Innocent by association Holy Trinity Church Huddersfield, Sunday 17 March 2019 40 Blogs of Lent: 11 We awoke to a day of bright sunshine, but there was heavy hail during breakfast which thankfully was much lighter and by the time we had walked to church had turned to snow. The trip back was cold but …
Names of God – part 50: Father
Ab Names of God - part 50 Father 40 Blogs of Lent: 10 Some Christians think that the concept of a Father God was introduced by Jesus, that God our Father has no history before that. But it would be a mistake to think that. Ab, the Hebrew name for father, and used to mean …
Matthew’s Gospel: …and healing
Matthew's Gospel: ...and healing 40 Blogs of Lent: 9 Matthew 4: 23-25 Here comes the change from being an obscure preacher to becoming a famous one: Healing. Jesus healed and his fame spread. Signs and wonders accompanying the preaching of the Gospel was a big thing in the ministry of Jesus. The Gospel writers noted …
Matthew’s Gospel: Team Jesus
Matthew's Gospel: Team Jesus 40 Blogs of Lent: 8 Matthew 4:18-22 Jesus has been preaching repentance for a year, and it is time to move on to part two of his ministry. The first stage is to assemble his team. The first stage of that is to hand pick the team leaders, Two pairs …
Matthew’s Gospel: Repent
Matthew's Gospel: Repent 40 Blogs of Lent: 7 Matthew 3:12-17 Jesus having been baptised by John in the Jordan, and having spent time in the wilderness confronting the devil now starts his ministry: Matthew always provides a link to what has gone before, here the link is that Jesus' ministry started like that of John, …
Matthew’s Gospel: Temptation
Matthew’s Gospel: Temptation 40 Blogs of Lent: 6 Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus is tempted by the Devil in the wilderness and overcomes his tempter during a period of fasting. The temptations are something happening during the time of fasting, everything is concurrent, it is not meant to be sequential, All of this happens, possibly more than …
A blessing and a crowd
Windows on the cross 1: Busy church Holy Trinity Church Huddersfield, 10 March 2019 40 blogs of Lent: 5 We arrived at church later than usual, about five minutes before the service was about to start, and it took a while to get through the inner door for not the sanctuary those who were arriving …
Names of God – part 49: Lord
Adonai Names of God - part 49: Lord 40 Blogs of Lent: 4 Now we are into stand-alone names for God, without the prefix El or YHWH. The first of these is Adonai, which translates as Lord. No small capitals here this is not a representative of Gid's actual holy name, this word is one …
Matthew’s Gospel: The baptism of Jesus
Matthew's Gospel: The baptism of Jesus 40 Blogs of Lent: 3 Yesterday's blog was about John the Baptist and his link between the Old Testament and Jesus. Now the narrative switches to Jesus. Jesus comes to John for baptism. John's baptism is all about repentance, and John recognises that Jesus does not need to repent. …
Matthew’s Gospel: John the Baptist
Matthew's Gospel: John the Baptist 40 Blogs of Lent: Day 2 Matthew 3:1-12 We know more about John the Baptist from Luke's Gospel, but also from the Jewish historian Josephus, who said: [John] who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards …