Do you remember the story in Genesis 19 of the family of the righteous man Lot who lives in the wicked city of Sodom? Angels visit, as the evening draws down, coming to Lot in the gate of the city and finding hospitality in his home. In the night the…
The problem with blessing is, above all, a practical one. It’s about living in a particular kind of relationship with the world into which I’ve been thrown. Well, ‘world’ is a bit abstract. No one ever has a relationship with ‘the world’. Let’s say ‘neighbourhood’ and mean…
It’s hard to define ‘Blessing’. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this as well. It troubles me. On my better days, it feels like the kind of thing I’d very much like to do: put my hand on someone and bless them. > By faith Isaac blessed…
I’m reading through Ezekiel at the moment in parallel with a series we’re doing at our church. I’ve taken Robert Jenson’s commentary on Ezekiel in the Brazos series along for the ride (I picked it up for $5 at Koorong). I’ve been working through his…
> The woman conceived and gave birth to a son at the same time the following year, as Elisha had promised her. The child grew and one day went out to his father and the harvesters. Suddenly he complained to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told his servant,…
Consider my enemies; they are numerous, and they hate me violently. Psalm 25:19 But my enemies are vigorous and powerful; many hate me for no reason. Psalm 38:19 One of the most strange and estranging experiences of life in our age is the absence of enemies. At least,…
> I know for certain that God teaches me, because I have experienced it: and to prevent misunderstanding, this is what I mean when I say that I know for certain that God teaches me. When I was younger, I gave myself overmuch to human teaching, like others of my day,…
[http://andersonpost.org/2007/05/19/city-light/city-light/]‘If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, blessed shalt thou be in the city’ (Deuteronomy 28:2,3). ‘The city is full of care, and he who has to go there from day to day finds it…