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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...

Lent: Day 5 - Ignatius to the Ephesians

Day Five: St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Ephesians (full text) Who: Ignatius converted at a young age and later became Bishop of Antioch. A friend of Polycarp and fellow disciple of John, there is a long standing tradition that Ignatius was the child that Jesus held in his arms and blessed in Mark 10:13-16 What: The letter has a strong call to and for unity within the church, along with respect for their bishop. Why: Ignatius wrote a series of letters to the churches in Asia Minor whilst en route to Rome to face martyrdom by wild beasts in the Colosseum around 108 AD. When: Around 107-108 AD There is a strong theme to this letter from the outset, an...

Has Brexit just spoiled “End Times” prophecy?

Has "Brexit" just spoiled “End Times” prophecy?   In a word, no.   Unless of course you are of a Dispensationalist view, then this sudden exit from the European Union by Britain will have caused you some theological holes you may feel the need to patch up. There’s already been some satire articles posted in light of this, highlighting the errors of Dispensationalism and its main adherents tendency to interpret Biblical prophecy by the current News headlines. One such article, by The Babylon Bee, poked fun at the current events by writing that “premillenial dispensationalists around the world held emergency meetings Friday morning, frantically adj...

Coffee with Jesus: John 1

Brief Thoughts From Daily Devotions I’m sure we’re all familiar with John 1, especially the first few verses: John 1:1–2In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Sometimes I think we can become so familiar with a Biblical text that we can forget or gloss over the rest of it, or what comes after and around it. Similar to the other famous John verse, John 3:16. After reading all of John 1 today, I was struck again with just how much theology John packs into such a short space in the opening paragraphs (...

Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up (Book Review)

Straight off, this book will challenge you in your thinking and quite possibly in your practice and outworking of life as a Christian—especially if you are from an evangelical/Baptist/non-denominational background. Will the Real HereticsPlease Stand Up The book starts of taking you carefully through some of the practices and beliefs of the early church and those who kNew the Apostles personally. It all feels very hopeful and like you're being led onward in a journey towards a certain goal, much of which I'm sure you'll find agreeable in what Bercot points out as discrepancies between early Christianity and today. Then we get to a few points about the Re...

Understanding the Ultimate Ransom

I recently made a video doing a response to something the televangelist “prosperity gospel” preacher Jesse Duplantis said in one of his recent videos. He was using Psalm 49:16 as a proof-text to say it’s ok that he is super wealthy, but clearly missing the context of the whole Psalm as it is speaking against those who boast and trust in their riches! Here’s the video if you want to watch it, it’s only 1:57 long (don’t forget to subscribe to me on YouTube or TikTok as that’s where I’m posting a lot more of my content recently):   But this did get me thinking about something to do with what Jesus said in his ministry and how his sacrifice ful...