I’d started putting this blog together under the title of ‘A Matter of Death and Life’, looking at the importance of Jesus’ Resurrection. That happened to be the title of the sermon on Easter Sunday, together with the same passage (1 Corinthians 15)! So, to avoid the charge of plagiarism, I’ve changed the title! 🙂 ‘Of First Importance’ refers to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, because that is the event on which the whole Christian faith stands or falls. Take…
When Moses first encountered God in the burning bush, God ‘introduced’ himself in terms that would have been familiar to Moses, namely that he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This will have reminded Moses of his history, and that of the Jews, how God had called Abraham and his offspring to be his people and promised to give them a land. God reinforced that by saying he had seen how his people were suffering, and that he…
It’s a familiar story. Moses – escapes the infanticide of a deranged king but ends up being raised by that king’s daughter. 40 years as a prince in Egypt until he has to escape the king and spend the next 40 years tending sheep (a Hebrew occupation despised by the Egyptians). An 80 year prelude to one of the most significant days in history. Theologians call it a theophany, a visible manifestation of God. Moses doesn’t release this at first. What…
When we first went into lockdown, churches across the UK were required to stop physically meeting together, along with all other places where people would congregate. At the time, across the wider church community, there were those who challenged this. The challenge was on the basis of Hebrews 10:25 “not neglecting to meet together”. The reasons for not meeting physically were simple: to have done so would have broken the law; would have put members of the congregation at serious…
Christmas is here again, and despite the commercialism and organising that goes with it, I love it. Especially the music – I have taken part in Christmas musical events ever since I was a young choirboy! Of course, the most familiar music is carols. I have always enjoyed them, perhaps just playing them once a year is enough to keep them interesting without becoming boring! One of the signs of a good piece of music is how long it lasts,…
I’d not long been a Christian when I found myself sat in a house with a student group. The person giving a talk would occasionally mention a Bible reference, then point to someone and ask them to quote it. I was terrified! What if he asked me? And where was I – in a group of spiritual giants! Fortunately, I didn’t get picked on, and I later found out why. After the meeting I asked how come everyone seemed to…
My daily Bible Studies have just started 2 Corinthians. This is a natural progression from 1 Corinthians, however it’s not quite that simple. It seems that Paul wrote the first letter after his visit there in order to answer some questions and address some issues. Things weren’t going well though, so he paid them a second visit. This was apparently ‘painful’, so much so that he did not immediately want to go back in case it caused more pain. So…
As a child I used to love going to the cinema (and still do!). It was always a great family outing which didn’t stop once the film was over. On the way hame and for a time afterwards we’d go over our favourite bits of the film: “I liked the bit where…”, “What about when…”, “Do you remember…” and so on. It was a great part of the whole experience and to keep it going we’d end up repeating the…
There seems to be a lot of talk about anxiety these days. People refer to ‘their anxieties’, and the lockdown certainly won’t have helped. But I don’t think this is anything particularly new. I remember my grandparents talking about how they worried about things. This was often related to activities my brother and I would get up to (“ooh we did worry about you”), reaching a climax when I ended up in hospital – they wrote me a letter saying…
I found out something quite interesting recently. In the musical Les Misérables the main character, Jean Valjean, is trying to come to terms with his past as a former criminal with a well know song ‘Who am I?’. He concludes the song with a reference to his prison number 24601. Apparently that number was a way for Victor Hugo to identify himself with Valjean, as it refers to the date on which Hugo believed he had been conceived – 24th June 1801. In…