sport
To stage the Opening Ceremony of an Olympics on water instead of land, with crowds gathered along a riverbank instead of in a stadium, and with performers perched on buildings instead of stages… It was outrageously creative. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Ohh, to have been an antipodean fly on the wall…
READ MOREMesmerizing. This clip was sent to me by a friend in Hyderabad. When I found it online, this was the word used in one of the comments. I can only agree. Mesmerizing. I’ve watched it so many times. I went for a little surf to learn a little more. The guy on the right, Shankar…
READ MOREI’ve been thinking a lot about flags and have come to some conclusions. In a church worship setting, the display of a solitary flag ‘up the front’ invites and condones idolatry. If God’s heart is for the nations of the world – and it is – and if his mission is to reach all of…
READ MOREI love sports. In recent years, with the Spirit’s help, I’ve become less obsessive (and less idolatrous) with that ‘love’ and a whole lot less nationalistic as well. Rather sadly, with my current nomadic life, I am rarely able to watch live-sports much anymore. But then there is the internet. It allows you to follow…
READ MOREI have this fascination with the history of cricket in South Asia. “WOW – way to go, Paul. Great opening line. You’ve just lost 99% of your readers.” “But doesn’t speaking from out of our passion tend to gain us an audience?” “Well, yes … but cricket? … and cricket in South Asia? That is asking…
READ MOREWith all the fire and fury, shock and shame, filling the headlines coming out of the USA these days, it is easy to forget that over there, in the footnotes, there are so many tender, inspirational stories. I’ve loved living in two of them in recent months – both related to the game of basketball…
READ MOREEvery time I go on Facebook there seems to be yet another Tom, Dick, Harry or Jane contributing their ‘All Time XI’. How come nobody ever asks me?! Well, with it being 553 days since my last cricket-related post (maybe that is called ‘growing in holiness’) and with far, far too much work to do…
READ MOREThe other day I did something I don’t often do. I purchased a rugby magazine. The cover had themes you might expect for a NZ rugby magazine: ‘world domination … secrets of the All Blacks’ success … why are the All Blacks so good?’ But it was an article tucked inside the back cover that…
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This book shifted me. Maybe I should say that in theory, it is shifting me – but whether anything happens in practice, time will tell. Lets start with a few appetizers: “We are oriented by our longings, directed by our desires” (11). “You are what you love because you live toward what you want” (13). “Our…
READ MOREAbout 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.