There's a song in heaven celebrating a Lamb who was killed, who purchased people for God from every tribe, every language, every people, every nation. But that word "from" matters more than you might think.It doesn't mean every single person from every nation automatically ends up in God's story. …
Standing on Penarth seafront, Simon asks a simple question: what does God think of Wales?Revelation 5:9 describes a heavenly scene where people are gathered "from every tribe and language and people and nation" before God's throne, every language included, every nation kept distinct, not erased in…
A Saturday morning in Capernaum.An ordinary synagogue.An ordinary Sabbath.And then Jesus walked in.What happened next left the entire congregation 'struck out of themselves', using a word Mark chooses carefully: cognitively dislocated, categories broken.Not impressed. Not entertained.…
What happens when an ancient power-naming strategy meets Jesus of Nazareth in a Capernaum synagogue?Across Egyptian magical texts, Greek exorcism manuals, and fairy tales like Rumpelstiltskin, the logic is consistent: know the true name of a being, gain power over it.When the unclean spirit in Ma…
Every teacher quotes someone. That's how authority works: you borrow it. Rabbis in first-century Judaism built their entire teaching method on citation. You stood on someone else's shoulders and pointed upward.Then Jesus walked into a synagogue in Capernaum and just... spoke.No rabbi quot…
There's a song being sung in heaven.It's celebrating a Lamb who was killed, and the song says this Lamb has purchased people for God from every tribe, every language, every people, every nation. It's one of the most sweeping, inclusive statements …
This week's "Word for the Week" finds Simon on Penarth seafront, lifeboat station in view, watching the steady stream of holidaymakers from Wales and abroad passing through.It's the kind of place where you might ask a visitor, "So, what do you t…
Mark writes the way a good news editor would want you to write. Tight. Urgent. No wasted sentences. He barely stops for breath.His opening sentence in the original Greek is 16 words: "The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.…