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Category - Discourse

Discourse

Challenging the Narrative

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Book Review

Sarah and Her Doppelgangers

She was a complex character. She gave her husband permission to get with her maid, but turned and blamed him ...

The Void At The Core Of Being

Amy Biehl had been on a Fulbright scholarship working on projects to facilitate democracy and social justice in South Africa. ...

The Faithful Hedonist

Oskar Schindler was a faithful hedonist. This paradox was right up the biblical alley. He was a man to whom ...

Treasure In Earthen Vessels

“He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He ...

Faith Seeking Understanding (2) – A Fellowship of The Spirit

The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.[1]Proverbs 21:16  In ...

Faith Seeking Understanding – Decoding Divine Mysteries

Wisdom is the principal thing. Get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding.[1]Psalm 4:7  Asaph unleashed upon the making ...

Man in the Mirror

In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, Thebes is overcome by a plague. The oracle reveals that a murder and an incestuous relationship ...

The Trouble With Theodicy

“If God is unable to prevent evil, then he is not all-powerful. If God is not willing to prevent evil, ...

On Vice and Virtue – a Tale of Two Servants

They told on him. He’d been bad. He was wasteful, said some. Unjust, posted others. His boss was having none ...

The Goliath Trilogy: A Divine Prop

A Divine Prop There was the legend of the stick that turned into a snake, a bosom that made hands ...

The Goliath Trilogy: The Shaken Leaf

The Shaken Leaf As the children of Israel journeyed from Egypt to Canaan, they overcame large armies and defied nature. ...

The Goliath Trilogy: The Blind God

The Blind God Going by the first words that Goliath spoke to David, you knew it wouldn’t take a ‘David’ ...

God’s Sleeping Partner

Joseph was God’s ‘sleeping’ partner, literally. Moses had the burning bush and Saul, the road to Damascus. But for the ...

Who Is Rich?

“Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody,” said Benjamin Franklin. Wrong, says the Bible, and so ...

Marry… for the Sake of Heaven

“For it is better to marry than to burn,” [1]1 Corinthians 7:9 Apostle Paul wrote in response to questions the ...

Rediscovering Purpose

Purpose. A word that often troubles every human being at some point in their lives. Who am I? What am ...

Ye are gods

John Claypool draws on a medieval fable to illustrate, amongst other things, how circumstances often subvert our sense of self. ...

Issachar’s Sixth Sense

They came from all Israel. Scripture called them “mighty men of valour”. A few thousands from here, several thousands from ...

Love by Obedience

What is love? Is it a euphoric feeling? An emotion? Or is it something that requires that little bit more. ...

Habits of the Heart

God is in a choke hold. The Almighty is gasping for air. We have squeezed him into our little religious ...

Where’s the God of Enoch?

Everyone has a scriptural go-to character in a quest for the blessings of heaven. Everyone of these biblical figures has ...

Articles of the Covenant Faith

Their meeting started off as deferential as one might expect of a meeting between man and God. Abraham bowed, stooped ...

Godliness without Religion

Puah and Shiphrah do not feature in any list of Bible’s biggest characters. They don’t get nearly as much mention ...

God’s Invite to Mutuality of Love

The love of God is universal to all mankind. I believe it, not because it’s what I’ve been taught but ...

Mufasa, Simba and The Search for Meaning

 “The Church exists to draw men unto Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all ...

Making Vessels of Mercy

I once asked a group of people with no church contact over dinner what they thought of the Gospel account ...

Jesus: The Tonic for Body, Soul & Spirit

The story of the Gerasene demoniac appears to be something quite out of the ordinary, even compared with some of ...

Gentiles weren’t always the ‘godless’ Other

Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? But whom say ye that I am? [1]Matthew 16:13,15 ...

Grace is Unearned Fellowship

It is not an insignificant thing to be at the bedside of someone close to death. It’s actually a time ...

Loved. Truly, madly, deeply.

He’s got the whole world in his hands, we sing. He’s the God who created heaven and earth, we say. ...

Sin and Compassion

God does not play dice with the universe, Albert Einstein said. He obviously didn’t read the book of Job. In ...

The Word Became Flesh

John the Baptist was the one sent to prepare the world for the messiah, the chosen one of God, and ...

Children & the Virtues of Innocence

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about ...

The Servant King

What are the stories we tell about ourselves? The saying, “The sun never sets on the British Empire” was true ...

Surpassing Glory

Aaron was a blessed man. From his introduction in Scripture as the Robin to his brother Moses’ Batman, he rose ...

Lessons on the Magnificat

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour ...

The Immediacy of Divine Mercy

Sermon preached at Bath Abbey on 12/7/15. Rev (Dr) Sarah Archer places the immediacy of divine mercy over against the ...

It’s not personal. It’s business – God’s business.

Adam was a simple guy. A guy who represented the first of human creation. Formed from earth with a rather ...

Jephthah’s Daughter

The story of Jephthah’s daughter dramatises the perversion of faith occasioned by a lack of knowledge. Did he? Did he ...

Rebelling For The Sake Of Heaven

Idolatry was one of God’s major headaches. The fact that those to whom he revealed Himself through signs and wonders ...

Rediscovering Commitment

A relationship with God is like a marriage. It’s a coming together of two people, often different in ideas, orientation ...

The Prophetic Imperative

The prophets of Israel were activists. They did not reveal much that was new. Their calling was to hold a ...

The Doing of Good Deeds

Jesus Christ had a challenge. It had nothing to do with the Pharisees or Sadducees. Neither Herod nor Pontius Pilate ...

What’s in it for God?

God is not in the business of making wasted investments. Like any shrewd businessperson, he invests his gifts and blessings ...

Through a Glass Darkly

Cyrus ticked all the wrong boxes. For starters he was an idol worshipper. Although he did things for the ‘God ...

Love Transcends Religion

Dear Child of God, Salutations in the name of our Father in heaven. Something has been weighing on my mind ...

The Story of God

This is the story of an incurable optimist. A God who acts in hope in the face of abject hopelessness.

When Goliath Floored David

The challenges and conflicts we come across are designed to equip us for enemies with potential to drag both our ...

Monkeying Around With Darwin

The world of God remains an open-ended challenge for spiritual and intellectual expedition. Both faith and science are the gifts ...

Ground of Thorns and Thistles

Like a greenhouse built and equipped with all that the plants within it require to grow, develop and thrive, the ...

God Angry Forever? Hell No!

God's love, it would seem, is not based on us being on our best behaviour. It is based on the ...

The Challenge of Leadership

God’s intention for establishing the role of ministers, and indeed any other type of religious leader, is primarily to feed ...

For Goodness Sake

Confession and profession of faith without due regard to works Jesus loves avail nothing.

The Trouble with The Preacher

“I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I ...

Knowing the Unknowable

“God is known by knowledge and by unknowing; of him there’s understanding, reason, knowledge, touch, perception, opinion, imagination, name and ...

Going Back to the Future

Prophet Jeremiah did not care much for his heritage. He was born into the Priesthood. He was raised as one ...

Intercession – A Conduit for Divine Love

God is just, but let us remember Him also for His unending love and His immeasurable mercy. Let's also remember ...

God Does Not Need Your Faith to be God – Faith Redefined

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Anyone would be forgiven for ...

Torah’s Merciful God

It's time we stopped this 'God of the Old Testament' and 'God of the New Testament' theosophy. Let's grow in ...

Letter to Malachi – The Lord’s Unfinished Business

Dear Prophet Malachi, I don’t think Jesus likes you very much. Pardon me, but this is no time for niceties. ...

Letter to Daniel – Power Without Responsibility

Dear Daniel, I have a message for you; more like a question if you will. But before I deliver the ...

Praising God & Teaching God – Even When the Going Gets Tough

There is no person who has ever read the bible that does not know about David. We’ve all read about ...

Leaders Are Not Above Reproof

Miriam and Aaron perfected the justification for the “Touch not my anointed” brigade when they challenged Moses’ decision to take ...
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