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,...

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 ...

When it comes to the Bible, is there actually such thing as secondary issues? I don't think so. Rick Warren has recently said that we need to stop 'bickering' over secondary issues (in context he means ordaining women as pastors - something he has done recently - amongst other things). I don't like this phrase. I don't like it because I don't like the attitude towards God's word that it permits in people - even the most well-meaning of whom have hearts that are deceitful and wicked! Let's take the ordination of women issue for instance. Why would this be called a 'secondary issue'? Well, being a 'secondary issue' having knowledge of or an opinion about it does not affect one's ability to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and thus be saved. Indeed, you can even be wrong about this particular issue in practise and still be saved. Yes, if you genuinely, sincerely, with all conviction and true devotion to Christ and submission to...

Matthew 14 says:  22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of l...

In 1975 Patti Smith exploded onto the music scene becoming an instant pop culture icon whose popularity, respect, and influence have stood the test of time. You can imagine that she must have made a pretty good first impression, then. Well, she certainly made a memorable first impression. The opening line of the first song on her debut album begins "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine". And to a largely Christianised culture, that is one bold, emphatic, and fully considered statement to make!  But it raises a question, doesn't it? If Jesus didn't die for Patti Smith, who did he die for? Christians certainly like to say things like Jesus died for the sins of the world. Is Patti Smith misguided? Might Jesus have in fact died for her sins? John's Gospel, specifically chapter three and verse sixteen is perhaps, above all, the most formative, or at least the most foundational place our understanding of an answer to that question would come from. It reads: ...

As I've mentioned before, beauty isn't a thing or even the quality of a thing. Beauty is the relationship between two dimensions, working together in harmony. We call this relationship beautiful because it satisfies, brings pleasure, and is enjoyable. We are most glad when things work as they should. The two dimensions that conspire to together to incite beauty are the moral realm and the aesthetic realm. One is conceived in the mind, the other is produced in the material. In a previous post I wrote the following: " The relationship between the moral dimension and the aesthetic dimension is vitally important. In fact, the aesthetic dimension depends upon there being a moral dimension and cannot exist without it. A moral dimension can exist without an aesthetic and actually, necessarily precedes an aesthetic. Yet the moral desires an aesthetic. And its value (beauty) depends upon, in large part, achieving an aesthetic expression (though not always, and not entirely). For in...

I really enjoy the art of the Pre-Raphaelites. If you don't know who they are, you should absolutely look them up. If you're a Christian, you might be interested to know that one of the founders of the movement was Dante Gabrielle Rosetti, the brother of Christina. They were a group of young, talented painters, sculptors, and poets who hob-nobbed with the Victorian social elite. They are historically significant as well as artistically significant, and you probably couldn't imagine how influential they have been on the culture we inhabit right this very moment. But more on that in another post. But for now, you can think of them as the Beatles of the art world. Naturally gifted, but with a liberal sense of purpose and desire to move culture, to test, to challenge, and to see what happens when cultural norms are abandoned. Less thoughtful, more experimental. A bit like we are today... Anyway, even if you've never heard of the Pre-Raphaelites, you've probably seen thi...