Isaiah 40:1-31 One of the sermons of Jonathan Edwards that God used to kindle the Great Awakening in New England in 1734-1735 was titled “The Excellency of Christ.” In it Edwards unfolds the glory of God’s Son by describing the “admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Christ.” His text is Rev 5:5-6, and he unfolds …
Reflection for Good Friday
Detail from Salvador Dalí, “Christ of St. John of the Cross” (1951). Novelist Peter De Vries wrote The Blood of the Lamb about his eleven-year-old daughter, Carol, who died of leukaemia. At the children’s pavilion in the New York hospital the book’s main character, Wanderhope, gets to know other parents going through similar ordeals, including …
Getting to know the Holy Spirit
Artist's rendition of St Augustine of Hippo (354-430). Matthew 22:35-36 According to tradition, the great fourth century Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo was walking along the beach one day, puzzling over the doctrine of the Trinity, the idea that God is one being known to us as three Persons. After a while, Augustine observed a …
Thin red line (sermon – part 2)
Sermon by Rod Benson, Blakehurst Baptist Church, Sunday July 22, 2001 (Part 2 of 2) [continued from here] Job 1:1-3:26 In the midst of his unimaginable pain and anguish, Job’s three friends arrive to sympathise with him and comfort him. They are shocked by his changed appearance, and they begin by sitting with him in the …
Should we design our descendants?
Scene from the 2010 film Never Let Me Go, based on the novel of the same title by Kazuo Ishiguro. Ten days ago, The Guardian newspaper reported that the prospects for victims of heart attack, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and other chronic illnesses took a dramatic turn for the better when it was revealed that human …
