I click on share and then I select embed. The identity of the video clip comes up as a series of letters and numbers. I cut and paste this into my post. I click save, releasing the clip to have a destiny in my blog. And then I select publish and the clip becomes known to a wider audience.
It sounds a bit like the Christmas story to me.
God decides to share, or give, his son to us. He embeds Jesus, or incarnates him, in human flesh to live in this world – filling him with a new identity (check out Mark 1-8). He clicks save, releasing Jesus to fulfill a destiny in this world (check out Mark 9-16). What happens next? My life – like countless others down through the centuries and across the time zones, becomes absorbed in publishing, making this Jesus known.
Here, let me give you the most exquisite example from the St Paul’s church, here in Auckland (New Zealand).
nice chatting this Christmas day
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
Just when I thought that it could not be possible to have another first-hand account of the impact of John Stott’s life (d. 2011), along comes this book by his close friend, John Wyatt. I am always ready to learn more about John Stott, but also about friendship. It fascinates me. It keeps coming up…
Reading stories to grandchildren over Christmas reminded me again of how powerful they can be. They are so compact and simple in presentation, and yet so clever in construction. There are just so many features at work in an effective story. It is some years since I taught narrative preaching, but when I did I’d…
Apart from the eight years in which we were based overseas, Barby has been working at the Refugee Resettlement Center in Auckland since 2002. This year she is a ‘release teacher’, spending one day each week in three different classrooms, with three different age groups. Impressive—and demanding. One day is spent with 11-13 year olds—from…