Displaying 91 - 120 of 285 in total
Esther 8 - They feared the Jews
Esther is a complicated story in any context, let alone the theme of God's mission. This complication arises from the implicit role of God in numerous surprising coinc...
Jeremiah 7 - The Lord’s Temple is here!
What might it mean to participate in God's mission to the "reached"? As anticipated, we follow on from last week's topic of "the unreached" by considering what it coul...
Acts 17 - Hearing something new
The "unreached" might need mission, but it is not such an easy category! We look at the well-known story of Paul in Athens using a statue to an unknown god to launch a...
Daniel 1 - Serve in the royal palace
It's fascinating to explore mission to the powerful. A number of biblical examples are illustrative, but perhaps the most iconic is the story of Daniel and his friends...
James 1 - Pure and genuine religion
To explore the topic of "Mission to the needy" we turned to the story of friends lowering a paralytic man through the roof. This topic is particularly timely for our w...
Luke 10 - Love your neighbour
The topic "Mission to my neighbour" sends us straight to the Good Samaritan. Although so well-known, this story has so much capacity to challenge us. It provides an ex...
Luke 24 - Hearts burn within us
How to catch the kind of motivation that makes you re-walk a day's journey without resting?Some of the motivations experienced by friends of Jesus in the New Testament...
Jonah 4 - Angry enough to die
We all have excuses to avoid God's mission, but the most obvious ones are nearly trivial. Looking at the story of Jonah exposes a much more challenging idea: what if w...
Genesis 18 - Will you sweep away?
Abraham challenges God's suggestion of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, which is a challenging picture of "participating in God's mission".
Isaiah 58 - This kind of fasting
How might we stop "mission" becoming a mirror?Talking about comfort zones in the context of God's mission reminds us just how powerful the pull of comfort can be. Do w...
Matthew 28 - Some of them doubted
What is the Great Commission again?It's a command to go, make disciples, baptise them, and teach them to obey. All of these aspects deserve to be unpacked a lot, but a...
John 3 - God sent His Son
An exploration of God's Mission must start with a focus on the God of mission.This new season will explore the theme of "God's Mission, My Mission", and we have to rec...
Ephesians - Union with Christ
After exploring the themes and some details of Ephesians, does it "feel different"?This episode is a bit of an experiment - does listening to the entire book of Ephesi...
Ephesians 6 - Grace and peace
Ephesians closes with almost the same sentence as it began: a blessing of grace and peace.Peace seems at first to be the flip side of the aggressive military imagery o...
Ephesians 6 - Stand your ground
How helpful is military armour as an analogy for the Christian life?This passage is perhaps the most well-known part of Ephesians, and yet it actually feels somewhat s...
Ephesians 6 - Do not provoke
The theme of unity and submission gets awkward when discussing slaves!It is hardly surprising that the New Testament mentions slavery (it was a cultural norm), but it ...
Ephesians 5 - United into one
We've reached the well-known passage about submission in marriage......except that after the emphasis on unity that has been observed consistently throughout Ephesians...
Ephesians 5 - Making music to the Lord
Ephesians 5 is a call to "be careful how you live".The chapter opens with a stark juxtaposition between "worthless deeds of evil and darkness" and choices "that please...
Ephesians 4 - Say only what helps
The second half of Ephesians 4 looks at some practical ways to pursue the unity that has formed a substantial theme of the book so far.There's an interesting comment o...
Ephesians 4 - One God and father
The theme of unity is again in the foreground.This chapter starts with an exploration of the reason for and mechanism of unity: love. This emphasis is expressed explic...
Ephesians 3 - Plan of the mystery
Ephesians 3 continues Paul's effervescent enthusiasm for a gospel of inclusion.Even while taking some diversions to obliquely reference his own calling and situation, ...
Ephesians 2 - Part of this dwelling
The New Testament claims Jesus broke down walls of hostility that divide us as people - what walls might still exist today?We continue our steady meander through Ephes...
Ephesians 2 - We are God’s masterpiece
Ephesians 2 opens with a succinct but thorough outline of the gracious gift of salvation.This is such a clear description of the idea that God saves us by his grace an...
Ephesians 1 - Pray without ceasing
Paul turns to prayer as he continues to introduce this epistle.There are two prayer sections in Ephesians (1:15-23 and 3:14-21), and we notice they have a lot in commo...
Ephesians 1 - United with Christ
Ephesians opens with an encouraging summary of Christian hope.Paul seems keen to introduce themes of unity, redemption, Spirit, and inheritance. Each of these are like...
Acts 19 - Great is Artemis of the Ephesians
Acts 19 tells a 3rd-party perspective to prepare us for studying Paul's letter to the Ephesians.There are a number of anecdotes recorded about Paul in the city of Ephe...
Revelation 21 - Wipe every tear
We turn to the end of Revelation to wrap up this season.Exploring (nominally) the "3 angels messages" of Revelation 14 has been hard work at times this season, and we ...
Matthew 16 - Get behind me Satan!
What if the mark of the beast is something that we might have in varying degrees?Thinking about "marks" in general leads us to wonder what it might mean for somebody t...
Job 1 - Accuse God of doing wrong
Sparked by a midweek conversation, we explore the book of Job as apocalyptic literature.There are a surprising number of connections and similarities between Job and t...
John 11 - Destroy our temple
Language like "Satan's deceptions" often implies that salvation is somehow about expertise or technical knowledge.The lesson jumps straight into some well-worn Adventi...