Kev xav

Postings in this category:

• Why Wasn’t the Resurrection More Public?
  If resurrection is the basis of Christian faith, why didn’t Jesus display himself more publicly afterwards? And wouldn’t a more public ascension have made matters easier for doubting believers?
• Sour Grapes
  Not a discussion of Aesop’s fable: but a Jewish proverb complaining that God makes children suffer for the sins of their parents. Could a loving God really do such a thing?
• The Severe Face of Love
  Sometimes a father with an unruly child, a child that terrorizes the other children, must take strong action to stop the terror. Do you think God faces the same dilemma with us? How might those actions of defense play out? Does love, sometimes by necessity, take on a severe face?
• Why Are We Waiting?
  Most folk who have ever sought after God can think of times when they have cried out, “If you’re there, why don’t you show me? I’m here and I want to know!” Yet God doesn’t always show up when we think He should. And it doesn’t seem fair. So why is it?
• Our Daily Bread
  The word ‘daily’ in the Lord’s Prayer occurs nowhere else in extant Greek literature. Most scholars agree that this is not the correct translation: but are divided over what it should be. Vim li cas qhov no?
• God Uses Flawed People
  If we see someone in a position of influence betray the standards they profess, most of us are not just reluctant ever to trust that person again: we even struggle with our memories of their past good deeds. Should we just write them off?
• Living with Betrayal
  On a number of occasions, people I deeply trusted and admired as friends and outstanding Christians have betrayed the standards they openly avowed. The pain of it has at times been like a knife twisted in my gut. Is it possible to ever trust such people again?
• 3 Steps to Transformation
  Jeremiah is often known as a prophet of ‘doom and gloom.’ Tseem, in the middle of a passage denouncing Israel’s sins and warning of coming judgement, we find this gem of encouragement – a manifesto concerning the true source of fulfilment in life and God’s agenda for bringing us into that place.
• The ‘Connectedness’ of God
  One of the hardest things for us to comprehend is what it really feels like to be someone else. If I bang my finger, I am in agony: but if you break your leg I can’t feel it. I can only try to empathize. For us, that is probably just as well. But there is someone who can truly understand…
• Why Does God Hide?
  It is a question that’s been asked, not just by agnostics and atheists, but many a disappointed enquirer and even many believers, frustrated by God’s seeming inaccessibility. There’s no single answer appropriate for every case: but I’d like to offer one key thought that can help our understanding
• Finding Wisdom in Unexpected People
  A recent discussion in LinkedIn’s ‘Books and Authors’ group raised questions about the proliferation of books and blogs, some of which are by people of very limited literary ability; and it got me reminiscing about someone I met many years ago…
• Love needs a Champion
  The Song of Solomon declares that: “Love is strong as death … Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away.” And the apostle Paul says that it… “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” And yet love has an intrinsic weakness: it cannot compel; because love, to be love at all, must be a voluntary choice.