For the weekend...

 A little something you might find valuable to take you into 2023.

Mercy

 "And so he went to the one in need and bound up the wounds, pouring in healing ointments, setting the victim on his own horse, and taking them to an inn". Luke 10:34.

Once, there was a Californian woman who was related to the owner of a popular social media app. All seemed well in her life until the day she found that she had been doxed on this very app, and she and her family were suddenly at serious risk.

Not knowing what to do or where to turn, she found herself being called by someone from the other side of the country who had heard of her predicament and was offering a lifeline.

Sounds to good to be true?

It happened in America this week - and the person offering this young woman assistance (in the form of giving her a place to stay in his own home) was none other than Florida Governor, Ron De Santis.

When the world becomes criminal in its actions and attitudes to others, the only answer is unmerited mercy.

That is why the answer to our troubles is the Good News of Christianity.

When Heaven Breaks In

 "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God". Luke 2:13.

The big moments in history are marked by something very unique - heaven truly breaks in.

Job tells us that when the Lord took of the mass that was darkness and began His masterpiece of creation, that the 'morning stars' sang for joy at what they beheld (Job 38:7). Equally, when God delivers Israel from Egypt, the angelic hosts are never very far away (Exodus 14:19), so it is no great surprise that when God comes amongst us, this same throng cannot but come down to revel in the hour.

Yet it is a marvel of that night.

A young couple being rejected by their own when the woman is pregnant and thereby facing difficult circumstances is an all too common story in our world, but as this new family face their night of such trouble, a group of local shepherds visit them and tell of the marvel they have witnessed which has brought them there - heaven has broken in to proclaim the wonderful news of this child's birth, because no child before or since was as unique or remarkable as the one resting in a animal trough that night in Bethlehem.

Such interventions are rare in the history of our little world, but when they happen, we should sit up and take notice.

Christmas marks the most important of these times since creation itself, because what happened around that birth brings the world into an eternal new day.

May that brightness truly resonate for each of us this holiday.

A bright Christmas to us all!

Seasonal Joy

 May this joy be ours this Christmas.

Piercing the new Iron Curtain

 "The things that the Lord hates - haughtiness, the lying tongue, the hands which shed the blood of the innocent, hearts which only devise wickedness, feet which run to action such evil, a false witness which promotes nothing but lies, and the one who sows discord upon the premise of all of these" Proverbs 6:16-19.

US Governor Ron De Santis initiated the first steps this week to bring about an assembly of a Grand Jury of Florida's Supreme Court to examine and judge on the issue of the suppression of vital information concerning the mRNA vaccination program and the promotion of false information by various official bodies and those who preside over them regarding the use of these same materials. He also announced a new Health directorate will be established in the state of Florida to replace these bodies and to prevent such astonishing circumstances from occurring again.

This is almost certainly the first official step of significance to seek to call to account those who have construed the poisonous narrative of the last two and a half years and to allow the public at large to be given the full facts regarding what has happened in respect to the impact (impairment and death) of millions, not from a virus, but from the authorised response to this.

In the UK this week, Tory MP Andrew Bridgen also sought to bring this matter to Parliament, providing in a speech some of the irrefutable data on this.

You can view a candid discussion and analysis of this here, in Andrew's latest interview on the matter with Irreverend's Reverend Jamie Franklin.

Please pray that these men will be heard, and the truth will prevail, and please give your support in prayer and by other means when possible.

A couple of things

One of things I love about the faith is that there's always more to learn, as is the case with these two fascinating videos.

The first looks at the issue of what exactly was the sin of Ham against Noah.

The second examines the fascinating issue of the actual birthday of Jesus, based upon John's astonishing vision in the book of Revelation.

Enjoy!

I N C A R C E R A T I O N

"Such things have the appearance of wisdom, promoting self-imposed religion in expressions of asceticism or severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh". Colossians 2:23.

"For creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of who subjected it, in the confident expectation of what is coming, when it is set free from such bondage". Romans 8:20,21.

How do we define virtue in respect to 'godliness'?

Christian piety is often misconstrued as a stringent form of total moral restraint - a wilful suppression of 'natural' inclinations that would keep any Fraudian analyst busy for many moons.

It is believed that such "behaviour" is the opposite of the licence of an amoral hedonism that intoxicates the modern world, but as two political extremes often meet, so these two approaches (hedonism and asceticism) are essentially expressions of the same malady.

In the present climate of immediate access to unceasing expressions of sexual gratification, many young men are now binding themselves to a chastity that relinquishes all and any relationship to sex. This is not happening out of an orientation towards previously held commonplace spiritual beliefs, but because these males believe their sexuality has been claimed by the crude forces of the present culture, and therefore needs to be taken back by them from such predatory means.

This is a highly significant trend - the 'ownership' of what, it is believed, fundamentally belongs to and defines you, because this mirrors what we have witnessed on other similar moments to what is currently in play.

Usually defined as Vitalism, we can find examples of this amongst Hellenic and Roman schools of thought (Philosophical schools), as well as in the various native "Volk" (life) movements in Germany and Austria which became popular after the great war. These notions were then politicised once more in a union with American political and economic pursuits which used the works of men like William Reich to promote the notion that a particular rendition of sexual promiscuity was to be deemed healthy in the modern world - a notion coupled in the sixties to the prescribed 'freedom' of the permissive society.

Which brings us back to the church.

Paul notes in his Colossians letter just how readily believers can fall into similar notions which inform them that various traits of external behaviour (abstinence from various behaviours) supposedly amounts to a modesty that dislocated them from society and therefore must be valuable in attaining godliness, but the Apostle warns us that such devices can readily become despicable dead ends for the faith. This is because they readily cause us to focus upon what we believe we achieve rather than the perfect work and merits of Jesus, which alone make us what God requires.

Paul tells us that both moral abandonment AND moral self-control, detached from God's saving grace, amount to the SAME end - unproductive beliefs that leave us empty of what is vitally needed - the truth that rescues and holds us.

When the Lord Jesus returns from the cross and the tomb to His friends, He has no problem allowing them examine His wounds, or allowing them see His bodily ascension. In like fashion, you and I are currently invited to participate in His blood and flesh when we attend His table, because these are the very means God provides for our vital, material redemption. Our faith, our life, needs to be folded into this rich and glorious reality, so what we believe and what we practice has to derive from our union - our marriage - to this eternal state, and not some contrived dualistic based folly.

The church historically fights hard to uphold a outward image of chastity (which is clearly far more mixed when you begin to examine the actual lives of believers - in keeping with Paul in Romans 7), but it has very little concern with the trouble Paul raises in passages like the one in Colossians, because this manner of flattering the flesh is more "moral" to our own self-reliance, yet the Apostle clearly notes it as dangerously seductive in its goals and where it leads.

True liberation for all of creation only resides in the blood-bought rescue of Jesus for us, so let us hang all our confidence in respect to the troubles of sin, death, the world and the devil on His atoning grace.

Immaculate attire

"Put on Christ, and thereby make no provision for the mere gratification of unwholesome pursuits and ambitions". Romans 13:14.

It's been a somewhat "bracing" week here in the UK, with temperatures allowing frost and ice and a biting reminder that winter is truly upon us.

With the current "visitation" of national energy constraints, the imperative to 'wrap up warm' is truly apt, and yet, on a morning like today, there is still something truly toasty about awaking in the morning chill and golden light wrapped in nothing but a cosy duvet.

This is because, of course, of the majesty and dignity the Lord Himself has invested in the splendour of what He has made us (Genesis 1 & 2), materially and spiritually, to be - so how do we bring such gifts into their true place of both delight and service? How, indeed, do we heed Paul's exhortation above and be those clothed in our beloved Lord?

In his epistle to the Colossians, the same Paul pens "As those chosen by God, beloved and holy, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility and patience" (3:12). The Apostle tells us that in Christ, we are already furnished with astounding care and complete righteousness (that is exactly what holiness amounts to), but that as such beloved people, we can now dress our lives with virtues that will 'speak' so beautifully of the life that we have inherited.

I spend much of my time in a uniform which 'identifies' me as a particular kind of worker in a very specific workplace - it 'clothes' me with particular roles and responsibilities that facilitate my engagement with my associates and the business, so there are clear benefits (necessities) in being so adorned, but it would be foolish of me to believe that these garments, duties and actions alone actually define me or even the total extent of my relationship at the office - they are a means to an end - a channel to something even richer and deeper.

God has clothed us in the 'uniform' of Christ because he wants that adorning to allow an even more marvellous splendour to flourish from this source - one replete in the virtues Paul points to here. Christ's life poured into us "clothes" us with a beauty and splendour above and beyond the 'norm'. It is married to a 'joy unspeakable', and a relish to engage with the "Father of light', who has seen fit to prepare a table of every good gift for us, even in the wilderness of this present evil age.

We can indeed, as Carrie Willard notes, "take our rest in the knowledge that God sees us now holy and beloved even if we can't see or feel that holy clothing ourselves. He is the one who wraps us in compassion and kindness, provides humility, meekness and patience (what a mercy!), because He has chosen to do this for us".

As we face the 'winter's rage' or revel in the golden rays of another morning, may this amazing treasure truly furnish us in our everyday lives. Jesus, our only saviour, lives with us.

I C H A B O D

 "Necessity has been placed upon me, so I would indeed be wretched if I ceased from conveying the Gospel". Paul -1 Corinthians 9:16.

The Church of England has published its "Statistics for Mission (2021)" analysis and report this past week, which provides us with some telling data regarding the impact of the previous few years on this denomination.

Prior to the pandemic, regular in-person attendance at services was around 845,000 people, but the report shows that this figure dropped substantially following the events of 2020/1, and now stands at around 605,000 nationally - that is a loss of 249,000 people from regular attendance.

Perhaps the most appalling piece of this examination is the fact that there has been a 38% loss in children and young people, meaning that, once again, it is the next generation that are seeing the greatest departure from engagement with mainstream Christian activity.

Whilst the report - like much of the census analysis last week - seeks to view such results as only slightly disturbing, the reality is that many long-term believers who had often attended churches for long periods are now outside of that realm, purely because of the behaviour of our national authorities, and the response of the authorities of the church to this (in respect to immediate acceptance and total conformity).

The painful truth is that whilst a small number of pentecostal groups were seeing some measure of growth prior to 2020, the majority of mainline churches in the country were witnessing comprehensive decline. John Hayward's analysis of these issues prior to the pandemic was stark enough (as was his conclusion - that Christianity itself has become the offence to God), but the clear loss of so many in recent days tells us that this is, indeed, a Gospel issue, and can no longer afford to be dismissed or minimalised.

The church was clearly wrong to pursue the line adopted in respect to the pandemic, and if it truly desires to see a change of direction in respect to its decline, it must indeed face that error and seek to repent. The consequences if it refuses to do so are clear - and terribly tragic.

Pranged

 "Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and the hallowing of the angelic, going on in detail about such 'spirituality', proud to be in such a frame of mind, but not actually holding fast to the source from whom the whole body of the faithful is nourished and knit together and through that union, grows through the life from God".

Colossians 2:18,19.

A video came up on my recommendation list this week entitled 'God is beginning to reveal things - a lot of us need to open our eyes to the truth'. 

The piece begins by saying that to be truly 'spiritual' believers, we need to see behind the material dimension of what we're encountering, and discern the spiritual reality of what's unfolding. That's fine, but I was already sensing that the very tone of this requirement was missing something in regards to what is actually happening around us in respect to the manner of struggle we currently face. It's easy to place the real problem 'over there', when it's actually far closer to home.

The latter half begins to offer up all manner of suggestions about how we become those with our spiritual sight operating, like distancing ourselves from certain people and taking what can only be defined as a more ascetic approach to life.

This is often the 'go to' definition for many Christian videos with respect to a 'wholesome' definition of godliness, thereby seeing this as the manner we remain 'undefiled' in the present (just take a look at one of the numerous believer videos on the subject of modesty).

With regards to the first part of this material, there's a key question that needs to be addressed, and yet is entirely avoided in the 'advice' presented - where is the battle right now? What is the nature of the conflict that we should be engaged in at this moment?

Christian writer and speaker Eric Metaxas appeared on an American broadcast a few days ago to speak about his new warning issued to the church in respect to this very matter, and it's clear that those who believe they are spiritually 'discerning' are entirely missing the vital nature of this.

The real trouble, however, is in respect to how these 'teachers' view the nature of living the Christian life - asceticism. Notice the passage I've referred to above from Paul. Notice the reputation the Pharisees attributed to Jesus (someone who loved socialising). Notice Paul's advice to the church that they should in no manner cut themselves off from the sexual immoral in society (1 Corinthians 5:9-13).

Christian pastor Francis Chan was shaken recently to discover the historical church's teaching on the Lord's Supper (the REAL presence of Christ in the bread and wine, as argued by Martin Luther). Imagine how shaken believers today are going to be when they comprehend the early church's naturalness towards the body in respect to issues of social nakedness (as I've covered here recently).

The DANGER here is that we're actually, according to Paul's words in Colossians, peddling a FALSE rendition of the faith, and that can prove DEADLY (See Galatians chapter 1).

The common pitfall of popular piety today is to see ourselves not as Paul defines us (Romans 7), but as more than capable of being 'sanctified' by what WE define and advance as proper - a pathway which perpetually embraces detachment from the real world (and pulling up the drawbridge), but effectual faith is about something VERY different - it comprehends that God is at work through bread, wine, water and the astonishing coming of God in the flesh (the total humanity of Jesus), because it also knows -

That there is only ONE continual medium where we meet and know God, and that is through the means of the "very good" realm of the material, made to furnish just that goal in the beginning, and redeemed by Christ's blood to fulfil that purpose throughout the ages we shall share with the Lamb and one another.

Christians MUST revel in Paul's teaching in Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 15, gazed upon by John in Revelation 21 and 22 - that is the 'home' Jesus is now preparing for our resurrected living (John 14).

So, by all means speak of the 'powers' we are in conflict with, but truly SEE where these principalities seek to wield that authority amongst this present age (Psalm 2) and EQUIP the Saints to discern (wise up) on what that equates to in our everyday walk in this world, as anti-Christian ideals and goals pervade the general bent of what is at work around us, speaking against such by our lives and our holding out of the Word of Life - the death and resurrection of Jesus - as the ONE and ONLY hope.

If we do so, we shall truly being walking well before God and Men.

Carried

 "Realise who you are through humility before the mighty nature of the most High, so at the proper time, He can raise you up. Place your cares and concerns upon Him, because He truly cares for you". 1 Peter 5:6 & 7.

Any of you who have caught the teaser of the new series of talks on Exodus this past week will probably have been overwhelmed by the insight into the difference in respect of power they have identified between the likes of Moses and Pharaoh (see here to view what I'm referring to).

God alone can take the chaos, be it cosmological, social or personal, and fashion it into something reflective of true beauty and splendour, but it takes the working of His word to bring about such a healing through a redemptive process (think about creation itself as a taking of what was 'empty' and framing it into something exceedingly good).

It was with these ideas in play that I came across Leanne Rimes recent new release this week. As an artists that has often gone against the grain, this song does not hold back on 'telling it like it is' in respect to the profound need we all share for release from these present trials, cleverly weaving some current popular aspirations with a far more continual longing we all share, as evidenced in earlier popular songs.

I valued the honesty Leanne conveys, both in the anguish and the cry of the soul, but this needs to be married to the union Peter expounds in the verses above.

Jesus Christ brings us the 'sweet chariot' of Himself, veiled in genuine humanity, that we may become participants of the most precious union in heaven and earth - that is where we find our way home.

Astonishment

 "And the city had no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God was its radiance, and its true light was the Lamb. By that single illumination, the nations will be, and their kings will bring their worth into the heart of the great city through gates that will never close" Revelation 21:22-26.

In a field outside the Cornish town of Truro is a blood-red clay region where, on an Autumn evening back in 2001, my beloved late wife Kay taught me so much about the magnificence of light.

As a photographer, watching the radiance of that evening meant so much to her, and as I looked and listened, I began to understand why her passion was so important - light truly transformed what it touched by bringing a radiance that raised the subject to a new level of beauty and splendour.

That was a seminal moment for me in my now twenty year journey filling the shoes of my late wife's great passion, and it's lesson is vital to this amazing discovery I'm going to share here.

The passage above refers to the coming new city at the very centre of the redeemed creation. We all know the promise this holds, but what if I were to tell you that an absolutely amazing discovery of our times has shown us something about this city that we never expected?

In the verses prior to those just quoted (19-20), we're told that there are twelve foundation levels to the city itself, each one made of different layer of precious stones - jasper, sapphire, agate, emerald, onyx, camelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst.

Have you ever wondered why these particular jewels are listed and some that we would probably have included, like diamonds or rubies, are not there?

We now have the answer... and it's something wonderful, to do with the radiance of pure light.

We have now discovered that when you pass such light through anisotropic gems (those listed as the foundations of the city), they radiate a full spectrum of rainbow colours, also emanating the most spectacular patterns.

When you pass that same light through Isotropic jewels - like diamonds - they become entirely colourless - the light turns entirely black.

All the stones used in the foundation of the golden city are anisotropic - they are going to display the most breathtaking colour and pattern displays you can imagine.

This glorious truth helps to exegete the verses I've placed above. This eternal city will indeed be a crown upon the good earth, where God's saving Lamb - Jesus our beloved - is delighted to share life with us forever.

What a wonder!

The very physical nature of the architecture is going to reflect and express the majesty of what is occurring between the people and their King.

It says so much about the good purposes of Him who loves us, and is bringing about the very best in respect to the nature of goodness and beauty into an eternal habitation of Himself and us.

Grasping the Nettle

 "And Paul said, 'I am not mad, but I am speaking truthfully and rationally". Acts 26:25.

In 2021, I had to make it clear at my office that there were certain 'requirements' that I would not be participating in, as I viewed them as contrary to my individual rights, especially when it came to my welfare, and the health of others.

In that same year, I had to leave the place of worship I had been attending for nearly a decade because they believed those same 'requirements' made it necessary to both close and then curtail the freedom of the believer to assemble and worship God.

Some eighteen months on, my concerns in respect to the dangers of all these 'requirements' have been realised. The social fabric of society as a whole has been rent asunder by the 'woke' agenda that has come to the fore during this period of imposed travail, and the misery that has been woven into the day to day reality of life as a result is palpable.

When the Apostle Paul stood by Agrippa and Festus to present his case for being a messenger of truth, he did not hold back in respect to why and how this was the imperative. He knew that his life belonged to another, and as a result, what happened to him and those fellow believers like him was not determined by the powers and authorities of his day - they were small in comparison to the Lord he now served.

Life teaches us that in spite of what is 'strong' right now (be it external dictates or mandates, or our own wayward desires), there are far greater powers at work that can never be overtaken by our small ambitions, however much power we believe ourselves to hold.

In the Autumn of 1940, Hitler's vast war machine turned it's attention to the shores of England, and the impressive might of the Luftwaffe pounded the airfields of the RAF to win control of the skies to allow Operation Sea Lion (the invasion of the country) to occur. Air Marshall Dowding, who "Trusted in God and prayed for Radar", knew that if this relentless campaign continued, his loss of pilots and aircraft would signal the end, and as had happened on the beaches of Dunkirk, only a miracle would change things.

After a small bombing raid by the British on Berlin, the miracle came.

Hitler ordered the carpet bombing of London, and on the knife-edge of defeat, the airfields gained the reprieve they needed. The struggle that followed was hard, but that one change by the German war machine altered the entire course of the struggle over Europe.

The small things we do now may not appear to make much of an impression, but when we choose, like Paul, to put our faith in God and keep our wits about us in respect to what we say and and do, the integrity of what this conveys will speak.

We are called to truth concerning this present moment, and we must be those who affirm this, however hard this may prove to be.

Jesus has promised to be with us in such hard times - to aid us and go with us through these days, so let us do what is necessary, even when we feel alone or afraid.

Unmerited

 "For by Grace you are saved - not of yourself. It is the gift of God". Ephesians 2:8.

I am especially thankful to Jason Micheli for these wonderful thoughts.

The Book of Galatians is proof that despite what we may sing on Sundays, we're addicted to bad news.

Like so many of us, there we read of those who thought they'd advanced to somewhere 'beyond' the simplicity and vitality of the saving Gospel.

In so doing, they had, in effect, abandoned God's actual rescue and reverted back to confidence in the rigours of the Law.

Paul seeks to remind them that there are only two options - rescue by Christ alone, or drowning in the supposed 'merits' of our misguided (and over-bloated) confidence in our (dingy) piety.

There is actually no middle-ground between 'Christ has done everything for you' and 'this is what you must do... perfectly'.

The easiest way to invalidate the Gospel is to try and add to it (and thereby, subtract from its absolute and total sufficiency).

We do this continually by adding on modifiers - progressive spirituality, moral value progress, whole life piety... the 'being all you should be' approach to godliness.

The message of the Gospel is you don't need to do anything beyond seeing what has already been done by God in Jesus. You are then already buried into Christ's death and raised into His resurrection - that is your sure and certain guarantee of belonging to another, forever.

Christ died for all your sins. He is your holiness, righteousness and sanctification. Holiness, now, is about resting in that truth - trusting, relaxing in those astonishing promises.

The truth of this, and this alone, is the good news.

The opposite, then, of sin, is confidence in someone other than us -

Jesus Christ, The Saviour!

There's a Reason

"Men need only to acquire what the incarnate Son possesses to be delivered from their bondage and return to the wholeness of creation, and it was precisely to bestow the life which He Himself possessed that Christ was born into the world".

Man and the Incarnation by Gustav Wingren (expounding Irenaeus).

Sometimes, it's useful to remind ourselves what is behind where we state things count (as I've done this month). In a recent video on YT, Dr Jordan Cooper sought to underline the real significance of essential Christianity regarding Soteriology (the work of Salvation) and Christology (the nature of Christ's incarnation) by highlighting the key theme and objective of these truths - God is for us in this vital revelation. That's what Jesus Himself is affirming in His statements to Nicodemus (John 3:16,17) and Paul proclaims when he states that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).

God, in both nature and intention, is truly and thereby fully revealed in the flesh and life of His beloved Son (John 1:1-18, especially verse 17). We now draw near to God because of His providing the means whereby we are brought in (faith and baptism. Romans chapters 3-6) and sustained (the supper - 1 Corinthians 10:16) by the very real closeness of Christ Himself, who has ascended bodily to the Father, and the thereby 'filled all things with Himself" (Ephesians 1:23).

The message is vitally clear. The divine and human natures of Christ are at the very centre of God's saving work and are now at the very heart of all that is being made new in heaven and earth (Revelation 5:5-14), so our life and faith revolve around this touchstone - this one wondrous foundation.

"Religion" (godliness misconstrued to be in our impoverished merits, rather than purely sourced and sustained in Christ - Colossians 2:9-14) wants to sever us from this profound and astonishing splendour. Error acts in the same fashion as the beguiler in Eden, expelling us from the genuine goodness of what God has done, hence Paul's clear warning to us: "but I am fearful, that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, you will be lead astray from genuine devotion to Christ "(via 'another' Jesus. 2 Corinthians 11:3).

True Godliness is the Gospel of full redemption (1 Corinthians 15). If it were anything 'other' (less) than this, then then procuring of what had fallen (us) would not have been achieved by Incarnation and Propitiation. We are not destined to become holy 'souls', inhabiting a disembodied domain, but resurrected, physical creatures forever.

When we begin to allow these radiant truths to take their place in our lives, then, we begin to see that, aside from meeting God in His gracious gifts (word and sacrament), our "neighbour is the holiest thing presented to our senses" (Lewis - The Weight of Glory), because there, we may truly see the truly glorified (Our Saviour) glorifying Himself amidst that which has been entirely taken up and loved exclusively by Him.

This is the true splendour of life now, and all that is to come!

Looking in all the wrong places.

 "Do not hinder or prevent the way forward of each other". Romans 14:13.

"What Christianity promises is not the removal of evil from this world, but the taking of this twisted estate into the mystery of Christ's work in His offering in death and resurrection". Robert Farrar Capon.

I've had some interesting moments this week as a result of my last entry here.

Let me share a few.

First, there was a discussion I came across on the Roman Catholic 'Pints with Aquinas' website, where the Orthodox artist/Iconographer Jonathan Pageau seeks to argue that nudity in Christian art is inherently a problem, because, in his opinion, such an estate is only meant to be shared in the marriage union (the bedroom) and is troublesome elsewhere. His reasons for saying this are interesting - what was 'good' about Roman art was apparently incorporated into the realm of iconography by the church (the use of Roman attire and stature) whilst what was bad was discarded (human sexuality, expressed in the naked form). This slight of hand omits the obvious - Christianity, in this process, adopted what it believed it could "baptise" as honourable, but along with that would come the capacity to 'raise' all other beliefs and practices whilst actually muting the vital truths of the Apostles (hence, the need for the Reformation). This approach also negates the whole scope of the early church's attitude to the body which I touched on last time.

As Phillip Johnson notes in his chapter on the body in his work (Six Modern Myths), these attitudes owe far more to Greek thinking (dualism) than the actual theology of Paul and his associates in the first century.

Next, there was another exposition which sought to set the value of nudity in art in the context of God's acceptability of nakedness within marriage, at least recognising that the estate itself was good, if somewhat limiting its realm. Other popular Christian works on this matter (Lewes Smedes "Sex for Christians", for example), seek to set similar 'wholesome' boundaries.

The problem with all of these approaches is that they seeks to apply the wrong lessons to the issue at hand.

In his brilliant essay on Equality, C S Lewis notes that the problem with Naturism (communal nakedness as a way of life) isn't the disrobing of the body, but the pernicious belief that by merely doing so, we can all live in harmony and all would be well. This, he notes, is just as bad as adopting National Socialism as a good idea. So much, then, for living entirely without clothes, but he doesn't leave it there. We all know, he continues, deeply, that there is a yearning to be truly naked - truly free, and that desire is a good and proper thing.

It's good because it was right in Eden.

It's good because the church lived and practiced a faith in Christ that truly understood the worth and value of the body, unclothed and clothed.

It's good because nakedness in art and life is meant to express something wholesome and holy - an expression of what God intended.

It is in the Creational and Redemptive crux of God's reconciling work in Christ, as Irenaeus showed, that we find the vital and valid source of our bodily identity.

That is really where we need to "draw the waters" from on such a subject!

It's time we genuinely applied Paul's sage counsel in Romans 14 and allow genuine growth in this respect, rather than hinder the faith and life of others. That is what Christ actually desires.

And...?

 "Neither I, nor any like me, can attain the wisdom of Paul, who, whilst among you, accurately and ardently taught the word of truth, continuing to do so in the epistle he then wrote to you, by which you may continue to edify yourselves in the faith that this has brought to you, which nurtures us all, granting us a true hope in the love of God through Christ, evidenced in our lives toward our neighbours. For when we become filled by this, we can fulfil what is required by knowing Him who is love and far from sin".  Polycarp's letter to the Phillippian church.

They kept on coming this month... the questions.

Should Christians take their kids out on Halloween for neighbourhood treats, and if they do, what should they do about all the 'negative' stuff? Should Christian women attend a mixed gym, and if they do, what should they be wearing - oh, come to think of it, should believers be going to a gym at all (never mind a bar or a leisure centre)?

You get the idea.

It's useful at such moments to think back to the early days of the church, when men like Polycarp were earnestly serving the likes of John and Paul.

He (Polycarp) relates in one of his writings how there was an occasion when he and John were enjoying a visit to a Roman bath house in Ephesus (let that sink in), but it was cut short by the fact that a man named Cerinthius - a vocal opponent of all John taught - was also present, so the two of them made a hasty departure.

It's moments like these that should make us pause.

Peter had no issue fishing "naked" (John 21:7) amongst his brethren when Jesus tells Him to cast his nets once again - it would have been quite a common thing in that region (which makes you think about Jesus' words afresh in Luke 6:29! - then look at Matthew 6:25-29). Scripture had no reservation about using the example of the gymnast (naked athlete) to speak of our running as believers in our life of faith (Hebrews 12:1).

It's with these things in mind we need to think about the early church and how it viewed the value and place of the body, and what was good when it comes to our employment and enjoyment of this in respect to a meaningful life.

We know from Tertullian in the 2nd century that in very many ways, Christians were normal citizens of Roman towns and cities, and this clearly included using the Roman baths (the leisure centres of their day) for bathing and relaxation (inscriptions have been found which show that some of these facilities were actually employed for baptisms). The Christian writer Hipploytius refers in his writings to a liturgy for such baptism which clearly involved nudity (as well as infant baptism), women having to remove any adornments from their hair first. In such ceremonies, re-clothing upon coming from the waters symbolised the renewal of becoming part of the family of God's church.

In his extensive study of the subject, Roy Bowen Ward notes how mixed baths were common in the empire 'Pre-Hadrian' (76-138 AD), and in many places these were the key facilities for normal bathing and cleansing, so would have been viewed as commonplace as our sporting and health centres today.

I touch on all of this here purely to raise the way we need to look at many of these issues the way that would have been done in the days of the Apostles themselves:

"For it has seemed to good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements - that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality. If you keep these, you do well" (Acts 15:28 &29).

That's why in early Christianity, nudity and all, was fine.

It says we have a lot to learn.

Now Arriving

 As they say in the US,  "Word".

Healing the deepest wound of all

"Having set harsh men over them, they oppressed them continually with arduous burdens".

Exodus 1:11.

So I watched part of an interview this week between the actor Matthew Mc Conaughey and Psychologist Jordan Peterson. The issue was how the actor found a way past his own issues (agnosticism), by believing God had told him to get past his theological and practical complacency by 'taking the wheel' (responsibility) and getting on with what was necessary.

I also watched another piece - an examination of Peterson's discussion with Joe Rogan on the serpent in the wilderness incident (Numbers 21), which Christ refers to in respect to His own crucifixion (John 3:14).

Both of these pieces are seeking to identify 'truth' derived from Biblical materials and concepts - the question is what are the 'liberating' concepts identified, and are they what really counts in respect to our standing before God.

In the first video, for example, Mc Conaughey states that his 'awakening' broke him away from that God was someone who continually forgives to a being who is clearly requiring much more from him. Peterson responds to this by saying that it's no mistake that Christ is 'finally' viewed (in the book of Revelation) as a judge, not as a redeemer, and that such a process of awareness is what really counts for us.

Peterson takes a similar route with the wilderness incident, saying what this and Christ's crucifixion really point us to is confronting our deepest fears and reconciling ourselves to these to bring about a necessary healing. This, notes Steve Turley, is totally in line with the 'orthodox traditions' of Christian spirituality.

So let's summarise what these materials are saying.

God's forgiveness really doesn't bring about too much unless you're prepared to 'get real' in respect to taking charge of yourself. You have to see God as, principally, judge, who is continually requiring improvement out of you (or your church community) if you want to stay up with Him, and real growth takes place when God takes you to the point of your deepest fears and gets you to overcome them.

Goodness.

As I looked at what had been laid out here, a couple of things readily came to mind.

1. These guys have clearly never really wrestled with the writings of the Apostle Paul on the actual nature of grace and faith, as unpacked especially in the book of Romans, because of the saving work of Jesus Christ and

2. If they think these approaches are sound, then they need to spend some time under the rigour of a system like the one Martin Luther endured as an Augustinian monk to understand where such total adherence to such approaches really leave us.

God's answer to our deepest trouble - sin - is not cheap or easy - it costs far, far more than we can afford or resource from ourselves, so if we think we're making some grade, we are far more lost than we realise.

The answers these presentations provide were all in play in the medieval religious system, and they all failed, miserably, once the delusion of thinking we make the difference was unmasked - we don't. Christ does.

The solution we provide to our day has to be far deeper and substantial than mind games and religious mysticism. Christ alone is the blood and bone of God's redemptive work in creation - a substantial cosmos made far more real by the Lamb slain.

That is the prize worth all - the treasure so freely given.

The Issue

I want to raise a question in your minds.

Cast your thoughts back to the days preceding March, 2020.

I’m sure we can all recall moments of trouble as well as rejoicing, but life in general appeared to be moving along in a direction that, most of the time, made a great deal of sense.

I was looking back this week over my regular correspondence with others between 2014 and 2018, and there was a great deal of commendable activity and at least the possibility that things would continue to flourish in to the future - yes, there were social and spiritual troubles, but there was still in evidence a sense of hopeful possibilities for what was to come.

Something has clearly changed.

Yes, we may want to disagree about exactly what has happened, when it did, and why, but the very fact that we’ve lived through a moment when our nation decided that keeping Gyms and Casinos open whilst churches were shut so tight that even the clergy were not allowed to enter these premises should deeply ring a profound statement of concern in every one of us.

I would say that the implementations we witnessed in 2020 wrote large the ‘mission statement’ of our nation, and it was not a healthy one.

That brings me to today.

After a month and a half of the most extraordinary events, we witnessed the swearing in of a leader that within that same time frame had already been rejected by the very same party who have now made him leader. He is aided by a Chancellor who has already rescinded the cardinal policies of the prior short-lived administration, bar one - the country’s new allegiance to PESCO (take a look for yourself into the ramifications of that), but his securing office wasn’t the story which speaks loudest today - for that, we have to look toward a much older relationship between our country and its ancient shores.

Back in the 9th century, the part of the world where I live became defined as a buffeted realm which sought to establish and promote a domain of common civil law in the face of the arrival of those wanting to bring only chaos and violence to the country’s shores. The leader who forged this order over his lifetime was Alfred, and he found the way to do so through the deep convictions of his Christian faith which became the cornerstone of his rule.

In the town of Dover today - on the day we were introduced to a leader who was sworn into office not upon those sacred scriptures so cherished by Alfred and his heirs, but upon the pages of a non-Christian religious text, people arriving illegally in the country broke into the houses of pensioners and others and robbed them of their goods before ‘evaporating’ into the area. No doubt, as happened in another Kent town a few days ago, a large number of these assailants will be apprehended at some point, but these incidents speak to the loss of the respect and dignity people should show to one another, and the dissolving of the basic moral codes, the consequences of which are beginning to regularly impinge upon the much larger canvas of our society.

I am very aware that there are various related social and ethical issues in this present malady, but it is imperative for us to understand that many of our greatest woes are being injected into our culture from the top down.

When will we recognise the utter redundancy of where our nation has reached?

How much worse, over this coming season, will things have to become before we consider the times aright and ask ourselves…

What can be done about this?

The channels are open for further thoughts, and I hope this will stimulate many prayers.

C A P T I V I T Y

 "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget it's fighting skill, and let my tongue become inept in my ashen mouth - for I have renounced the source of my life and joy". Psalm 137: 5 & 6.

Sometimes, our analysis of where we are has to become brutally blunt.

When God's people found themselves entirely submissive to the will and the mockery of those who viewed their entire veneration of the most high as nothing, they knew to entertain their sentiments to ridicule and to parade such mockery openly was not a life to be accepted - the cry was for liberation from a culture which viewed godliness as irrelevant.

How deep has the captivity of the present become for the contemporary church?

Perhaps a historical parallel will jolt our thinking.

THE "TEMPLE"

In 1517, Leo X devised to finance a new age of grandeur for the old tombs of the Vatican by issuing a global financing program through the issuing of a new offer of indulgences to the population at large. This would be zealously carried out by priests of the new schedule visiting every town and city and informing those that would gather that they could ease the purgatorial trials of themselves and granny if they merely gave their coinage to the grand scheme of raising their saving institution to heights that would be the envy of heaven.

This quickly became married in many places to the other 'device' this vital institution employed to escape some measure of terror after death - the custom of visiting supposedly sacred relics, the viewing and veneration of which was believed to provide all manner of reliefs, depending on how 'holy' the item was.

The release from all this religious industry would come when an Augustinian Monk exposed these fabricated myths to the searing light of the scriptures, and found all of it to be ridiculous folly - hence, the Great Reformation, but Luther was all to aware of just how quickly the vain imaginings of men would arise and begin to bury that radiance - the error of the legalists is quick to find common ground with the machinations of fallen works religion!

Which brings us to the 2020's...

THE DARK TOWER

In March of 2020, much of the world found itself placed under a new 'edict' of control and restraint, which would only be lifted when certain 'indulgences' were in place and appropriately implemented to everyone. In spite of universal health guidelines that stated that such an action would be ineffective, the constraint was imposed anyway, and the world found itself prisoned to a new dogma of control by a 'papacy' of leaders who would rigorously prosecute any deviation or questioning of their policy.

The first 'remedy' provided to those so constrained by such powers was their rendition of relics - a remedy that, it was promised, would ease the suffering of the day by wholesale trust in the 'magic' it would provide - remedy from the plague and sure means of preventing transmission of the virus. The people succumbed in droves to the myths of the 'priests' of the hour, not granted any mainstream opportunity to hear the voices of those who urged caution in respect to such certain calls of 'peace and safety'.

This remedy was soon followed by another - the indulgence of owning a 'passport' which would identify you as one of the 'pure'; fully inoculated, you would be 'free' (under the new and continually changing stipulations) to do some - few - of those privileged things you had done before, whilst those who had refused such strictures would now become deemed the damned of society, restricted to only do those menial things which were absolutely necessary, and only when allowed to do so.

The poison of all this has now, in small measure, been broken by the reality that has set in - the 'magic' has miserably failed, and the consequences are now beginning to come home, but the question painfully remains, why did so many who, supposedly, would view themselves as the 'children' of the Reformation succumb to such brutality?

THE HIDEOUS TRUTH

The reality we face is akin to that witnessed when the Judaisers worked amongst the new churches planted by Paul and others. Seeding a message which rigorously required adherence to a 'law' which, it was taught, superseded any adherence to the very singular work of justifying grace, they spread a poison which left believers uncoupled from God's grace and the life that comes through this.

We have evidenced such a thing today.

We have left behind God's singular health in Christ and adhered to a foul scheme which has emptied us of what is vital.

That is what happened when the church as a whole chose to, without question, relent wholesale to the social requirements of closure and 'hygienic' control in 2020.

It has been in captivity ever since.

The world is currently beginning to wake up to the vast cost of the error it has accepted in respect to all of this.

Will the church do the same?

All the evidence to date is that it will not, and that its captivity will therefore continue, as will it's 'service' without life.

The Direction of Travel

 So, this week, Jamie Franklin presented an Irreverend special podcast in which he sought to examine what was missing from the present in respect to what would place Christianity front and centre again in respect to the people of the country. This happened on the cusp of today's events, bringing another sudden change in who is running that country and what we can expect to see in the days ahead.

A neighbour of mine was keen to discuss this when I arrived home tonight, and a couple of things quickly came to mind. First was the Bonhoeffer analysis that I quoted here recently (regarding how stupidity will often rule people's thinking until something acutely expedient comes down upon them, requiring immediate action), and second was that twinned with such mental negligence at present is a huge amount of complacency.

People may talk about change, but it takes a very real and unsettling period of discontent before there's any actual momentum to bring that about, and even then, the results are very far from certain (I could give various national, historical examples here, but just bring it down to how many times a week in your own life you expect certain things to be so, and they're simply not).

Which brings me back to Jamie's podcast.

He is most certainly seeking to say something in respect to what he identifies as 'missing' from the present (C S Lewis made the same case in a fascinating piece on magic being Science's orphaned nephew, and Eric Mataxas has made similar allusions on how the world isn't actually listening to actual contemporary science when it comes to the existence of God), but I still find myself facing a very troubling question here, again related to my recent piece on the failure of the church during the recent crisis.

Here it is -

Surely, at least some of the Christian church here and elsewhere understands and believes a large measure of what Jamie addresses - that without the enchantment of the faith, we really have very little to say to others or ourselves - would you say that is true?

In which case, why did we fail so miserably as a whole during that crisis?

Where was the church?

Where was the message that causes us to overcome the world with the bountiful splendour of God leading us above and beyond what so easily besets the nations?

Where was that lustre which, in so many prior ages, caused God's children to indeed be evidenced as a city upon a hill, radiant and sharp-focused on the majesty and glory of God's excellence in super-abundant grace?

Take a listen to what Jamie has to say, and consider for yourself the matter at hand.

The View from Here

 "I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my own ingenuity.

I know nothing". 

William Shatner as Captain James T Kirk. Star Trek II.

Brian J did a superb job recently on picking-up on William Shatner's recent Variety magazine interview regarding his encounter with the vastness of the void in his Blue Origin voyage out of the atmosphere. I won't unpack it here, and steal the thunder, but it causes us to consider what, exactly "speaks" deep inside us and why.

We all need a moment of true encounter in respect to who and what we are, but where that takes us will depend deeply as to what, or more importantly, who is revealed to us in that manner of moment. Many speak of revelations of themselves, harsh those may be, or about the nature of life, but all of these pale in comparison to the meeting of the one who fashioned and holds all things.

This is the manner of encounter that we all need.

The Ordeal

 "You should not be surprised by the trial of fire, dear ones, that has come upon you, as if this testing were something strange, but it allows us to share in the suffering of Christ, so you may also truly rejoice when His true glory is made evident".

1 Peter 4:12 &13.

These past days have truly been a trial by fire. When the church, never mind the world, closes its doors to essential ministry and worship, and only opens them again under the strictest measures (by which point many feel they can only 'congregate' away from everyone), we encounter a measure of incarceration not seen in our lifetimes.

No doubt many of us find ourselves yearning for an end, or at the very least, a demise, to the crippling 'cloud' of lethargy and general despondency that has gripped the world since 2020, and there may well be moments we find ourselves echoing the words of Elijah amidst the inferno of conflict with the 'powers' of his day:

"It is enough! Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than those who went before me" (1 Kings 19:4).

This man of God, who had stood so faithful in the fulcrum of the crucible had no strength left in himself - the days had cost him greatly, and he believed the time had come to exit from the fray.

Over the last few weeks of my leave, I have sought to find again what makes it possible for us to endure (notice, in Elijah's case, how it was God taking the common things - sleep, food and drink - that became the means of his renewal).

Back in the start of the 1970's, a rented building in the heart of Sunset Strip in LA, found amidst all the bars, clubs and strip joints, became known as 'His Place', and every night, numerous youngsters from all manner of backgrounds would come and hear a young preacher named Arthur Blessitt tell them the amazing news about Jesus.

The authorities wanted it stopped - the courts ruled to close it down, but what followed was an amazing story of faith and spiritual recovery.

It wasn't easy - Arthur found himself chained to a cross... literally, but the consequences of that were a ministry which took him the world over to share the good news.

The darkness of the hour is great, but the one who takes the common things and causes them to feed and sustain us in unexpected ways is here! He will take us through, and the world will most certainly see something beyond its miserable expectations when that day dawns.

He will aid us in our time of need, so let us find His care and go forward in the majesty of that strength, that His grace may abound.

An unspeakable Truth?

 "I am astonished that you are so readily departing from Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different message". Galatians 1:6.

Some entries are hard to make, because they must cause us to face some hard truths. This is a consideration that certainly falls into that category.

You may have watched the recent discussion on the Unbelievable page which presented the differences between Christians in regards to how the church responded in the last few years to the requirements imposed during the pandemic.

John Stevens of the FIEC seeks to maintain that the closure/containment response was proper and that Christians who questioned or rejected such measures were wrong - the 'Romans 13' argument was the only way to go.

That all sounds good until you begin to examine the actual consequences of churches adopting this 'sound' policy.

In a shocking piece for the Brownstone Institute this week, Sarah Hinckleigh Wilson seeks to lift the veil on the profound damage these mandates have caused. 

She writes: "I don’t have any reason to think that the architects behind the lockdowns were looking to destroy religious life per se, but they couldn’t have come up with a more sneakily effective way to do it. They manipulated clergy into becoming voluntary enforcers. They got church members to turn on each other and their pastors. Some members ended up leaving for other churches, but many left for no church at all. Likewise, pastors have been peeling out of the ministry in unprecedented numbers. 

Even with the overall decline in church membership in America, there are now nowhere near enough clergy to fill all the congregations in need. 

 I am distressed enough about this for the church’s own sake. But the ramifications are wider still.

The lockdowns have been marvelously effective, not at stopping the spread of Covid, but at accelerating the breakdown of civil society. It is beyond dispute that robust civil institutions existing apart from and without reference to the state are what prevent the state from becoming authoritarian and ultimately totalitarian. 

The "compassion-hacking" of American churches did not in itself save anyone’s life, but it did help to break down another civil-society barrier standing in the way of governmental totalisation. As Hannah Arendt warned us, authoritarian and totalitarian schemes do not work without mass buy-in from the constituency. Buy-in requires people to be isolated, lonely, atomized, and stripped of all meaning. So if you wanted to advance the authoritarian cause in America, from the left or from the right, you could hardly do better than breaking the back of the churches first—the very communities that exist first and foremost for the lost and lonely. 

It grieves me how many churches offered up their backs for the breaking, sincerely convinced that they were doing the right thing for the good of their neighbours, even while abandoning these very same neighbours. 

Jesus exhorted us to love our neighbors and our enemies, to stand beyond reproach, and to be as innocent as doves, but he also taught us that there’s a time to be as cunning as serpents, to withhold our pearls from swine, and to keep sharp eyes open for "wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing".

The great tragedy in all of this is just how right these observations are.

The decline actually commenced prior to the pandemic, with fewer churches opening in America, for example, than were closing, but the lockdown process caused this to escalate at a massive rate, many churches encountering a reduction of up to 50% in congregation strength, whilst many smaller companies have never re-opened.

This hard reality is troubling enough, but it is accompanied by the fact that the 'containment' of public worship and Christian expression was substituted by people becoming almost entirely dependent for some period on "e-church" to seek to address their spiritual needs. This has actually been merited and encouraged in some quarters as a way forward, but all of this has played entirely into the arena of social "safety" (control) in respects to what can be said and done.

So here we are, far more disrupted, dispersed and destitute than if actual and obvious persecution had broken out - that, no doubt, is yet to come.

What brings about such a comprehensive failure?

Why did so many choose to merely cave-in to the supposed 'reasonableness' of the strictures without any objection, at least until very late in the day?

In a superb analysis of the tragedy of his own time, Christian theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer shows us exactly what occurs in these situations.

When we trade our birth right for a socio-political 'mess of pottage' that brings no peace or safety, no remedy to our ills but merely compounds them, then we have truly dis-inherited ourselves.

The greatest tragedy of all, no doubt, is that even now, the stupidity prevails, and many congregations are of the mind-set that they can merely 'get past' all the barbs that have so wounded the faithful, leaving the present to hide any remaining scars, but you cannot remove vital organs and expect the patient to continue as before.

Enormous harm has been caused to the Christian church in the West, and the awful truth is that what has been established in that endeavour may well proceed in the near future to return in other forms to finish what has been started... what will the 'leaders' of these companies do then?

Amidst the Bones

 "For everything, there is a season, and a purpose, under heaven". Solomon - Ecclesiastes 3:1.

With Autumn nudging its way into the very air of the days, I have been enjoying a few weeks away from the perpetual routines of the office to allow some space for the moment I find myself in.

This season always proves more demanding than the rejuvenation of the Spring or the stillness of Winter, purely because nature is shedding it's Summer garb, and that means lots of yard work. When your home resides under four oak trees, the period from mid-September to early December is filled with numerous hours of first, dealing with thousands of Acorns and, once that wanes, a good month of collecting and removing the fallen leaves.

It is clearly a time when the impact of change preys heavily in your thoughts, and especially in respect to how nature itself pairs back to the very 'bones of the earth' in order to prepare for a fresh appearing after lying fallow.

Such a cycle is vital to creation. Prior to the fall, the world was to be continually replenished by just such a method (Genesis 1:29), cultivated and worked by the role of Adam as a gardener (Genesis 2:15). Clearly, the Lord's intent from that initial moment of our union on was to cause us to learn from what we engaged with, the very soil and seed seeking to 'tell' us of the miracle of life, and a life, like creation itself, which burst from the 'darkness and void' of what appeared empty - buried and unseen.

The very aim and intention of this season is to provoke. When truly 'seen', it should unsettle us, because it reminds us that the realm of shedding and decay is imperative if new life is to be evidenced.

In His dealings with Israel, the Lord takes the Prophet Ezekiel into a graveyard - a valley filled with death - and asks if anything can be done about this state of natural finality. Ezekiel would have found no resolve to such a trouble if he had visited alone, but he understood the essential nature of who was with him - the prerogative wasn't with him, or that natural state of affairs, but with the maker of all things.

So, as I collected my fourth sackful of debris this morning, I considered the 'bones' of life - the fact that I'm now of an age where my body is beginning to often complain when I walk for a while or sit too much, or just seek to make it into another Winter. I think of all the wreckage of the last few years, which has literally become a field of the bones of those lost, principally due to the wilful negligence of authorities arbitrary policies that have left us far more destitute than a few years ago. I see the 'season' of shedding upon us, and I recognise the validity of the Lord calling us to His side in that place, asking us to expectantly watch as He acts as only He can, changing and transforming what is beyond repair into, first, something structured and operable and, second, filling this with the miracle of life.

Occasionally, some word or deed appears amongst us that manages a measure of the first of these - a message of hope or inspiration that makes us sit up and take notice, but something far more profound is necessary to give such a moment "wings" - to turn it into a realm whereby life and health truly come upon us and spread amongst us - a genuine euchatastrophie!

I'm thankful for the Autumn. I love its richness and its colour, its mellow moments and it 'heads up' ability to sing about the coming winter, but I also know that these 'bones' tell us so much about our own mortality and need for resurrection.

Let's hope and pray that such considerations impact upon our oh so easily distracted world in the season to come. Men are in great need of the one who is, eternally, the resurrection and the life.

The Secret Places of Grace

 "I sowed every star into place, so you would remember my name, I made it all for you, You are my masterpiece, You are the reason I sing, this is my song for you".

Dancing on the waves - We The Kingdom.

"The Lord longs to be gracious to you. Therefore, He will rise and show you compassion, such is His justice. Draw near to Him". Isaiah 30:18.

There's a marvellous, unceasing, unending place at the very core and heart of God, that is defined by one characteristic - GRACE!

"Your forgiveness is like sweet, sweet honey on my lips, like the sound of a symphony to my ears, like holy water to my lips" (Holy Water - We the Kingdom).

We so need to start there, dear friends. We need a reformation that stems entirely from that certain, precious truth - the source which laid Jesus in a manger, and held Him to and through the Cross; an eternal, precious splendour that causes all things and brings them to their completion.

It is this precious, unrelenting goodness that changes everything - it lifts us from our empty and broken misery, the ruination of sin, and takes us completely, safely, home.

Janell Downing wrote an absolutely superb and timely piece for the Mockingbird website recently which spells out this most precious, transforming splendour, and how it is so often birthed in the most arduous of circumstances.

Janell says much that resonates - about the way we so often tie each other into bonds that God does not desire, but also how Jesus gifts us with those places of refreshment even amidst such troubles - the table is open to us to come and feast, without 'money or price', because the blood shed on Calvary has cleared all such demands!

Jesus has made us precious once again, has purchased this marred but cherished world back to His Father - such a good thing is evident in that amazing, extraordinary grace.

Health comes when such splendour is our joy and peace. Nothing else comes close to the beauty of holiness encapsulated in this redeeming good news, so come, let us return to this single source of life and health and peace.

May Christ have the pre-eminence amongst us by this great grace alone!

May the favour of the Lord settle upon us, establishing us and our lives, in all that we do. (Psalm 90:17).

The Unfolding Truth

 "You won't give up the search, for the ghost in the halls".

Building A Mystery - Sarah Maclachlan.

"If you seek it like a rare and precious thing, and search for its hidden treasures, then understanding will establish you in the rightness of wisdom". Proverbs 2: 4&5.

Recently, Scientific American published a very important article into the current nature of where our understanding has reached regarding back holes, quantum dynamics and the nature of perception and the universe as a whole. What makes this particular item so significant is that what is becoming essentially evident about the nature of material existence very clearly derives and builds upon the basis that the realm we inhabit had a very real and definable beginning. The universe is not self- perpetuating or eternal - physical material was given form and purpose from outside of what now exists, and the structure and intentionality of this work clearly alludes to the work and foresight of a master Creator.

Which brings me, once again, to a brilliant little piece by Dr Jordan Peterson. In a talk which touches on the profound scope of where Physics has taken us (photons from stars billions of light years away, existing to come to our gaze!), he looks at how the early part of the book of Genesis unpacks the vital connection between something's existence and definition (in this case, Adam naming the animals). What is being explored here is that it isn't merely enough for something to exist - to truly have 'form', it has to be something that is understood in respect to its 'place' and purpose in relation to the rest of creation. What is also related to this is the way in which "logos" (Word) is the very means whereby this process takes place - as God 'speaks' light into existence, so Adam brings about the essential definition of the creatures he shares the earth with by 'naming' (perceiving) them. This will ultimately occur in the moment he comprehends Eve - seeing her and himself as 'one flesh' (something which Paul will take up when he seeks to expound on the nature of Christ and the Church).

What these astonishing discoveries and considerations address is the manner in which the genuine wealth of truth - the weave of vital theology - still weaves and knits its way through the very fabric of our existence, from the most fundamental to the most radiant level of what we know and what is unfolding. Wisdom recognises the inherent rightness and vitality of this - how it grants stability to our lives and strength to our bones, because it reveals how deeply we have been 'held' in the magnificence and consideration of one so much higher and mightier than ourselves.

Certainly worth a few considered moments of our time today....