I’ve just discovered in reading Calvin’s Institutes this last weekend that he agrees much more with Henri Blocher that I thought. Blocher wrote a book on original sin and described it as not so much an ‘infection’ that is transmitted from Adam through the generations to us, but as a loss of divine gifts, which [...]

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We just read Romans 8:28-39 in chapel, and I noticed something from the Greek that I haven’t seen before. The word that the NIV translates “we are more than conquerers” (yes, it’s just one word!) is actually a verb. It’s a stative verb that means, “to be completely victorious”, which is how the Holman Christian [...]

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Rob Forsyth, the Bishop of South Sydney spoke at college chapel this morning. As part of his sermon, which was from 1 Corinthians 1:18 and the following verses, he showed a slide of this famous graffiti, probably dating from the 2nd century.

A little clearer:

The words read
ΑΛΕΞΑΜΕΝΟΣ ΣΕΒΕΤΕ ΘΕΟΝ,
which is (not very good) Greek for [...]

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A deus ex machina (Wik) is a term which describes an unlikely and/or unexpected event or character who shows up to resolve an impossible problem. That’s pretty abstract, but when you hear an example, you’ll realise how often it occurs in modern storytelling. Once you’re familiar with the concept, you’ll see them everywhere.
One obvious example [...]

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In preparing for my sermon on Sunday, on Romans 8:28-39, I came across Richard Kopelle, who has invented a device called ‘My Therapy Buddy’. Link to his site.
On the site, he features a link to the Youtube vid of his invention on American Inventor, the US version of The New Inventors. The weird thing [...]

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Just preached my most recent sermon for the third time: John 12:20-36. The first two times were at Christ Church and this morning I preached at St John’s in Ryde, because the minister is on hols and they needed someone to fill in. Lovely people down there.
The beauty of giving this sermon another time, in [...]

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In reading 1 Peter lately, I was struck by vv13-25 of chapter 1 - a clearer gospel presentation doesn’t come along very often. It all there, the atonement and redemption, the revelation of God through Christ, the new self in Christ, exhortation to godliness under the compulsion of the gospel, the fellowship of the [...]

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