Category Archives: The Book of Revelation

The Trumpet shall Sound, and the Dead shall be Raised – The Good News of Resurrection, Judgement, and Justice

“Do you hear what I hear?” I recently preached this message about the Resurrection, Justice, and Judgement. It focused closely on “hearing”, so this blog entry is mainly about audio. Blessed are those who have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

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A Theology of Community

God invests His Spirit in a Community It is easy to miss the Biblical emphasis on a group as the recipient of God’s promises. We, in the modern Western world, are so used to thinking in individualistic way about everything else that we have been reading the Bible primarily in that dimension for generations, and […]

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Reflections on the Trip of a Lifetime: Day 14 Gallipoli

Gallipoli Without any hesitation I can state that this was the most moving and emotional day of the tour. Gallipoli is special.

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Reflections on the Trip of a Lifetime: Day 12 Smyrna, Thyateria, Pergamon

Smyrna (Izmir), Thyateria, Pergamon (Bergama) It’s a big day when you visit three sites. On top of that, two out of these particular three were quite spectacular! All three are among the Seven mentioned in Revelation 1:11. It was helpful to review the photos, and ensure that my memories of the sites are distinct from […]

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Reflections on the Trip of a Lifetime: Day 11 Patmos

Patmos We had an early start, so that we had time for the four hour boat ride to Patmos from Kusadasi… and four hours back again! We passed through passport control and got more stamps in the passport, because we were sailing from Turkey to a Greek island. We were treated to a beautiful light […]

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Reflections on the Trip of a Lifetime: Day 9 Philadelphia, Sardis, Kusadasi

Philadelphia, Sardis, Kusadasi Happy birthday to me! January 18th is my birthday, and someone on tour happened to ask, just a couple of days before, when my birthday was. That meant I wasn’t going to get away with just sneaking through…

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Reflections on the Trip of a Lifetime: Day 8 Hierapolis, Pamukkale Pools, Colossae, Laodicea

Hierapolis, Pamukkale Pools, Colossae, Laodicea Oh my goodness, what a day!

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Reflections on the Trip of a Lifetime: Day 5 Athens – Istanbul – Cappadocia

Athens – Istanbul – Cappadocia Just as we started to get used to Athens, we were off into the great unknown territory of Turkey. Unknown, that is, to me… We all found Istanbul airport a slight shock. There were women in western clothes, women in burkas, and women in modest clothing with head scarves. It […]

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Eternity in their Eyes

  God has one Story, one Plan I recently found myself explaining to my friends why I am always so passionate and excited about what God is doing around me. It’s because I see eternity in their eyes.

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Who are these “angels”, and what do they want?

The heavenly host Who are all those angels, and what’s going on in the throne room of God? I wrote this as part of another article entitled, “The Angels at Christmas time: What’s with that?“. I pulled it out as a separate item in the interest of keeping all my posts a little shorter. This is […]

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A journey through Handel’s “Messiah” – George Frederic Handel (1695-1759)

Messiah, G. F. Handel Welcome to my happy place: Handel’s “Messiah”. There is lots I could say about this. I could talk about the art, the theology, the subtle interpretive cues that make this a sort of “Gospel according to Handel”… But I won’t. I’ll just stand aside and put this here for you to […]

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Revelation 13:8. Jesus died when the world was made…?

Was the Lamb slain since the foundation of the world? Just a quick look at this verse, in order to show some difficulties in translation, and their effects. I don’t think it actually says that Jesus died since the foundation of the world, but the majority of translators do, so I need to explain why […]

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The Angels at Christmas time: What’s with that?

Why is there so much about angels in the Nativity narratives of the Bible? The Biblical account is a narrative. It is constructed in the form of a story. So if the whole story of God is being told through the history of God’s dealings with creation, who is the story for? Who is the […]

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