In writing this blog, I searched for an online version of the Bible that is both visually appealing and easy to read as I wanted the ability to offer any readers a place where they could go to read the Bible, or at least one of the gospels.
Continue reading “Extreme generosity and certain wastefulness in the sowing”Where is Jesus to be found?
We often talk about seeking God, and of finding him. Of searching for him, and of longing for him. Oh, how I long to find him, to see him, to touch him. I long for the day that I will see him face to face. (See the end of this post for a list of our previous posts that have touched on this topic). Oddly enough, though, in the context of those thoughts, I have not often given much consideration to the following verses. But over the past few days, these are the words I have been pondering. These words of Jesus have echoed in my heart and reverberated in my mind.
Continue reading “Where is Jesus to be found?”To begin to comprehend the incomprehensible
Who is God? How are we even to begin to think about him? Is there somewhere, somehow, to unravel the vastness of the seemingly incomprehensible? God can so easily seem distant, severe, austere and disapproving. But where do we begin if we really have no idea what or who this God, followed by millions for millennia, is?
Continue reading “To begin to comprehend the incomprehensible”The God of the impossible
I wonder if God has ever spoken the impossible to you. If he has given you a word, a picture, a vision, or a verse that was unmistakably from him. Where you were so sure that it was from His mouth and no other you could have bet your very life on it.
But then you look at your life, you look at the circumstances that surround you, and you question your sanity. You question your certainty. You doubt whether God could ever say something like that, to you.
Continue reading “The God of the impossible”Is there a formula for the spiritual life?
I wonder if often we distil our relationship with God into a transactional relationship? If we develop a formula for the spiritual life? We listen to God, we read our Bible, and we do what he says. But is there a danger in such thinking? We can come to understand God as a slot machine – I ask him for something, he gives me an answer; I listen to him, he tells me what to do – and we can forget that there is more. God is not looking for robots who simply do his will. He wants children.
Continue reading “Is there a formula for the spiritual life?”The call of the cross
Perhaps your heart echoes mine; you too long to live your life speaking to God face to face, as a friend, like Moses (see the previous post). And yet maybe you feel overwhelmed and do not know where to begin. Take heart, we are not left to stumble in the dark. We do not have a God who lets his children loose on the world and then watches them from afar in some sort of macabre comedy, to which the only ending is death. In contrast, we have a God who entered and enters in. Who is not far away, but rather is closer than our breath.
Continue reading “The call of the cross”