Jim’s Blog

John the Baptist – Matthew 3:1-12 (Part 1) Jesus’ cousin John (the “Baptist” as he became known) was just a few months older and unlike Jesus had spent most of his young adult life in the desert. In fact he had become a bit of a “wild man” in the sense that his clothing, diet, […]

Egypt to Nazareth Matthew 2:19-23 Joseph, like his patriarchal namesake, was a “dreamer”. Here in these four verses of scripture we read of a third, then a fourth directive dream. Joseph receives from the Lord. The third instructs him to go back to Israel. The fourth moves him and his young family on to the […]

You’re reading this in self isolation and I’m writing in similar circumstances. We’re all in lockdown. Who knew?   Well, not to be trite, but the Lord knew. Indeed, he knows. Covid-19 is no surprise to him. And we know that his omniscience informs his sovereignty- he is Lord of every situation.   I think […]

Infanticide Matthew 2:16-18 It’s surprising that Herod’s paranoia had not fuelled more efficient “intelligence gathering”, in that he sent no place with the Magi, nor did he commission any of his officials to “follow the star” to Bethlehem. He simply asked the magi to let him know once they had found the baby king. But, […]

Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15) This is the second time an angel gave instructions to Joseph. As husband and protector of Mary and the baby, he was told to “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.” This was to avoid Herod’s murderous intent. We read a couple of sentences like this and tend to […]

The world is in a full court press today fighting to contain the Corona virus. None of us has ever seen anything like it. We’re on a “war footing”. Like you, my wife and I attended church on Sunday by logging on to a live stream service. In our case we logged on to two. […]

The Wise Men – Matthew 2:1-12 (Part 3) And, to add a bit of historical context, at that time there was a synergy of both religious and secular hope, or expectation, that a kingly figure would emerge from somewhere in the mediterranean basin and rule the world. The Jewish messianic hope, four hundred years “back-burnered” […]

I’m taking a break from researching the Gospel of John to share a bit of homemade “wisdom”. The irony of social media is that we’ve never been as disconnected as we are today in this supposedly connected era of the internet. We’re isolated even as we publicly post another pic or motivational poster on Instagram. […]

The Wise Men 2:1-12 (Part 2) Then there’s the star. There have been many attempts to explain this phenomenal aberration. Some commentators refer to Halley’s Comet (11 BC), or to the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter (7 BC). Other talk of the Egyptian “dog star”  (Sirius) that rose at sunrise. My view on the star […]