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Beneath the cross, beneath the cross,   all together, in one sprit and one heart! Beneath the cross to live, beneath the cross to die, beneath the cross to face the judgment of the great day. And happy then to recognise in the One who will be our Judge the One who was our Savior! ADOLPHE MONOD

Technology is fundamentally about our human desire to flourish. We buy new technology not simply because of what it can do for us, but because we believe it can help us to live a better  life. This necessarily means technology competes with God as our potential saviour. Since we know that the only true Saviour is the Lord Jesus Christ, it raises a troubling question: should followers of Jesus be using technology at all? And  if we have no choice but to use technology, how should we use it? This is the central question addressed by Nicholas and Brooks in their book  Virtually Human . I have had the pleasure of reading the book twice. So, I thought I should record a critical summary for future reference. I have structured the summary around the key questions I have on the subject. Needless to say this is not the way the book is structured. This means I sometimes address issues here that the authors only touch on slightly.  (1) Does our relationship with ...

Jesus Christ will not have even His work preferred before Him. The final sacrifice which some men are called upon to make is not the sacrifice of a pleasure, or the relinquishment of some precious treasure; it is the sacrifice of a dear purpose by which they hoped to bring glory to their Lord. They are required to turn from the path of hallowed service, to renounce the holy enterprise. John Ruskin has told us how, when he came into clearer light, his hope of some better service was cut off by failure of health. "Just when I was coming out of school, very sorry for having been such a foolish boy, yet having taken a prize or two, and expect now to enter upon some more serious business than cricket, I am dismissed, by the Master I hoped to serve, with a 'That's all I want of you, sir.'" To give up what is dear to them is for some men comparatively easy, but to give up what they deemed dear to Christ, — to bind on the altar of sacrifice the one offspring of our heart,...

Jonty Rhodes is concerned that in much of evangelical teaching and life, the death of our Lord Jesus has become detached from the other events in his life. The result is that many Christians can explain how the death of Jesus saves us, but they cannot explain how other events in the life of Jesus, for example  his incarnation or ascension, saves us.   This dislocation of the cross from the rest of the life of Jesus is a problem because it cheapens our understanding of the saving work of Christ. Not only does it diminish our worship of Christ, it also means that we are not able to enjoy the joy and peace that comes from glorying in His saving work.    Rhodes wants us to have a renewed appreciation of the saving work of Christ by exploring how the life events display Christ ministering to us as our prophet, priest and King. He does this by exploring the key life events of Christ, as separated in two movements – the events related to his humiliation (from incarnation to...

It is a consoling thought that Christ is praying for us, even when we are negligent in our prayer life; that He is presenting to the Father those spiritual needs which were not present to our minds and which we often neglect to include in our prayers; and that He prays for our protection against the dangers of which we are not even conscious, and against the enemies which threaten us, though we do not notice it. He is praying that our faith may not cease, and that we may come out victoriously in the end. LOUIS BERKHOF ( Source : Systematic Theology) A very helpful and comforting reminder that we have the great High Priest who is forever interceding for us. May we have the confidence  in the Lord’s praying for us that the wonderful Robert Murray M’Cheyne had, “ If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me”. He is indeed! 

Over the last few weeks the country has been transfixed on the amazing run of the England football team in Euro 2020. I was initially put off watching the football after I saw the team shamefully bowing to BLM at the start of each game. But as the excitement has grown in the country, I have found myself irresistibly pulled to watch a few games in the tournament. The collective national gaze over England’s Euro 2020 is an example of what Tony  Reinke, the author of Competing Spectacles , calls a spectacle.   A spectacle is something visible that captures our collective attention. It is that moment when society’s eyes and brains focus on something projected at us. This may be a big political story, a sports event, a new film or a badly behaved influencer. We primarily experience spectacles through technologies we use. I have been experiencing the spectacle of Euro 2020 through our television, but others have consumed it on the mobile or in person.  Most spectacles are ...

There is a fascinating scene in the  new global success TV series The Chosen . It is fictional dramatisation of events in the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.     Like all works of fiction that depict true in the life of our Lord there is a danger of not only crafting a man made image, literally, of Jesus, which is no Jesus at all but an idolatrous figment of our imagination.  There is also the wider danger that fictional events can come to dominate the true events that God wants us to know and meditate on the Bible. We already have the true Bible we don’t really need additional fictional details.  That said, The Chosen has been made, and in the “second best” scenario where you find yourself watching a TV series you are certainly better off watching this one, as long as you keep the above dangers in constant view.   There are certainly many excellent fictional moments in the film. One of my favourites so far is in Series 1 , E...

Man's maker was made man, that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast;  that the Bread might hunger,  the Fountain thirst,  the Light sleep,  the Way be tired on its journey;  that the Truth might be accused of false witnesses,  that the Teacher be beaten with whips,  the Foundation be suspended on wood;  that Strength might grow weak;  that the Healer might be wounded;  that Life might die. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO ( Source : Sermons 184-229)

I love discovering amazing books, but even more discovering great authors. There is no doubt that Adolphe Monod has crept into one of my top five loved authors. To my shame, I did not know anything about Adolphe Monod until I started reading his classic Farewell, which I picked up this book at a book sale at the Evangelical Library (London). I only picked up the book because it was published by Banner of Trust, I thought it must be okay. And it proved to be more than okay!  I discovered later that Monod is regarded as the foremost preacher France has produced in the last two hundred years. He was the pastor of the prominent Reformed Church or Paris an taught at the Reformed Seminary in Mantauban. You can read more on Wikipedia and Banner of Trust . I have not yet located a good biography of Adolphe Monod to read. But I am working my way through his books. The second book I have read is  Jesus Tempted In The Wildernes s .  As the name suggests this an exposition of t...

Come now, little man, turn aside for a while from your daily employment. Escape for a moment from the tumult of your thoughts. Put aside your weighty cares. Let your burdensome distractions wait. Free yourself awhile for God and rest awhile in him.  Enter the inner chamber of your soul. Shut out everything except God and that which can help you in seeking him. And when you have shut the door, seek him.  Now, my whole heart, say to God, ‘I seek your face, Lord, it is your face I seek. ANSELM OF CANTERBURY