Many Christians struggle with the conquest of Canaan in the Old Testament. We don't get there until the book of Joshua, but to the modern mind it can seem like barbaric genocide. The people of Israel were told to conquer the land of Canaan, which was already occupied.
I love Christmas carols. Really I do. We had a great night yesterday, with about 20 from our church singing carols in lots of the public spaces in the village, joined in each place by some who live nearby.
But sometimes, honestly...
I'm preparing the third of a series of three sermons on end-times and the Christian hope. (Do join us at 10.30 on Sunday if you're around). It's great to spend a few weeks thinking about how good God's promises are, and how wonderful the future will be.
I'll read a couple of excerpts from C S Lewis's final Narnia book, The Last Battle.
It's the time of year for Christmas carol services.
On Sunday night, at ours, we sang Wesley's final verse of "Hark! The herald-angels sing". It's an absolute cracker, rich in biblical theology, that praises Christ for his work in a full way, and prays that he would accomplish his work in us and in the world.
I must have read Matthew 11:27-30 a thousand times before:
The two churches of Kemsing and Woodlands in Kent are going on an ambitious journey together in 2014. We're going on a Bible tour.
Here's the plan: Read the whole Bible through 2014, in step with one another. In that sense, it's a communal read-through. (We're not actually going to come together each day to read, at least not in any way that's organised for the whole church).
Once every 2-4 months, we have an informal evening service in Kemsing under the name of "Digging Deeper". We sing a few songs, and say a few prayers, but most of our time is devoted to taking some topic addressed by the Bible and digging deeper together in what the Bible says. We've thought about the Trinity before, and we've thought about the inspiration of Scripture. Last night, we considered our hope as Christians - where is history heading, what is our part in it, and how certain can we be?
On a Monday morning I'm always exhausted. Sundays take it out of me.
That means I often use the lion's share of Mondays to get admin done, or other things that take time but don't require the most intensive thought.
But over the years I've learnt the value of starting my preaching preparation early in the week.
(Before going further, I know: Sermon series preparation can usefully be done 6-9 months ahead, and you shouldn't first think about the passages you preach in the week before you preach them. Take that as read).
This coming weekend, I'll be at Otford Manor, the base of Oak Hall Expeditions, for a teaching weekend. Roughly 4 times a year, they run weekends under the title of "Unlocking the Bible", at which a speaker takes one book of the Bible, and seeks to unpack and apply its main message for today.
This week, I've been pondering how the individual paragraphs of Matthew 7 fit into the whole chapter. It's always a mistake to take a paragraph of Scripture away from its context, and to read it with no regard to where it comes. In this case, these paragraphs were spoken by Jesus, but he said them as part of what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
