If Easter hadn’t happened…
Don’t know if you enjoy the sliding door motif in stories. You run for the bus, and catch it, and on it you meet a mysterious stranger – and oh the adventures for good and ill that flow from that. Or you miss the bus by a whisker, are furious and frustrated, but actually spared the trauma you would have endured if you caught it. It can be fun to speculate like that. What would have happened if I said yes, instead of no, if I made that decision instead of the one I did – and so we can go on. But what about this one? What if Easter hadn’t happened. Or more precisely,...
Read MoreRefresh: When Faith is a Quest…
I’ve met several people who have said words to the effect of: “I would really like to believe, it’s just that I don’t. And even with the best will in the world, that doesn’t seem likely to change. I have so many questions that seem to annoy those who believe. I find people of faith often lack curiosity. But that’s the catch for me. I’m very curious. And I love asking questions. And in the end it seems that I’m just irritating to believers, so I’ve backed away.” This refresh post from Dec 2022 looks at this question. Perhaps in some...
Read MoreRefresh: Easter Cancelled. They’ve found the body…
Today’s Refresh is suited to the post Easter period. It’s wonderful to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, but how likely is it that it happened? The blog is a light taster of this important topic – if you want to read some of my more developed thoughts on this and other apologetic subjects, see my book Why Christianity is Probably True. But for now, enjoy this post from Sept 11, 2015. It was part of a short series on apologetics. Refresh: Easter Cancelled. They’ve found the body… Graffiti was an art form during my university days. It adorned three of the walls...
Read MorePromise, Challenge and Task: Three Reminders…
I’m due to preach on Joshua as a one off message in a series exploring interesting Bible characters. It’s hard to condense such an important story into 25 minutes, and any lens selected will miss a lot, but I’ve opted to filter his story through three key ideas – what he was promised, what special challenges he faced and the tasks he had to do. I decided to steer the story in this direction because it struck me that these are three big categories that can be helpful for most people, and perhaps you are one of them. So what was Joshua promised? Primarily, God’s...
Read MoreJust Another Sunday?
Don’t know about you, but Easter has snuck up on me unexpected. In my head I think of it as an April thing, but of course it’s on the first Sunday after the full moon on or after the Spring equinox, and sometimes that’s in March. It’s so much easier to remember Christmas with its solid 25 December location (unless you are part of the Orthodox tradition, in which case it is 7 January). Ah well, what’s it about dates and remembering? For most Easter will be just another Sunday. Except it isn’t. Those who think that Easter has nothing to do with them...
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