Posted in Faith, tagged Andrew Peterson, Christianity, Easter, faith, Hosanna, Jesus, music, Palm Sunday, resurrection, Resurrection Letters Vol II, YouTube on 15 April, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Regular readers know that I’m a big fan of Andrew Peterson’s Christmas album, Behold the Lamb. This week I came across his Palm Sunday song ‘Hosanna’ from his 2008 album Resurrection Letters Vol II (Vol I is apparently still in the pipeline). Enjoy.
You have crushed beneath your heel the vile serpent.
You have carried to the grave the black stain.
You have torn apart the temple’s curtain.
You have beaten death at death’s own game.
Posted in Faith, tagged Bible, biblical research, Cambridge, Christianity, cross, David Instone-Brewer, death, Easter, evidence, experts, Jesus, Jewish, manuscript, Munich Talmud, Peter Williams, resurrection, Tyndale House, video, YouTube on 5 April, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Tyndale House, the biblical research centre in Cambridge, have produced three short video clips for Easter, with biblical scholars talking about evidence for Jesus’ trial, death and resurrection. One of the clips, where David Instone-Brewer and Peter Williams are looking at the Munich Talmud, was something I’d never heard about before – a very early Jewish manuscript tradition which speaks of the charges that were brought against Jesus. Fascinating.
Posted in Faith, tagged chaos, Christianity, clergy wives, conference, earthquake, faith, God, gospel gap, Japan, Jesus, LORD, meaning, Ministers wives, Proclamation Trust, PT, stress, tsunami, vicars wifes, who is the LORD? on 14 March, 2011| Leave a Comment »
So I’m back from the PT Ministers Wives Conference. I arrived home on Thursday afternoon last week full of beans. This year the conference was rather less densely packed with sessions than previously, so I felt I’d had lots of time to digest the excellent bible teaching (of which more in another post later).
A key phrase came home with me – from a seminar I attended on ‘Bridging the Gospel Gap – Applying the Gospel to ourselves and others’. That phrase was ‘Who is the LORD (in this situation)?’ In the seminar we thought through a fairly trivial example – how we would react when stuck in traffic on the way to get test results from the doctor’s, considering how our reactions under stress indicate who or what is most important in our lives.
I’m so pleased I’d learnt that, as I came home to a couple of tough situations, both personally and in the parish. I am so grateful to have been prepared by God to remember that He is sovereign in everything. My small challenges are nothing, of course, to those faced by many, and this week the situation in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami puts my life’s gentle meander into perspective. But the truth that God is the LORD in everything helps me to trust him in my minor situations and not be ruled by them. And that truth helps me to pray for Japan and the people there as they mourn and as they search for meaning in the chaos.
Posted in Faith, tagged 66, 66 clouds, Bible, bible books, Christ, Christianity, Church, faith, scripture, sixty-six, video, visualisation, whole bible, word cloud, wordle, YouTube on 4 March, 2011| 4 Comments »
Just saw these wonderful video clips from 66 Clouds. They show wordles – word frequency pictures – of every book in the Bible and another of the whole Bible. Fantastic! They also do posters, but the cost of shipping to the UK might be prohibitive – maybe worth enquiring though, eh?
First the whole bible:
And here are all the books in order:
[HT: Dan Green]
Posted in Church, tagged Advent, Christianity, Christmas, Christmas tree, Church, date, faith, Fun, poll on 30 November, 2010| 11 Comments »
A small debate began on Twitter last night that I thought I’d like to expand. When do you put your Christmas tree up? Is it a symbol of Advent or of Christmas itself?
My family were always pretty disorganised and the tree would not go up until Christmas Eve. Although since the Twitter discussion, where there some pretty strong proponents of Christmas Eve tree decorating, I’m not sure that it was only because of disorganisation.
Since I got married, in a spirit of marital compromise (the Vicar comes from an early tree family), the tree has gone up earlier, and now the official date is as soon as we’ve bought our tree (always real, natch) and as early as possible after the Engineer’s birthday, which is 5th December. So this year, we may spend the afternoon of the Engineer’s birthday purchasing the tree, and possibly even decorating it.
I’m actually quite keen on having the tree up early now. I enjoy having the twinkling lights up through Advent, and especially since we have festive events in the Vicarage. We also have our Jesse Tree, of course, to take the kids through the story of the first Advent of Christ. And the nearer to Christmas, the bigger the flap in the Vicarage. It’s a busy season for Vicars, you know…
So what do you think? Leave a comment if you’d like to explain!
Posted in Books, Faith, tagged A Foot in Two Worlds, book group, Christianity, Church, church growth, discipleship, faith, homegroups, John Chapman, nurture, reading, small groups on 5 October, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Last week I blogged enthusiastically about John Chapman’s book ‘A Foot in Two Worlds’ and mentioned how I’d be discussing it that evening with a new group. But as is the way of things, two out of the three group members couldn’t make it, so we cancelled. So we’ll be trying again tonight , and I’ve managed to recruit one more member and although one person still can’t make it, I’m hoping that we’ll at least have a go. There should be four of us. I’ll report again afterwards.
The Vicar is keen to start more small groups in the church, as even in a small church like ours it is hard to get to know people well. Our community is tightknit and some people have known each other for many years, some even from school days. So when newcomers join us, it can be very difficult for them to get close to the church family. Small groups are a great place for that to happen, and for young believers to be nurtured and discipled. I’m praying that this group proves to be a productive engine room of growth.
Posted in Faith, Uncategorized, tagged A Foot in Two Worlds, book group, book review, Chappo, Christian life, Christianity, faith, John Chapman, joys, reading, struggles, study on 28 September, 2010| 1 Comment »
I’m a bit of a fits and starts reader when it comes to ‘proper’ books. My mother says I have ‘narrative hunger’, which means I will read a crisp packet just to keep words flowing through my head. These days the internet seems to fill that gap, and my reading of books has dropped off. But this summer I really enjoyed getting back to real reading and I’m hoping to continue this pattern as the holidays become a dim memory.
The Lord must have known my need to read, and not just read escapist fiction, and so somehow I have ended up convening a small study group of women from our church, two of whom were confirmed just the other weekend. Looking around for a confirmation gift for them, I came across a fairly new book by Australian evangelist John Chapman.
‘Chappo’ is a wonderfully engaging and straightforward communicator and I’ve loved listening to him (sermon tapes on holiness and evangelism) and reading his books (especially ‘Know and Tell the Gospel’) over the years. The book I chose for our friends – and then this little group – is called ‘A Foot in Two Worlds’. Its subtitle is ‘The Joy and Struggle of the Normal Christian Life’.
I’m now two chapters in, and I thought I’d try and summarise my reading on the blog, so I can be really clear when I lead our discussion tonight. The book very helpfully comes with a discussion guide at the back, which is a great boon for my fuzzy head.
The book has only seven chapters, and with the first and last chapters being introduction and summary. This means we should be able to finish it over five sessions, which I think is a manageable course length.
Chapter 1: Christianity is not for wimps
Chappo begins with the joys of the Christian life, reminding us that when we become Christians, God forgets our past, giving us continuous forgiveness and sending the Holy Spirit to live with us.
But he also gives us the full picture:
Right from the beginning, I also found living as a Christian much more difficult than I had imagined… Some days I felt overwhelmed. It seemed an endless grind…
He describes us as ‘people with a foot in two worlds’:
We have one foot firmly planted in this world and, at the same time, one foot planted in the world to come, where everything is perfect.
Chapter 2: This Present World
In his second chapter, Chappo helps us to think about the fallen world we live in, remembering how it is good but fallen, firstly with a brief sweep through Genesis 1-3. He also has a good section on the devil, giving some nicely alliterating points about the Father of Lies:
So he summarises
This…world. While it is good, it isn’t good enough. I am meant to be dissatisfied. Thankfully that isn’t all there is.
I am very much looking forward to discussing this with our little group. Chappo doesn’t shy away from the difficulties of the Christian life, but nor does he ignore its joys. There’s lots to talk about here.
Posted in Faith, tagged Bible, Christianity, Colossians 2, faith, Northern Women's Convention, scripture reading, sermon, Thabiti Anyabwile on 9 September, 2010| 2 Comments »
We had a helpful sermon series on Colossians earlier in the year, and I’m looking forward to hearing Lizzy Smallwood speak from the same book at the Northern Women’s Convention on 9th October. In the meantime, this is a brilliant reminder of the riches of Chapter 2.
[HT Dan Green]
Posted in Faith, Fun, tagged 1 minute, Christ Fellowship, Christianity, faith, gospel, Jesus, sermon, summary, Tamara Lowe, YouTube on 19 August, 2010| 4 Comments »
This lady’s summary of the gospel made me smile the other day – and only 1 minute 43 seconds! I wonder if there’s a British equivalent?
She’s called Tamara Lowe, from Christ Fellowship, a church in Palm Beach.
[HT Debbie Andrew via Facebook]
Posted in Fun, tagged Christianity, Fun, Goodness Gracious Me, humour, Indian, Vicarage on 16 August, 2010| 2 Comments »
One of our favourite tv programmes used to be Goodness Gracious Me. This clip is one I only came across fairly recently – a very appropriate Vicarage theme.
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The Vicar's Wife 