Divine work

Restore to me the joy of your salvation.
Create in me a pure heart, O God.
Renew a steadfast spirit within me (Ps 51).

We need to pray for the work of his Spirit.

Living with wisdom

'Living with wisdom has the fear of the Lord at the centre: reverence, dread, awe, respect, humility - mysterium tremendum. The mysterium tremendum is the beginning of wisdom, You are not at the centre of the world; he is. To put it bluntly: shut up. Stop messing around with trivialities and banalities and pay attention,' Ian Stackhouse, Primitive Piety (Paternoster, 2012). This is at the centre of Ian's thinking in this book, which attempts to help us make our own Christian faith raw, authentic, what he terms 'primitive' in a world and a generation that needs just that. Our faith and our mission is about God and about Jesus Christ; not us.

A God who speaks

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these days he has spoken to us by his Son . . .  Hebrews 1.1. Amazing!

Anger

'The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil, because it does not get angry enough' - Bede Jarrett. Not surprisingly, immediately after Jesus had overturned the tables in the temple, Matthew tells us that 'the bliond and the lame came to him . . . and he healed them' (Matt 21.12-14).

Has church changed that much?

'I went to church today and am not depressed' - Robert Louis Stevenson. Why is that comment amusing today?

starting to live

An individual has not started living until he (or she) can rise above the narrow contours of their individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. Martin Luther King Jr.

Paternoster: suffering and faith

Paternoster: suffering and faith: Two books on suffering and faith. A remarkable book, Raymond Brown, Spirituality in Adversity. English Nonconformity in a Period of Repressi...