Ever noticed how in our younger student years we gravitate towards the issues and debates which surround 1 Corinthians? They really heat us up as we identify in various ways with the grocery-like list of church-problems which these pages contain…
Then after life is lived for awhile, the ups and downs of ministry experienced, 2 Corinthians comes into focus as a close companion with understanding and empathy for the situations we face as we live for Jesus in this world.
nice chatting
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
Recent Posts
It was my very first training seminar with Langham Preaching. April 2009. We were based at the OMF Guest House in Chiangmai, Thailand. As I wandered the property, I came across this striking quotation on one of the walls: So striking, in fact, that I stopped to take its photo! But is it really true?…
Ten years ago, Ode to Georgetown was my response to being surprised by grief when the only church I had ever pastored closed its doors. Last week brought the news that the theological college which I attended, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), was to close most of its Chicagoland campus. I have been feeling a…
I am neither painter nor poet, musician nor actor. With Art and Music and Drama classes at school, I was present in body—but absent in spirit and skill. However, as a teacher, there has been the occasional flare of creativity in the crafting of assignments. One of my favourites is one of my first ones.…
John Stott was the first one to help me see the tension in Jesus’ teaching on salt and light. They are pictures for how his disciples are to live in society. Salt pulls them in, keeping them involved. Light holds them back, keeping them distinctive. Being light responds to ‘the danger of worldliness’, while being…
I find myself gravitating to 2 Cor 4 vs 7-9 – especially at this time of the year – it is timely to recognise that apart from God we can do nothing – we need to be malleable in the potter's hands -poem below
2 Corinthians 4 vs. 7-9 We Have This Treasure in Earthen Vessels
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels
That the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us
At times we struggle with life, with its ups and downs we wrestle
We get wrapped up in the stress of every day life, over it we fuss
In the midst of this we need to turn to Jesus and in him nestle
It’s not for us to do things in our own strength, to God second guess
We need to allow God to shape us, to us be the mortar, him the pestle
Open so God may mold and shape us, our lives be in God and not of us
We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed, we are perplexed
But not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed
For in these things God can build our character, of this I am convinced
That as we open ourselves to him, his Spirit in our lives can be employed
Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, of his love he will us remind
For he to us gives good gifts, and a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.
Mark Maffey, August 2007
(NKJV)