What will you discover today?

• 

  In Exile with Ezekiel: God’s Restoring Power

  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. EZEKIEL 36: 25-27 — It would be all too easy to blame our lack of missional success as God’s people on the fact that we are a disenfranchised minority. Or perhaps, we might think, i...

  Read

• 

  In Exile with Ezekiel: God’s Loving Promise

  ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’ […] They will return to [the land] and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people,...

  Read

• 

  In Exile with Ezekiel: God’s Empowering Presence

  In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the River Kebar, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God […] This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell face down, and I heard the voice of one speaking. He said to me, ‘Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.’ As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. EZEKIEL 1:1, 28; 2:1-2 — Until fairly recently, western Christ...

  Read

• 

  Navigating Transition: Disorientation

  The LORD replied, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ Then Moses said to him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?’ EXODUS 33:14-16 — Have you ever been at sea, with no land in sight? A seemingly endless expanse of water stretches before you and behind. It is easy to lose your bearing...

  Read

• 

  Navigating Transition: Ending Well

  Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. PSALM 103:2-4 — I was once advised, whilst packing for a journey, that deciding what to leave behind was as important as choosing what to take. It was good advice. All change involves a ‘leaving behind’, be it the roles we identified with, relationships we valued, skills or knowledge now redundant, once cherished belongings, or a predictab...

  Read

• 

  Resting in the Empowerment of God | Truth to Power

  Moses said to the LORD, ‘Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.’ The LORD said to him, ‘Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD?  Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.’ Exodus 4:10-12     A chaplain I know once asked how many burning bushes Moses may have missed before he noticed the one we read a...

  Read

• 

  Recognising the Pain that Speaks | Truth to Power

  One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand […] When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Exodus 2:11-12, 15     Moses is in a complex situation. He’s enjoying the pleasures of the palace while his family and co...

  Read

• 

  Responding to the Call with Obedience | Truth to Power

  ‘Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.’ […] Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh. Exodus 7:4-5, 7     How might you make the world a better place? Some people focus on the top-down approach, others want to begin at the grassroots. Still more go...

  Read

• 

  Resisting the Powers that Oppress | Truth to Power

  The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ‘When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.’  The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Exodus 1:15-17     We can often recall the names of people who have taken a stand against evil and injustice, and recount the details of their history-making exploits....

  Read

• 

  The Spirit of Note | The Holy Spirit

  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:1-2 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! Hebrews 9:14 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes...

  Read