‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’

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Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
Look upon a little child,
Pity my simplicity,
Suffer me to come to Thee.

Of all the images of Jesus that are on offer, that of ‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ is perhaps the most embarrassing for Christians, and the most offensive to non-believers.

What self-respecting person would want to follow, serve, die for, a saviour who was merely ‘gentle, meek and mild’?

Of course, we could just say that the writer of the hymn, Charles Wesley, had an off-day when he penned that number and quietly forget about it.…

‘Most of the Christmas story is legend’

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I’ve mentioned before that this blog is nothing if not up-to-date.  So I’d like to turn the clock back a year to a widely-reported interview with The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.  The interview itself was broadcast on the BBC’s Radio Five on 19th December 2007.  By the time the Daily Mail got hold of it the following day, the headline was

Three Wise Men are just a legend, says Archbishop of Canterbury

And that paragon of faithful reporting adds with horror:-

Dr Rowan Williams says there is no evidence for the Magi

Dr Williams is also said to deny that Jesus was born in December, in a snow-covered stable, where he was visited by three wise men bearing gifts. …

On loving the person and propositions of Jesus

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In chapter 3 of Why we’re not emergent (by two guys who should be), Kevin DeYoung explains why he loves ‘the person and propositions of Jesus’.  What follows is based on part of that chapter.

All Christians claim to have a high regard for the Bible, and emerging Christians are no different.

Brian MacLaren says:

‘I believe [the Bible] is a gift from God, inspired by God, to benefit us in the most important way possible: equipping us so that we can benefit others, so that we can play our part in the ongoing mission of God. 

…

Lk 2:12 – ‘This will be a sign to you’ – sermon notes

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There is something surprising about this: the humble circumstances of the Christ-child in the manger confirmed the angel’s announcement of a Saviour. We would expect it to be the other way round!

1. The angels who gave the sign

Angels appear from time to time within the pages of Scripture. We read of their activities in connection with creation, the giving of the Law, the birth of the Saviour, the temptation in the wilderness, the agony in Gethsemane, the resurrection, ascension and final judgement.…

Wise thoughts on sermon preparation

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The following wise advice comes from Leith Samuel, courtesy of Derek Prime and Alistair Begg in their book On Being a Pastor, and quoted by the Unashamed Workman:-

1. Think yourself empty. As strange as it may sound, we must be careful to ensure that we do not avoid sound thinking. The temptation to respond emotionally to a passage (this is how this makes me feel) is not unique to our listeners. If we are to have ‘thinking’ congregations it is incumbent upon us to be ‘thinking’ pastors’!…

On travelling hopefully AND arriving

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According to an ancient Taoist saying, “the journey is the reward.”

And Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in Virginibus Puerisque (1881), “to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.”

Not very new, then, the post-modern preference for journey over destination.  But it’s a favourite idea of emerging church people.

Kevin DeYoung discusses the emerging preference for seeing Christian faith as journey rather than destination in chapter 1 of Why we’re not emergent – by two guys who should be. …

Sacked for denying the existence of Santa

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A primary school teacher has been fired for telling her rowdy youngsters that Santa Claus does not exist.

According to a recent story in the Daily Mail, the children were so traumatised by this piece of demythologisation that they burst into tears and ran home and told their parents.  Mums and dads then wrote to the school complaining about the incident and were reassured that the supply teacher involved had been disciplined and would not be working for the school again.…

Verbal engineering

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Christian Today tells of the horror of Lisa Saunders, mother-of-three from Northern Island, over the number of words associated with Christianity that have been omitted from the latest edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary.

Christian-related words like “bishop”, “chapel”, “disciple”, “minister”, “sin” and “devil”, have been replaced by words like “blog”, “biodegradable”, “MP3 player”, “democratic”, and “celebrity”.

Of course, language changes and some old words become obsolete or change their meaning.  But large numbers of people in our country do follow the Christian faith and even those who do not cannot afford to forget who they are and where they come from.…

Tony Blair on ‘coming out’ as a Catholic

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Tony Blair has recently revealed that, although he converted to Catholicism as recently as 2007,  he has been attending Mass for 25 years and he also brought up his children as Catholics.

Mk Blair said he feared talking about his religious beliefs during his time in Downing Street would lead to people dismissing him as a “nutter”.

But he said he regretted he had not been more adventurous in referring to his own faith while he was prime minister.…

Mountains and why we love them

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Well, it’s off to Zermatt with my son David for some skiing early in the New Year. I’ve visited that gorgeous Swiss resort a few times now with various members of the family, but this will be the first time in the middle of winter, with lots and lots of snow to play in.

When I’m not dreaming of skiing in the mountains in winter, I’m dreaming of walking in them in the summer. Which brings me to a fascinating account of mountain-climbing by that redoubtable evangelical apologist, J.…