• Keeping The Faith

    Reading Time: 9 minutes

    It’s been nearly five years since the religious community I grew up in ‘regretfully accepted my withdrawal from fellowship’. In reality, I did no such thing, their statement was simply an awkward and disingenuous way to excommunicate me because I could no longer affirm, without reservation, particular tenets they held to be watertight and immutable.
    I feel that had the Bible genuinely been our mutually agreed authority, there would have been no good cause to excommunicate…

  • The Incarnation Of The Word

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    “In the beginning, the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
     
    He came into the very world he created, but the world…

  • When God Moved Into The Neighbourhood

    Reading Time: 9 minutes

    I think our view or perspective of God and His intentions may have been shaped by many things, but the Bible seems to set the narrative straight pretty much right away, declaring His intent and purpose from the beginning. We read in Genesis 1:6 that God said “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock,…

  • Religion // Cruciformity

    Reading Time: 8 minutes

    There is no standard scholarly agreement on what exactly is meant by the word religion, so defining religion (from the Latin religiō) can be a bit tricky. In fact, prior to the 16th and 17th centuries, the concept of religion, as a distinct set of beliefs or doctrines, didn’t really exist.
    Today, we would probably summarise religion as a unifying social-cultural system of beliefs and practices relating to sacred, supernatural, or spiritual elements. We may tend to…

  • Leaving

    Reading Time: 8 minutes

    Leaving is never because of just one thing. Not really.
    It’s the result of a thousand, inconsequential one things that all converge in a single moment of sudden, irreconcilable difference.
    For me, the eventual leaving of the religious community I grew up in began as a tiny question fluttering at the back of my mind.
    Back then, I’d never met a question I didn’t want to take apart, examine, rearrange and then carefully reassemble, perfectly ordered, and satisfactorily…

  • Jesus, The Hope Of The World

    Reading Time: 12 minutes

    “Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Emmanuel” (which means, “God with us”)” | Matthew 1:23, BRB
    Scripture tells of a crowded family home in a bustling ancestral town, set at the southern end of the Judean hills. Filled to the brim already, perhaps with relatives from both near and far, there was no room in the guest quarters for the additional arrival of a heavily pregnant…

  • By One Man

    Reading Time: 8 minutes

    I like the Apostle Paul.
    I like his ability to ‘call a spade a spade’, the unrelenting pursuit of his faith, and his bold assertion to “preach nothing but the cross of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:2). No doubt he ruffled more than a few feathers at times, with his unapologetic directness and refusal to tolerate any other gospel than that of being saved by grace through faith alone.
    He doesn’t shy away from telling it how it…

  • Only A Suitable Redeemer Will Do

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    One of the most startling pieces of information that we are given in relation to Jesus is the fact that he was made like us. Jesus’ redemptive work on behalf of humanity was deeply connected to his own humanity. Although he was born “the Son of God”, and radiant with His Father’s glory, he participated in every way in all the experiences of what it means to be human. His ability to sympathise with us and…