Hunter of Beauty

Posts

My Best Thought of 2023

The great Christian hymn Be Thou My Vision has this fantastic little line in it that I'm sure you're all familiar with: 'thou my best thought'. It sounds a bit awkward on it's own actually, but it's a wonderful aspiration for Christians - that the Lord, the one true living God himself would be the best thought that have. Being a preacher, I suppose I'm in the privileged position of having more dedicated opportunities that many to cultivate those 'best thoughts'. And, having been appointed the pastor of a local church this year, the preaching and the thoughts have ramped right up. So, as the year 2023 magnanimously bows out, what has been my best thought about God this year? Well, I think it has to be from Song of Songs chapter 4. Verse 9 says this (NASB): You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride; You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes... And the thought that this verse led me too, was the delectable notion...

Simpsons Theology: #2 She of Little Faith

I had every intention of writing a few more of these 'Simpsons Theology' posts. I suppose I also had every intention of putting new insulation in the loft. It's never too late to start the things you want to do, though, is it? So here we go, another bit of insight from the minds of the writers of The Simpsons. The Simpsons Season 13, 2001 Episode 6: She of Little Faith The writers of The Simpsons aren't good theologians, by the way. That's not what I mean by a series called Simpsons Theology. Sometimes they do get some things right, most of the time they get it wrong, occasionally they think they've nailed it and try to correct the Church... But that's another episode and another blog. So it's not about the theological insights they offer. It's about the cultural observations they make about Christianity which Christians can then interpret theologically. A show like The Simpsons is interesting because it gives a glimpse into how the world perceives C...

Singing Beauty: Songs of Devotion

John Piper wrote a book called Seeing Beauty & Saying Beautifully. Very basically it's a book about why the words we use to express the beauty of God we see revealed to us can, will and should be beautiful in and of themselves. In short, there should be an appropriate elegance to the form of the words we speak that faithfully represents the beauty of the one we are speaking about - as Christians, pastors, worship leaders... And it's true, as demonstrated by the Psalms in particular, there is an instinct to articulate the beauty of God we apprehend in scripture and creation in a suitably elegant way. When the instinct to express our joy at having recognised something wonderful about God, it's simply not good enough to state facts. Yes clarity of thought is always important - to be understood is essential and if we are not it defeats the point. But the truths about God that we learn are often so thrilling that we want to talk about them in as beautiful a way as is appropr...

Aesthetics, Genetics and the Colour of Diversity

You click onto Facebook and begin scrolling. You come across a post by an organisation about one of their recent events. The post is accompanied by two or three photographs of the event. Everyone looks happy, as if they are enjoying the event and are glad to be there. The organiser has even commented about how well it went. But, something doesn't look right to you. You're troubled deep down in your spirit and suddenly it dawns on you. All the people you can see in the photos from the event appear to be men. Which is problematic enough in itself. But, to make matters worse, they are white men. You’re white. But you’re culturally sensitive. So you’re offended. You’re a millennial. Probably. You comment. You have to. You ask the organiser why there is a lack of ethnic diversity at the event. Clearly, this is a problem that must be addressed. Your comment implies that the organiser has done something wrong. But you have an opportunity - nay a duty - to hold them to account. You di...

A Wonderful Name

My favourite poem is called My Beautiful Lady. It's by relatively unheard-of Pre-Raphealite founding Brother, Thomas Woolner, sculptor and poet. I love it for many reasons and have found various stanzas appropriate for sermon illustration in the past. The feel of the poem seems not to sit too far away from the impressions made by Song of Songs. The thoughtful and articulate expressions of affection the writer evokes for his beautiful lady, could be just as endearingly used by a Christian in praise of the Lord Jesus. There is one particularly astute section, where the lover in question dotes upon the name of his love. Something I'm sure all Christians will be able to resonate with. Because, how the man feels about his beautiful lady's name, is how Christians feel about the sweet sound of Jesus' name. Woolner writes: "My Lady's name, when I hear strangers use, Not meaning her, sounds to me lax misuse; I love none but My Lady's name; Maud, Grace, Rose, Marian,...

Do not play with strange fire; the Word versus the world.

Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. So let us first become Biblically literate and learn the language of God's word before we start trying to learn the language of the world. No Christian will ever outgrow this advice. As Paul says: see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. The reason we are taken captive is because the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Therefore, scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water ...

Search This Blog