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God before ages becomes an infant!

...power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused, and spreads on every side, a heavenly way of life has been ‘in planted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and men now hold speech with angels.Why is this? Because God is now on earth, and man in heaven; on every side all things commingle. He became Flesh. He did not become God. He was God. Wherefore He became flesh, so that He Whom heaven did not contain, a manger would this day receive. He was placed in a manger, so that He, by whom all things arc nourished, may...

Lent: Day 2 - Mathetes to Diognetus, pt. 1

...re put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life Leave your thoughts in the comments below!...

Lent: Day 7 - Ignatius to the Trallians

...impending death again for the sake of the Gospel, and in doing so leads into a defence against Docetism. This heresy, or that of Judaizers, comes up in every letter, which goes to show that even this early on, Christians were really up against it all having to defend the truth of the Gospel from every direction. Because of the nature of the Docetic beliefs — that Jesus wasn’t really manifest in the flesh but was rather an illusion, Ignatius gives us a nice run down of the life and passion of Jesus, which really focusses on his physical nature. Like John wrote so clearly in his Gospel: “the Word became flesh”, Ignatius writes a similar summary of the G...

The Reality of Sin

...kness and death (1 Cor 11:30)! Sin is a serious business that we often take such a lackadaisical attitude towards, to our own destruction. This is a topic that could be laboured more, but I’m going to close here with the same appeal to you as Paul gives to the Roman church, and the reminder Peter gives to us about ourselves before God, and our relation to him. Really read and meditate on these verses and let them sink in as the Holy Spirit speaks to you and brings a deeper revelation of God to you through this reality and what he expects of us as his children: Romans 12:1I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present yo...

Lent, Lament and Lockdown

...Lent is a time of self denial and of giving things up, and also a period of lament in the lead up to Easter where we remember the Passion and death of Christ before we celebrated the glorious resurrection.  Often this is a personal affair on the discipline side of things, even if it's a practice shared within your church community, but this year has been so very different. With the outbreak of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, the whole world has slowly gone into lockdown country by country, creating a strange sort of global “Lent” where everyone is having to practice self control and self denial. This has been underpinned with a sense of lament at the way thi...

The Deity of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew - Part 2

...the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and how he accomplished his task of securing salvation for his people as predicted (Matthew 1:21). The gospel was written after his ascension. Matthew has one final question to ask. Having come closer to us than ever before and fulfilling his purpose, especially after predicting the destruction of the second temple, has Jesus left us? This is answered with a resounding “no!”; Jesus promised before ascending to heaven that he would always be with his people, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20); “…behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Just as Solomon realised, the presence of God is not...