Shaped by the Story (1): Looking Back, Looking Ahead
It is surely significant that at the heart of Scripture is not a list of rules to be obeyed or a set of promises to be claimed, but a grand, sweeping story that is told. It's an account of God reaching...
View ArticleShaped by the Story (2): The Promises of a Settled People
Towards the end of his life, Joshua gathers the people and recites the story of all that God has done for them. His account intersects with Moses' earlier summary in Deuteronomy 1-4, but is also...
View ArticleShaped by the Story (3): Under New Management?
Like Moses and Joshua before him, Samuel calls the people to covenant faithfulness at the dawn of a new era in their history - the transition to Saul's kingship. Again, like Moses and Joshua, his...
View ArticleShaped by the Story (4): Remembrance of Things Past
The story of Israel is told not only in different periods of time - by Moses, then Joshua, then Samuel - but through a variety of literary genres. Psalm 78, for instance, the second longest in the...
View ArticleShaped by the Story (5): The Main Role
Like other passages which tell the biblical story, Psalm 105 reiterates God's own place in the drama. Clearly, his role is not merely that of the playwright, much less that of a spectator in the...
View ArticleShaped by the Story (6): Renewing God’s People
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell of the building projects - the temple and the walls of Jerusalem - that take place after God's people come home from exile. No less real, and no less hard graft, is...
View ArticleShaped by the Story (7): The Family Tree
The growth industry in genealogy magazines and books designed to help people trace their family tree, along with the popularity of TV programmes like Who Do You Think You Are?, demonstrate our...
View ArticleShaped by the Story (8): A Manageable God?
Originally selected to distribute food to needy widows, Stephen ends up being the first Christian to die for proclaiming Jesus. Falsely accused of speaking against the law and the temple, he replies by...
View ArticleShaped by the Story (9): Forgiveness and Freedom in Jesus
Acts 13 records Paul's first main speech - given in a synagogue to Jews and God-fearers, Gentiles attached to Judaism. The address is arguably programmatic for the next part of Acts, in the same way...
View Article
