suffering
I know CS Lewis is ‘the man’. One day when I have nothing to do, I am going to go through Mere Christianity and list all the times he finds the spiritually significant in the utterly ordinary and everyday. That is the simple secret of compelling illustration and nobody does it better. But there is one…
READ MOREAll I want for Christmas is my two front teeth … to sit in a pew stuffed with my kids, giving O Holy Night a real rip together. But it ain’t gonna happen this year. The divas line up to sing this song, don’t they? Go to youtube. They are all there. Mariah. Whitney. Celine.…
READ MOREIt was another disappointing Sunday, as far as the singing goes. In the morning we were treated to lyrics written by Sunday School theologians, mired in mild heresy, sung to awkward tunes which the worship band, so desperate to sing a new song, loved – but which kept the congregation silent. In the evening we…
READ MOREThis book is a horror show. How is it possible that so few years can contain so much horror? Let’s name a few of the ones which Philip Jenkins discusses in The Great and Holy War (OUP, 2014). Horror #1 Not just the Great War, World War 1 was a holy war. Christendom reigned…
READ MOREI’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to write this post for some months. Take a look at the front page of yesterday’s newspaper. You may need to expand it a bit. These are epochal days in the history of India. News of Modi’s stunning landslide election victory deserves inches of headlines and multiple columns.…
READ MOREThe irony was going to be sufficiently delicious for me. Earlier this morning I was on a flight from London to Dubai on an Arab airlines (Emirates). I decided to listen to Handel’s Messiah, that supreme piece of Christian music, on its entertainment system. But God had other ideas. He wanted me to have an…
READ MOREI was seduced by the cover. As I walked through Heathrow the other day, its extremist image and glaring headline captured me. I bought. I read. “The War on Christians: the global persecution of Christians is the unreported catastrophe of our time” The article commences with three observations about the landscape of anti-Christian persecution today,…
READ MOREMy attitude towards alcohol has invited its share of light-hearted mocking over the years. It was the subject of an early post. This is still the post which has provoked the most comments. Some thought that once I joined a UK-based organisation (where attitudes tend to be more spacious), I might change my ways slowly…
READ MOREMy dearest son, I must speak to you. Life has caused a reversal But my sacrifice remains. This is what you are doing. This is what I have done. You threaten me with harm. I threatened those who harmed you. You gain by forcing me to go hungry. I chose to go hungry for your…
READ MOREI was looking over the shoulder of my son as he completed a questionnaire the other day. It was for a study on New Zealand attitudes and values. It came from the department of a reputable university. A statement caught my eye. Admittedly, some of the statements have the spark of inflammatory about them –…
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.