Two weeks ago, when we started this series, we discovered that our situation today, as Christians in Modern Asia, is almost exactly like the situation of Christians in Roman Asia 2000 years ago: Just like us, they were being actively colonized by powerful cultural, economic, political, and religious forces. Just like us, they were living […]
When we first met Abram, he was living in the far east, beyond the Euphrates river, somewhere along the border between what we now call Iraq and Iran. He grew up worshiping local gods — gods that live in mountains and trees and rivers and rocks — with the moon above all. But then a […]
Early on in the Book of Genesis we are told about a great civilization built on a plain, a civilization that was centered around a man-made mountain that was really a temple designed to reach up to the heavens and bring the gods down, so that the citizens of that great civilization could bribe those […]
So, last week, Daniel received a vision of truly terrifying dimensions: he saw a great sea, churned up by the four winds of heaven. And out of that sea crawled four mutated beasts, monstrous predators that devoured everything in their path. But then, out of nowhere, an army of angels arrived — numbered in the […]
As the people get used to the idea that Moses speaks directly for God, an unexpected problem arises. God finally descends to meet his people, but even after all their preparations his people are still not ready. God unpacks the implications of the Sixth Commandment: justice is important, but it must be measured out with […]
So one day Jesus gets a wild hair and he says to his disciples, “hey boys!” — and girls, because remember he’s got some ladies travelling with him also — he says, “hey everybody: road-trip! Let’s go out-station ah? We go sight-see, maybe makan a bit!” You know, the usual. So the disciples say, “ya […]
Many ancient cultures believed that the universe is made out of water. They did not understand that outer space is actually emptiness: when they looked up at the darkness of the night sky, it seemed to them as if the earth must be floating in the depths of a great ocean of darkness and chaos. […]
The Old Testament is a collection of stories, as we all know. But the ancient Jewish people understood that these stories are all woven together to create larger stories, great movements of God’s work through history. In our worship today we have sort of replayed one of those stories, which was collected and told through […]
The Christians of Roman Asia, 2000 years ago, lived during an interesting time. The Roman empire was expanding rapidly through conquest, and wherever Roman armies went, Roman culture soon followed. And one of the values of Roman culture was religious tolerance. Rome did not care what gods the people worshiped, as long as their worship […]
In the bible there is a story told of a young man who was sold into slavery by his own brothers. Granted, he was annoying. Still: he did not deserve that! But this young man made the best of his situation. And the text indicates that, because of his honest service as a slave, his […]
In the beginning, God planted a garden in the east, in Eden. And this garden was a mountain paradise where the rivers flowed cool and clear, where fruit trees of every kind grow easily. Really, God designed this garden to be a living temple, where God’s children — the man and the woman — would […]
All right: here we are, well into Part 2 of Exodus. And if you have been travelling with us through the book over the last few weeks, you will have noticed that the story is getting more intense. If you have not been with us for the last few weeks, here is a brief recap: […]
Book 1 of Genesis started with this sentence: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…and that single sentence captured the creation of the entire universe, God’s creation of all the raw materials he is going to be working with throughout the rest of Time. And then, as we read on, we found […]
Right at the very beginning of Genesis we were told about how the serpent persuaded Adam and Eve to reach out and take what did not belong to them, and how as a result they were driven beyond the walls of the garden into the eastern wilderness. They were driven out of God’s presence, and […]