A young Barack Obama, who would one day be the first Black President of the United States of America. It was nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who coined the phrase, “a long obedience in the same direction.” In Beyond Good and Evil, he argues that the enduring achievements of civilisation arise through sustained discipline not fleeting inspiration. …
Where justice and mercy meet
Tel Kedesh in Upper Galilee, thought by some to be the possible location of one of the cities of refuge mentioned in Joshua 20. My Uncle Bill McCrindle, who lived for many years at Beecroft, was a great storyteller. As a small child, I lived in Wollongong, then moved overseas, and returned to attend boarding …
When God commands the unthinkable
A candid image of Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth (1886–1968). Joshua 11:16-23 After a church service where the great Swiss theologian Karl Barth had preached, a man greeted him at the door and said, “I’m an astronomer, and as far as I am concerned, the whole of Christianity can be summed up by saying, ‘Do unto …
What do these stones mean?
Known in Arabic as Al-Maghtas, the traditional site of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptiser. Centuries before, Joshua may have led the Israelites across the Jordan River in this vicinity, which may be why John chose the location to baptise his converts. For Christians, the third most holy site in the world, after …
Finding my pace in the presence of God
Joshua chapters 3 and 4 describe how Israel crossed the Jordan River into the land of Canaan. More about the ethics of that next week. After forty years sequestered in the desert as virtual nomads, the people stand on the banks of the Jordan River. Behind them lies a generation shaped by slavery, exodus, testing, and …
