“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you…
“El Shaddai” is a name of God that occurs 48 times in the Bible and is usually translated as “God Almighty.” There is debate around the origins of “Shaddai,” but contenders for the etymological root are words for “mountain”, “wilderness”, “strength” or “breast”. It is also suggested the name may come from a mountain in…
Psalm 105 praises God’s faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham, which he reaffirmed to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob and thus to his descendants – the people of Israel. This covenant is summarised in verse 11: “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.” So does the land of…
Disney movies have extraordinary power to enchant young children and to capture their imaginations, so we watched ‘Encanto’ with friends – whose kids are utterly enthralled by it – looking to see if there was anything in it that might help us all on our faith journey. Here are some of our reflections … The story…
We all want someone who will save us from the mess we are in and make things right: a new president, a new boss, an inventor of a new solution, or just an opportunity for ourselves to take the reins. That hope is captured in the Hebrew name “Joshua” and its Greek equivalent, “Jesus,” which…
“I baptise you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but…
God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ (Exodus 3:5) Why ‘take off your shoes’ rather than ‘get on your knees’ or ‘bow your head’ or ‘raise your hands’? Taking off your shoes is surely in part an expression of moving out of one place (where shoes…
The language we use both reflects and shapes the way we think about the world. If we want to identify blind spots and find new perspectives to consider, then comparing the way human beings express the same things in different languages is an invaluable resource. Let’s take the days of the week as an example. …
“Lo Hei” is a southern Chinese New Year tradition and the Cantonese pronunciation of the first two characters of 捞起魚生, which means “mixing up the raw fish.” It refers to a sashimi salad that is built up as the host pronounces a series of blessings, before everyone mixes it all together by tossing the ingredients…
The Chinese character 信 comprises the character for “person” (人) and the character for “words” (言). It can represent “words” from a “person”, such as a message, and – by extension – the medium used to carry those words, like a letter; or the person who brings those words, like a messenger; or communication in…