 107:18; Matt. 16:18); but also as a dark wasteland (Job 10:22) or as a beast of prey (e.g. Isa. 5:14; Jon. 2:2; Hab. 2:5). This is not definitive language, but poetic and evocative; and it is matched by various phrases that highlight the tragedy of death as that which silences a man’s worship (as here; cf 30:9; 88:10f.;
11. Male obligations have been re-branded as “privileges”. The male obligation to provide for his wife and children is now regarded as a privilege. No-one has bothered to ask men whether they would prefer to go out and work in an office, mine or factory, rather than spend more time with the family. But if a woman thinks she would be more fulfilled by going out to work, rather than staying at home, she should have the choice. …
Eggs are Expensive, Sperm is Cheap, by Greg Krehbiel. Crowhill Publishing, 2014.
Subtitled ’50 politically incorrect thoughts for men’, this little book aims to unsettle modern assumptions about women and men. Krehbiel invites us to consider that the ‘traditional’ way of understanding the two sexes may not be as oppressive as we have been told it is, and that today’s ideology may actually be very harmful to us all. He develops this in a disarming, amusing, and gently outrageous way.…
Peter Mead has posted a checklist of 20 questions (well, 88, actually, but they boil down to 20) about a preacher’s delivery.
I summarise:-
Text: Mark 10:52
‘Sozo’ = to save.
We tend to think of salvation as
Clearly, salvation for Bartimaeus involved physical healing. But there is a hint in the word itself that something more than physical healing is going on here: he received his sight; and he became a disciple (v52)
Mark 10 – ‘to inherit eternal life’ (v17), ‘to enter the kingdom of God’ (vv23-26), and ‘to be saved’ (v26) are used synonymously.…
Text: Mark 10:46-52
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. There he would suffer many things. He must be killed and after three days rise again. But what of the people travelling with him, and those he meets on the way?
In 10:13-16 the disciples rebuked those who brought little children to Jesus, but he said, “Let them come to me, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
In 10:17-31 a wealthy young man asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” …
Text: Psalm 32
Happiness is ‘…an unexpected piece of chocolate’, ‘…Friday’; ‘…being married to your best friend’.
Here is the biblical answer.
‘Don’t be negative’. ‘I know I’m not perfect’. ‘Don’t go to church to be told I’m a sinner, I go to to be comforted, to be uplifted’.
Synonyms: rebellion, wandering away, twistedness.
How ridiculous to think that we can hide our sin from the all-seeing eye of God. Yet ever since the days of Adam and Eve people have been trying to do precisely that.…
Christianity is not for the self-sufficient, but for those who know they are needy. Jesus takes the poverty-stricken, and makes them rich. He takes the foolish, and gives them wisdom. He takes the weak, and gives them strength. He takes mourners, and gives them comfort. He takes nobodies, and makes them somebodies. He looks for the lost, and finds them. He takes those who have not, and gives them all they need. He doesn’t call those who think they are good, but those who know that are bad. …
It is all to easy for Christians either to ignore contemporary culture, or to demonise it as ‘bad’ without even trying to understand it.
Trevin Wax says that ‘examining a cultural artifact is not a statement on the spiritual state of an artist; neither is it a blanket endorsement or condemnation of a product.’ Rather, ‘cultural commentaries are an exercise in cultural literacy, what Kevin Vanhoozer describes as “discerning the meaning of cultural texts and trends in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”’…
