Pentecost: The birthday of the Church Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com 1 Pentecost is known as the birthday of the Church Pentecost is known as the birthday of the Church. The Church did not start with Jesus' birth, resurrection or ascension but when the Holy Spirit was poured out on Jesus' followers. 2 The Holy …
Category: God
Looking forward to a redeemed world – Psalm 96
The 4th book of Psalms Psalm 96 is a song of triumph, not only for God's present victory in bringing the people out of exile but also to God's final victory when the whole Earth is redeemed. The silhouette of small hills across a bay. Above is a red and god sky of a sunset, …
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Where was God in this part 7: Joshua and genocide
The level of the genocide in the book of Joshua is not as bad as you would think. Compare this with book of Ruth: A foreign woman gives up the practices of her country, takes on the culture and religion of another country, Israel, and becomes the great-grandmother of that countries greatest king, David. A …
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The Lord is a great King – Psalm 95
The 4th book of Psalms I am familiar with this psalm. It is one of the canticles in the service of Morning Prayer in the Church of England, and is called the Venite, exultemus Domino or simply the Venite, which is the beginning of the psalm in Latin. It is used as a call to …
The meaning of the ascension of Jesus
A blog post for ascension day The East Window at Holy Trinity Huddersfield, the top section depicting Jesus ascending into a cloud watched by the eleven apostles. 6 When they were together for the last time they asked, “Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? Is this the time?”7-8 He told them, “You …
Cry out against oppression: Psalm 94
The 4th book of Psalms The first rule of public speaking or writing is "Do not insult your audience." To that end we do not say, "You are wrong," but we signal that we will not entertain the other person's opinion by saying, "let us agree to disagree," closing down any debate. This psalm is …
Why are you a Christian if society does not reward it?
"Religion promotes faith over science and logic," say the atheists, "it promotes wars, bloodshed and intolerance." Clearly nonsense, I say, and I challenge them with this: If you are going to say that what you believe is based on reason and ours is not you must first come up with something that us reasonable. The idea that Science …
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The promise of the rainbow: Psalm 93
The 4th book of Psalms Floods are becoming more widespread. It is to be expected as a a sign of global warming on a planet whose surface is 71% water covered: Warmer temperatures means that more vapour evaporates from the oceans and more rain condenses to fall on the land. At the same time, higher …
An all-inclusive community
Dallas Willard writes that: "The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with Himself included in that community as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant." I have seen that quote and love it. But it is good to look at it in come sort of context. …
This is a song to sing on Saturday – Psalm 92
The 4th book of Psalms Oh dear, oh dear. I have been down one of those rabbit warrens of the internet seeing if my first impressions of this psalm matched with what other people have said, and it does not match up. The problem with being an Evangelical is that other Evangelicals of a more …
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Making an ass of myself 