Time for a chainge?

This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. (Rom 1:1, NLT)
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God — (Rom 1:1, NIV)
I have put these two translations of the same text together for a reason. It is a reason which is very important, especially to the way we think today. It is all about just one word, the Greek word doulos. I don’t want to get into an argument about which is the best translation, but there is an important point to be made here.

A marked man

I was reflecting more on my previous post Mirror, mirror – I’m sorry, I can’t resist puns! I was thinking about how our images change as we grow and age. We tend to adopt fashions which are the fashion of our generation. Though that fashion might change as years pass, there is a continuing theme through our lives, and quite often we can guess a person’s age by the style of clothes or hair.

Why does he do that?

Libby and I have a cat, a wonderful cat who goes by the name of Keziah.
But Keziah is like all cats. She is demanding and self-centred, greedy and sometimes destructive. She is always after something. We get up in the morning and she is immediately asking for food. After she has eaten, she wants to be on my knee and for me to start petting her. Then she wants out. Then she wants in. Then she wants fed. Then she wants petted. Then she wants out. And so it goes on. She has even learned to beg like a dog for food. She is always after something, and if we ignore her she might resort to picking the carpet to bits with her claws.
Why do we do it?

How does he do that again?

Sometimes he does it in the form of an amazing miracle, such as sending manna and quail to feed the Israelites in the desert. Sometimes he does it through the voice of Jesus, who told Lazarus to come out of the tomb. Sometimes he does it through Peter’s shadow, healing the sick at the side of the road, and sometimes he does it through the great evangelists of today. Sometimes it is spontaneous, mostly it is through prayer, always it is because of love.

How does He do that?

I was surfing through the TV channels one night and stopped on the God Channel (something I don’t often do). The man speaking was challenging all those listening to find out what “God’s Ways” are.
The next day, I was reading the book of Exodus in the bible, chapter 33 and there Moses is asking God to show him “His Ways”.

Receiving loud and clear

Can anyone out there remember the days when there were less than three TV stations in the UK? Or only three radio stations (excluding Radio Luxembourg)? I can! Daytime viewing was a test card. Not only that, but TV programmes were black and white. In fact, I think most of my childhood memories are black and white, so perhaps the whole world was slightly lacking in hue!

Engaging the Silence

A wonderful poem on unanswered prayer by Pete Greig in his book God on Mute: first there is prayer and where there is prayer there may be miracles but where miracles may not be there are questions and where the are questions there may be silence but silence may be more than absence silence may…

If you’re happy and you know it

Are you happy? Do you know it? Do you show it?
It has always amazed me how much a smile can change a face and make it more attractive, better looking – male or female. Those smiles which are just on the cusp of bursting into laughter are by far the most attractive, and they are infectious. When a smile becomes laughter, things start to happen.

You need hands

What would we do without hands? For most of us, very little. From our earliest moments, even before we are born, we use them.
Even in the womb, a baby will start sucking its thumb. The baby is perhaps learning the skills that it will need to feed once it is born. Once the baby is born, it will continue to suck its thumb, but will soon discover that those funny looking things at the ends of its arms are not just good to put in its mouth.