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Within weeks of starting my theological training, DA Carson was making sure we knew about Leon Morris. I was just 21 years of age. First impressions tend to linger. Two of the first books which I purchased as a student were The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross and The Gospel According to John. Leon Morris is arguably…
READ MORESixty-two. It was an impressive effort. Once I finished William Dalrymple’s White Mughals I turned to the Glossary and gave Barby the test. A bit of Hindustani here. A bit of Urdu and Persian over there. A lot of Koranic-Mosque terminology everywhere. But out of almost 140 words, she got 62 correct. Very impressive, don’t you…
READ MOREDiversity came far earlier than unity. Appreciating all the different authors, all the different genre and all the different situations – oh yes, any self-respecting student of the Bible has walked the diversity road. That is where we all start. That is the bread and butter of exegesis. We know it is critical. But what…
READ MOREWhile this horrid nativism has been sweeping around the world like a stinky tide, I have been finding solace in a book. John Julius Norwich’s The Great Cities of History (and there is a ‘coffee table’ version, which would make a late, great Christmas gift!). 341 pages. 70 cities. That is less than five pages for each city.…
READ MOREIt is a principle of effective communication. Check out the Economist magazine. It is right there – always there – between the title of the article and the body of the article. A simple, single, summarising sentence. One of the secrets for TED-talk effectiveness is that a given talk can be captured in the length of a tweet.…
READ MOREIn these troubled times, my mind and heart have travelled, yet again, to a hymn. It comes from my bulging ‘hymns I’ve sung only when I have chosen them’ file. The most recent selection of this hymn was almost 30 years ago – and even then I probably chose it only 2-3 times. ‘This post…
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It is not quite ‘In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord’, but still, in the year that Rush Hour was released, I played with chairs. I was with some Baptist youth pastors on the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand. After the training day was over, we headed for the movies. 1998.…
READ MOREIt always used to be one of the wonders of the (democratic) world. Not any more. As Election Day dawns here in India, my mind goes back thirty-five years to when I was a student in Chicago (yes – go, those Cubbies!). In those days I marveled at the way politics worked in the USA.…
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It jolted me. It shouldn’t have, but it did. Waking up in Egypt on the first day of our first training seminar in the region and my Bible reading greets me with these words, the very first words I read: Woe to those who go down to Egypt (Isaiah 31.1a). Already a bit burdened with apprehension,…
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After ‘making a mess in the kitchen, it is time to put a meal on the table’ – a meal that is nutritious, attractive and ordered. That is how my Pakistani friends describe the journey from text to sermon. I love it. Engaging the biblical passage, using skills of observation and exegesis, does make a…
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.