Cross-carrying or rest? The Matthew 10:38 and 11:28 paradox.
In a church I served as pastor, several leaders from the church would meet for prayer before each service. Though sincere, the prayers were predictably repetitious and I’d often be able to pick what someone would pray before they said it. One favourite was the request that God would “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” It’s kinda clever, though now I’ve heard it in so many places I realise it didn’t have the originality I initially ascribed to it. It points to an interesting little paradox. Are churches about comforting disturbed people, or...
Read MoreEt Teneo, Et Teneor – holding and held…
Most of us aren’t into Latin, but once in a while you come across a phrase that captures your imagination. At any rate, et teneo, et teneor captures mine. Translated it means, I hold and am held. It serves as the motto embedded in the crest of Spurgeon’s College, Spurgeon probably having first heard it from the hymnwriter Dora Greenwell, who had adopted it as her life motif. In the crest, a hand holds the cross of Christ, and it can be interpreted as both holding out the cross to others, and holding onto the cross. Holding and held – a powerful image. We hold out the truth...
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