Mark Barnes's Blog, page 2

Conflict, covenant and choice – lessons from Shechem

Shechem is not a place that many of us think much of, but for centuries it was more significant than even Jerusalem.

Today, Shechem is a couple of miles from the West Bank town of Nablus. A week before I wrote this article, two Palestinians were killed there at Joseph’s Tomb. In biblical times too, Shechem was a place of conflict. Yet more important than the conflict is that Shechem is a place of covenant and of choice.

Conflict

When Abram entered Canaan for the first time, Shechem is the first...

Golgotha – Why was Jesus crucified outside the city?

If you visit the claimed site of Jesus’ crucifixion today, it’s almost impossible to imagine what it once would have been like. To visit, you must go into the bustling Old City of Jerusalem, and then inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There, as you dodge between crowds of pilgrims and swinging Greek Orthodox oil lamps, you’ll see a white rock poking up under an altar. It’s here, the church claims, that Jesus was crucified. Surprisingly perhaps, most archaeologists agree.

Of course, Jesus...

Why was Jesus baptised in the River Jordan?

There are more than 1,000 different places mentioned in the Bible, from Abana (2 Kings 5:12) to Zuph (1 Samuel 9:5). But we tend to skip over the places as if they’re incidental to the Bible’s story. We want to know what happened; precisely where it happened doesn’t seem that important. So apart from a few familiar places like Jerusalem and Bethlehem, most of us know very little about the places in our Bible.

That changed for me when I visited Israel and Jordan a few years ago. I began to...

My fifteen best reads of 2018

Usually, my list of ‘best reads’ is whittled down to ten, but I must be getting better at choosing books to read and to share with you. The books aren’t necessarily new, but they’re the very best of what I read last year, and every one was enjoyable, valuable and did my soul or mind good.

#15 — Christians Get Depressed Too
David P. Murray (Reformation Heritage, 112 pages, 2010)

This brief book is ideal for Christians who want a better understanding of the roles of the spiritual, the physical...

A church for every generation?

Do you want to be part of a local church made up of every generation? I’m sure you do. But such churches require hard work, sacrifice, grace, and understanding. A church where everyone wants things done ‘my way’ will never be an inter-generational church.

In church we share our lives with one another. And so, whenever we gather, our generational differences show themselves, sometimes in unexpected ways. Those differences affect how we respond to preaching and teaching, show commitment, care...

Ten best reads of 2017

Three years ago I decided I would make sure I spent more time reading books than watching television. Since then I’ve read dozens of terrific books that have deepened my thinking, boosted my confidence in the Scriptures and strengthened my faith — and it’s meant I’ve watched only the best quality and most enjoyable television, which I’ve therefore appreciated much more than before.

These are the books I’ve enjoyed most during the last 12 months. I hope you’ll find at least one in this list...

What was the first Christmas really like?

The school nativity plays are clear: Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem on a donkey late at night and anxiously search for somewhere to stay. A stubborn innkeeper points out the ‘No Vacancies’ sign, and a desperate Joseph reluctantly leads his pregnant wife to a stable where she gives birth to Jesus that very same night.

The Christmas cards and nativity scenes portray the stable as warm and cosy, and complete with oxen and donkeys and an ankle-deep layer of remarkably clean straw, given that...

Is the Reformation over?

I’ve never liked describing myself as ‘reformed’. In fact, although I have many good friends who disagree, I think it’s a big mistake for anyone to do so. (You’ll be glad to know that we remain friends, despite the disagreement!)

Done, or doing?

The problem is not necessarily one of theology but of grammar. To describe yourself as reformed is to put the Reformation in the past, not in the present. It suggests that you think the church was in a bad way, but during the 16th-century Reformation,...

Sola Gratia — Grace Alone

‘It is to [God] and his grace alone that we owe what we are as Christians.’

That’s not a Reformation-era saying from Martin Luther or John Calvin. In fact, it was spoken by Pope Benedict XVI, in St Peter’s Square in November 2006.

It underlines that the Reformation was much more an argument about ‘faith alone’, ‘Christ alone’ and ‘Scripture alone’, than it was about ‘grace alone’.

A Welshman, a North African, and the grace of God

In fact, the place of God’s grace in our salvation was mostly s...

Adoption

I often remember that God is our Father. His fatherhood reminds me that He loves us, cares for us, provides for us, teaches us and disciplines us. But strangely, I rarely reflect that I’m His son. When we think of God’s ‘son’, we probably all think of Jesus, and most of us stop there. We forget that God calls every Christian believer His ‘sons’, or His ‘children’. But we mustn’t forget. As John put it, ‘How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of...