We will see Him

Interesting title. Ploductivity. Don't try googling it. Google auto-corrects the spelling. I think it'll hurt his sales. But that doesn't bother Doug Wilson. He will just plod on. Ploductivity is “the practice of plodding away at a pile of work, instead of frantically trying to sprint through it all,  being stable and graceful, like a buffalo upon the plains, not frantic, like a prairie dog or roadrunner”. I’ve had my fair share of roadrunning, so I decided to give this little book’s main idea a go.  The book consists of a foreword followed by two parts, each divided into 8 short chapters. A couple of hours of reading. If you’ve read any books on the theology of work you’ll find much of the first section familiar, except perhaps for Wilson’s robust prose. It’s the forward by his daughter Rebekah Merkle that I found particularly helpful. “Since Douglas Wilson is my father, I have had a front row seat throughout my entire life and can testify that you will never meet a more...

Paul has done two things very well up to this point in the letter: he has taught the Ephesians some good theology and he has prayed for them. Now he gets to the really practical stuff.  He tells them what to do in order to become who they are in Christ.  It's harder than you think.   Read  Ephesians 4:1-6  now and see if you agree. He introduces his practical help as more than just good advice - he urges them, literally implores them to listen and to do what he says. "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." Eph 4:1. How do we live a life worthy of the calling we've received? And what is this calling?   This calling is what we've seen in Eph 2:5: "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions."  We were dead but now with Christ we are called to lif...

We must admit that we are all easily overwhelmed by things that are 'unknown' or 'unknowable'. Seeing all the computer screens at a stock trader's desk overwhelms me or being asked to bake anything other than a jacket potato freaks me out. I'd be the first to admit that I 'lack confidence in the kitchen...', while Stephanie can balance a child on her hip, teaches another to read and dry the tears of another - all while she is preparing a Nigel Slater dinner complete with freshly cut parsley and artistic sauce patterns! As you read Paul's prayer here in Ephesians 3:14-21 you can't help to see how much confidence he has in the presence of the God that is both knowable and unknowable! 'Knowable' because the mystery of the Gospel and it's consequences has been revealed in Christ. But 'unknown' because it surpasses knowledge - God's grace (Eph 2:7) and love (Eph 3:18), Paul says is way too big to understand, comprehend or ...

When we started the church a few years ago we knocked on people's doors throughout our community, asking a simple question: "If we were going to start a new church in this area, how can the church serve you and the rest of the community?". The overwhelming answer was: "You can serve us best by not starting a church in this area..." Probably at the root of this response there was a fear that a church will bring further division to an already fragmented society. It might even be that some of the respondents were believers who became tired of the church and decided that they would practice their faith on their own. To some extent Paul speaks to this response in Ephesians 3:1-13. Read it and see if you agree. Paul starts with the statement that he is a prisoner of Christ for their sake. He was in fact a prisoner of Nero, but Paul says he is a prisoner of Christ because he preached Christ's Gospel not only to the Jewish people (something the Roman empire toler...

This is not the easiest of Biblical passages, but once understood it gives you the grandest of visions for what the church is and who you are as a believer. Before you read it, let me just give you this piece of context. Christianity is rooted in the Bible, which is a redemptive historical narrative - a story ("non-fiction!" I can hear my 6 year-old son shout!) of how God came to save his people. The main group of characters in the unfolding of this redemptive story is the family of Abraham who later became the people known as 'Israel'. In the Old Testament you can see how God dealt with his people Israel, especially how he cared for them, how he rebuked them and how he frequently forgave them and saved them from dire calamity. Those that were not part of Israel were spoken of as the 'gentiles' - and the Jewish laws made it possible for them to join God's people - but always kept at a bit of a distance (gentiles could only go to certain parts of the tem...

I must say, Eph 2:1-10 is one of my favourites! John Stott says about it: "Paul first plumbs to the depths of pessimism about humankind and then rises to the heights of optimism about God." Take a moment and read the passage now. Did you see how desperate the situation looks in verse 1 to 3? We almost want to argue with Paul at this point that the Ephesians couldn't have been that bad?! But before we can come up for them he says to us: "All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts." It's then that we realise that Paul has been speaking to us all along, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions..." At this point we need to be careful not to dismiss what Paul is saying as ridiculous hyperbole. He means what he says literally. Without God we are dead - perhaps not physically or mentally, or in terms of personality - but in the sphere which matters most...