Holy Week Reflections
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Spiritual Exercise, 29th May 2020
Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians In Acts 16 we read more about Paul’s first missionary journey. When they went to Philippi, a leading city in Asia Minor at that time, they met a woman called Lydia. We know that she came to faith and that she was their contact to get into the city. It […]
Spiritual Exercise, 28th May 2020
Paul’s letter to the Philippians Paul remembered the congregation in Philippi with affection and joy. In this letter he expresses his joy over 30 times. It seems to us as if he wrote this letter while he was in a particularly good place, mentally and physically. This assessment cannot be further from the truth. In […]
Spiritual Exercise, 27th May 2020
First Missionary Journey Paul sailed with Barnabas and others from Antioch to Cyprus and then on to the coast and the south-central part of modern-day Turkey. Cyprus was the third largest island of the Mediterranean and important for its copper. It was during this journey that his name changed from “Saul”, to Paul. Paul started […]
Spiritual Exercise, 26th May 2020
Disputes in the early Christian church Paul settled in Antioch in Syria. Although he visited Peter and James in Jerusalem, the rest of the church in Jerusalem did not know much about him. He was familiar with Tarsus and Antioch in Syria and Damascus, his first mission field. There was a dispute in the Jerusalem […]
Spiritual Exercise, 25th May 2020
Who was the Apostle Paul? Paul’s name was Saul before he began his mission to the Greek speaking world. He was born in Tarsus of Cilicia, in modern-day south-eastern Turkey. His father was a Pharisee from the Jewish tribe of Benjamin. He was born a Roman citizen which saved him many times as he could […]
Spiritual Exercise, 22nd May 2020
Mourning/ Bereavement In Old Testament times the people had no faith in a resurrection after death. The Old Testament often referred to Sheol or the underworld as the place where the departed would gather. There is a reference after the Babylonian exile, of a belief that there would be a resurrection of the dead (see […]
Spiritual Exercise, 21st May 2020
Disease In Biblical times disease or illness would have been viewed as the punishment for sins committed, hence the practise of ritual cleansing. The authors of the biblical texts lived at a time before any human being understood the causes of illness in terms of bacterial or viral contamination. They lived in a pre-scientific age, […]
Spiritual Exercise, 20th May 2020
Worries In one sentence Jesus tells His followers and listeners not to worry and in the next that “each day brings troubles of its own”. It dawned upon me that what He was trying to tell his listeners, and us, is that God provides in many ways. He looks after creation and sustains everything. We […]
Spiritual Exercise 19th May 2020
Debt In a recent news article, it was reported that the chancellor warned that “The UK faces a significant recession”, after figures showed the economy shrank by 2% in the first three months of the year.” (https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-uk-facing-significant-recession-chancellor-warns-after-gdp-falls-2-11987378) Articles like this make us worry about our income and job security. We wonder and worry whether we […]