The NT has quite a lot to say about joy, in various contexts, and about rejoicing, and not surprisingly there are plenty of Christmas hymns that emphasize joy, with major composer like Handel chipping in on this subject.  Peter Gomme’s chapter on the Bible and Joy, in his ‘The Good Book’ one of the best treatments I’ve ever read on the subject, and I will be interacting with and quoting him here.  Perhaps the first major point he makes is that... Read more

  THIN PLACES Take me to the thin places Tween here and paradise, Show me the river And that must now suffice.   A glimpse of glowing glory Is all I need just now I can wait ‘til later To learn the why and how.   The border between realms Is not so hard to find, But crossing that fine line Means leaving this behind.   It doesn’t take a death wish To want to know some more Of what... Read more

“Contrary to the popular misconception, religion is not an escape from reality but rather a genuine effort to make sense of what passes for reality and all that surrounds it, Religious people are not escape artists; they are not practitioners of evasion or of self-deception. Religion is  not the answer to the unknowable or the unfaceable or the unendurable; religion is what we do and what we are in the face of the unknowable, the unfaceable, and the unendurable. It... Read more

  Peter Gomes was a very eloquent preacher, and a good writer as well.  His best-selling book from the 1990s is entitled The Good Book, and there is a good deal to commend about it. He sanctions careful detailed contextual study of the Bible. For instance, he says….p.12—-” “Bible studies tend to follow this route. The Bible is simply the entry into a discussion about more interesting things , usually about oneself. The text is a mere pretext to other... Read more

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BEN: With all this talk about the blasphemy of the Spirit, I kept waiting and waiting for you to deal with Jesus’ trial or hearing before Caiaphas and his tearing of his robes. What I find striking about that story, perhaps especially in Mark, is that Jesus admitting that he is the messiah is not the blasphemy. Jews expected a Davidic messianic figure that would be a human being. Claiming to be him might be delusional but it was not... Read more

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  The word repentance is bandied about both inside and outside Christian circles with hardly any effort to pause and ask what the term means or entails.  In this season of Advent, which is meant to be a time of reflection on our faith leading up to Christmas, it would be well to think more seriously about repentance, not least because, many American Christians have much to repent of for their self-centered non-Christian behavior this year, placing so-called rights over... Read more

  Meaning is not in the eye of the beholder, though Lord knows, we are all active readers who bring our ideas and assumptions to the reading of the Bible.  Here is another ‘spot on’ quote from Peter Gommes’ The Good Book  p.26: “A text may have a life of its own, but that life depends upon the author who gave it life, investing it with an intention, a purpose,  and a meaning. The text therefore already participates in something other... Read more

  Peter Gommes has many good things to say in his bestseller ‘The Good Book’, not least is what he says on p. 12 about how not and how to do Bible study. “Bible studies tend to follow this route. The Bible is simply the entry into a discussion about more interesting things , usually about oneself. The text is a mere pretext to other matters and usually the routine works like this: A verse or passage is given out,... Read more