Joshua/Jesus (יהושע) – Yes, these names are one and the same! And we think the Spanish odd for naming their little ones Jesus… Or is it because of names such as Jesús-María and Mariá-José? Anyway… Jesus/Joshua means “the LORD is salvation”. Salvation is through Jesus! In this name, yehoshua, we actually see another version of the abbreviated form for yhwh. … More Hebrew Names: Joshua/Jesus
John Stott writes in Authentic Christianity: “The Christian understanding of the Bible is essentially a trinitarian understanding. The Bible comes from God, centres on Christ and is inspired by the Holy Spirit. So the best definition of the Bible is also trinitarian: ‘the Bible is the witness of the Father to the Son through the … More The Trinitarian Bible
Will Mackerras delivers his fantastic Christmas Poem in a serene Aussie setting. Check out his site The Banjo Bible and this site where you’ll find some more samples of his CD that is soon to launch!
Here is Glen Scrivener’s brilliant ‘Anti-Santy Ranty‘ from his blog:
Here is my Easter sermon of 24th April this year 2011. It is my 2nd sermon ever preached. This time I thought I’d do it without notes and ‘just’ follow the text. So this time there is no script, just the audio. The first time it was the opposite. The text is awesome!, of course. … More Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12
For Christians today the answer is simple: 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) 9because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, … More How are we saved?
The first word of the Bible is בראשית. This word is made up of two morphemes, ב meaning ‘in’ and ראשית meaning ‘beginning’. Taking a closer look at the word for ‘beginning’ we see that it has the same root (basic consonants) as the word for head, ראש. This is a natural use in many … More Head= Beginning= Jesus
I’ve been wanting for some time to write something about the Bible’s connection between the heart and the mouth. Here are some relevant passages: We have seen this one in a previous post on psalm 141: 3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! 4 Do … More Heart and Mouth
Summer jobs and travel has got the better of blogging for a while… Thought I’d might warm up for the autumn term: Here is another post on obedience, see also this. Proverbs 28:9: If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. Or as the TNIV interprets it: … More Christian Life: Obedience to the Word
This is the Glorious Gospel (good news) which this blog is all about: 16“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. The verse above is written in the book of the Jesus’ disciple John, chapter 3 and verse 16 … More The Glorious Gospel
Prov. 1:23 (TNIV): 23 Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings. It is only as we repent from our sin – our evil thoughts, words and deeds that we can receive the word of God in to our lives. Once we … More “Repent at my rebuke!”
Reading J. I. Packer’s God has Spoken I came across this from an argument for the necessity of verbal revelation: True as it is that the incarnate Christ was not only God for man but also Man for God and that in Him we not only hear God speaking but also watch God blessing and … More God has Spoken
We have earlier looked at how revelation is trinitarian, and how this is apparent in the Old Testament. Paul Blackham held this sermon one Trinity Sunday. What follows here is similar to it. Isaiah 48: 12“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am … More The Roles of the Trinity in OT
We have earlier looked at what Jesus says about this in another Gospel. Here is Matt 15:17-20: 17Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19For out of the heart … More Psalm 141
What we call the ‘Old Testament’, consisting of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings is the foundational Scripture of Judaism. It is also the foundational Scripture of Christianity. As Jerusalem was sacked in 70 AD the Temple of the LORD was destroyed and the means and place vanished where Jews could have upheld the … More A Case for Christianity
The following has appeared elsewhere, so I apologize for any repetitions. This post continues to argue the importance of the Old Testament for Christians. Approaching the OT Is approaching the Old Testament in light of Jesus just another ‘reading’ of the Old Testament? Are we awarding meaning to the biblical text? In the 70’s Marxism was … More Reading OT in the Light of What?
This verse is a Christological gold mine. This is how the TNIV translates it: I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your unfailing love and your faithfulness, for you have so exalted your solemn decree that it surpasses your fame. What is so Jesus-centred about that?, you may … More Psalm 138:2
This post is highly related to yesterday’s post. Jesus to the Pharisees in Mark 7.11-13: But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”‘ (that is, given to God) then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, … More Paralyzing Interpretation of Scripture
Although I’m not an experienced preacher, my recent debut makes me think about preaching. I believe that there is a principle with regards to preaching that cannot be emphasised enough. I think this is the kind of thing that is obvious for some and shockingly provocative for others. The whole Bible, Old and New Testament, … More Preacher’s Primary Principle
Ascension Day last Thursday – how glorious! It is glorious for many reasons, one reason is that Sweden – the worlds most secular country – actually seems slightly holy in that Ascension Day is a public holiday here… For what it is worth for Sweden… We were reading the text that Rev. Paul Blackham calls the ‘obvious ascension … More Ascension Day
Here is the outline of my first Sunday sermon ever, preached yesterday. What a privilege – God is good! The reading was Luke 7:36-50: _____________ Last week we heard about how the Pharisees and the experts of the Law stumbled on account of Jesus and did not accept him because their expectations of him did not … More Christian Love – The Response to Sins Forgiven
The LORD calls Samuel during the night but Samuel thinks it’s Eli calling. This is repeated three times until Eli realises that the LORD is calling the boy. Then it says in 1 Sam. 3:7: Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to … More Trinitarian Revelation (Uncovering the Word of God)
This verse spoke to me afresh a while ago (Mark 7.20): And he [Jesus] said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. I’ve always taken this to mean the direction of that which defiles us, and also the fact that it is not primarily the physical that defiles us but the non-physical, i.e. … More The Threat From Within
Here is a lovely passage from psalm 85.11: Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. Parallelisms such as this one is used in Biblical Hebrew poetry to indicate when two things are connected in some way. But, what is the link? Righteousness belongs to heaven, granted – but one does not readily … More The God-Man of Psalm 85:11
Judges 8:4-8 teaches us something of what the writer of Hebrews is talking about in chapter 11 verse 1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”: And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. … More God Always Delivers – Trust Him
Gen 45:7: But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. These words of Joseph could have been spoken by Jesus. Paul writes to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:20) : But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, … More Joseph, the Firstfruits and the Remnant
2 Kings 1.7: NIV: The king asked them, What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this? The Hebrew wording in this verse reveals some interesting details of how the language is connected to a deeper Gospel reality. The Hebrew literally has it: “What [was] the judgement of the … More Judging Character in Hebrew
The Old Testament is all about Jesus. For some Christians this may be no news, but for others it may be as revolutionizing and energizing as it was for me once and still is today. The Apostle Peter says in Acts 10.43: All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness … More Old Testament is preaching the Gospel
Judges 7:2: The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her This OT passage is a very practical example of what the Lord tells Paul the Apostle, alluded to in the title … More “My Strenght is Made Perfect in Weakness”
Some cunning questions on Gen. 35: 1. Where did Rachel die? 2. What was she doing when she died? 3. What did she call her son? 4. What did his father re-name him? Answers: 1. Near Bethlehem 2. Gave birth 3. Son of my suffering (Benoni) 4. Son of my right hand (Benjamin) Near (or in) … More Rachel preaching Jesus
This is an awesome formulation by Paul Blackham of the Biblical definition of sin: Sin is any and every action or thought or word or desire that opposes the actions, thoughts, words and desires of the most holy God who made us and will judge us. Our attitude to Jesus reveals how we stand because … More What is sin?
Judges 2.10-13: After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought … More Pass It On
God delivering on his promise is literally letting his Word come. … More “When Your Word Comes”
The Glorious Gospel 