This is the first of two sermons on Deuteronomy 6, preached at Holy Trinity, Norwich, on 15th March 2009.
A small boy was riding his tricycle round and round the block as fast as his legs would carry him. A kindly policeman stopped him, and asked, “Where are you going, sonny?”
“I’m leaving home, and I’m never going back. I’m fed up with always being told what I can and can’t do. From now on, I’m going wherever I want and I’m going to do whatever I want.”…
How can humans – tiny specks of transient life that we are – have any significance in a universe so big and so old?
But if the universe were not so vast and so ancient, we would not be here. It has taken 10 billion years for the elements of life to build up in stars.
Many of the ‘constants of nature’, such as the gravitational constant, appear to be extremely finely tuned. Minuscule changes to any of these constants would mean that life could never have developed. …
It’s not an original idea, but Andrew Marr’s thoughts about the dangers of turning Darwinism into a secular religion are of some interest. Describing himself as a ‘lapsed Presbyterian Christian’ (“I had a blinding revelation of disbelief at the age of around 15”), Marr reminds us that science in general, and Darwinism in particular, can offer some of the nourishment that religion provides.
The natural history museums of both London and Oxford are ‘temples of nature’ and mimic cathedrals in their design. …
If I’d somehow managed to get ‘Britney Spears’ into the title of this post, I suppose I could have attracted more readers. But anyone who loves God and is passionate about understanding his purposes for his people and for his world, won’t need any artificial incentives to take an interest in what follows.
Christopher Wright, in the introduction of his fine commentary on Deuteronomy, has some very helpful things to say about the missionary theology of the 5th book of the Bible. …
Text: Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13.
Lk 3:38 has indicated the connection between Christ and Adam. As the first Adam had been tempted by Satan, and failed the test, it was proper that the last Adam should similarly be tested, and prove his perfect obedience to the Father. ‘Adam was tempted in a paradise, and yet fell: Christ was tempted in a wilderness, and yet stood.’ (JFB)
Note when these temptations took place – soon after our Lord’s baptism and commissioning for his public ministry.…
It has long been assumed that the chief emphasis in Romans is on justification by faith.
This was challenged in 1963 by Stendahl, who argued that pre-occupation with justification by faith was due to the church’s morbid conscience, based on the moral struggles of Augustine and Luther, which the church has read back into Paul. Justification, according to Stendahl,
‘is not the pervasive, organising doctrinal principle or insight of Paul,’ but ‘was hammered out by Paul for the very specific and limited purpose of defending the rights of Gentile converts to be full and genuine heirs to the promises of God to Israel.’ …
In the light of various posts on the ‘New Perspective on Paul’, I thought I’d better clarify what E.P. Sanders meant by this term.
It will be recalled that Sanders could find little evidence that the Judaism of the 1st century AD (and therefore the Judaism confronted by the Apostle Paul) was beset by merit theology – the idea that salvation can be ‘earned’ by one’s ‘good works’. Instead, says Sanders, it was characterised by ‘covenantal nomism’:-
Steve Chalke’s (and Alan Mann’s) book, The Lost Message of Jesus, is, I suppose, yesterday’s papers telling yesterday’s news. Published in 2003, it generated more heat than light, and polarised well-meaning people into opposing groups of fans and critics.
It’s all a bit late to be offering a review of the book. But I suspect that its central point (that ‘God is love’ is all that we really need to know about God, and everything else must be forced through this one filter), is not going to go away.…
Fear comes in so many shapes and sizes that it has a vocabulary all of its own:-
Hydrophobia – fear of water
Arachnophobia – fear of spiders
Acrophobia – fear of heights
Xenophobia – fear of strangers
Taxophobia – fear of being buried alive
Triskaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13
Arachibutyrophobia – fear of Peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth
Brontothalassophobia – fear of storms at sea
What kinds of things put you into a cold sweat?…
Should Christians devote themselves only to evangelism and personal morality, or should they concern themselves also with issues of social justice?
Consider the following scenarios:-
An elderly lady lives on her own just down the road from you. She has difficulty getting out. Do you (a) tell her that God loves her; (b) offer her a lift to the shops once a week, or (c) lobby for improved public transport so that she and people like her can get out and about themselves?…
