All Things Seen & Unseen

I've realised that I'm probably not good at hearing what God wants to tell me particularly when the Word comes to me head-on. (Although maybe I'm being unduly hard on myself. I don't know.) In any case, just recently the Lord 'whispered' into my ear on two occasions. The second time involved our priest/pastor who was talking about the rifts in the Anglican Church among the different brands of churchmanship. She had a burden to promote more unity among the groups. When I asked her further about this issue betraying in the process my allegiance to one of the groups she said lightly (my paraphrase): 'What's important is that the gospel is preached!' That gentle word brought me up short. I realised as I began to think about this comment that much of my life and that of my family's life had been nurtured in difference. First, I was raised in a Pentecostalist family in the 1950s and 60s. Second, even this difference was intensified further by ...

I don't know how often I've seen or heard the words of Jesus 'the truth shall set you free' quoted out of context. They are sometimes even used by those who have no commitment to Christ at all but even Christians forget or neglect to look carefully at the background in which the words occurs. The words quoted are lifted out of a long conversation (Jn 8.30-59) Jesus had with those 'who believed him' (v. 31). And for at least two reasons, they are often misapplied. First, these words were primarily directed to those 'who believed him'. In other words, a group of budding disciples of Jesus. They had listened to his words in the preceding interaction with the Pharisees (Jn 8.13-29) and these led them to believe in Him (v. 30). The quoted words are preceded by Jesus saying to these new believers, If you abide in My word, you are my disciples indeed . And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free (Jn 8.31-32). If you abide in My word a...

I know I've already spoken about this theme in reference to first part of John ch2. But the same three interwoven strands of SIGN-GLORY-BELIEF appear again in the pericope of the Cleansing of the Temple (Jn 2.13-22). This occurrence invites a further look at this triad. The sign is less obvious but it's still there because the Jews ask Jesus 'what sign do you show [us] given that you're doing these things [driving out the money changers from the temple]?' Jesus gives them the sign of his resurrection: 'Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up' (Jn 2.19). They don't understand and significantly neither do the disciples! The disciples only understand after Jesus is resurrected and the text says that the disciples remembered what He had said on this occasion, they believed the scripture and they believed the word which Jesus had said (Jn 2.22). In this case, some 3 years elapsed before the disciples became more mature belie...