Read Reflect In some parts of the world today it is not possible to do business without kickbacks or travel from place to place without slipping the authorities a bribe. Corruption is not just endemic, it’s normal and our reading tells us it’s been around a long, long time. Every year Transparency International produces a […]

Read Reflect The letter to the Galatians is one of the first the apostle Paul wrote. It is his angriest. Angry? The apostle of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, angry? Very angry. Why? Because some people had infiltrated the church with “another message,” or, as he literally puts it, “another good news.” People […]

Read Reflect He who once persecuted the church became one of the church’s greatest theologians. Indeed, no one, except Jesus himself, has had a greater impact on the church’s theology than Paul. What caused the change in Paul? An apocalypse. That is the word Paul uses to describe his conversion. He had an apocalypse. In […]

Read Reflect No one else had had the experience the apostle Paul had. An apocalypse, a breaking-through-from-hiddenness by Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. And then, years alone with the risen and living Jesus in the desert, as Jesus further opened up the gospel to him. What a fortunate human being! After those years, […]

Read Reflect There is no way to exaggerate the way the Spirit of God has used this text in the life of the church and world. For in it the gospel – the “no other gospel” – is stated so clearly. Peter knew the gospel. He knew that in Jesus, God has done everything that […]

Read Reflect Every day, every hour, we face the temptation either to put our faith in God or to establish other gods that we feel might be better suited to ground our trust in. This temptation is often stoked by our doubt and insecurity in the unseen, and fueled by the pressures of the trials […]

Read Reflect Not too long ago we were visiting some friends near our home to see their newborn baby. After only being in their home a few minutes we heard the baby begin to cry. Cry…and CRY! This poor little creature was bawling so loud and hard that her little face turned red and she […]