Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at God

This month at Ascension Day, we remember Jesus ascending to ‘God’s right hand’ (1 Peter 3:22). It’s a somewhat neglected Christian festival, taking place on a Thursday, 40 days after Easter. However, this phrase is used in three different contexts in the New Testament. Sitting at God’s right hand Jesus occupies a position of power...

This month at Ascension Day, we remember Jesus ascending to ‘God’s right hand’ (1 Peter 3:22). It’s a somewhat neglected Christian festival, taking place on a Thursday, 40 days after Easter. However, this phrase is used in three different contexts in the New Testament. Sitting at God’s right hand Jesus occupies a position of power...

The Bible is a popular book, with five billion copies sold worldwide every year, as well as a uniquely precious book. At her coronation the Queen was given a Bible, ‘the most precious thing this world affords’. The Bible isn’t simply one book, but a library of 66 books, composed by some 44 writers over...

There was no mourning when Christ’s resurrection appearances came to an end. After the final occasion we are told the disciples ‘worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy’. They had already experienced the onset of grief caused by His death, intensified because of the dreadful manner of it and the consequent crushing of their...

This saying is attributed to John Bradford (1510-1555), who was one of the Protestant Reformers. When he saw criminals on their way to execution, Bradford would utter, “But for the grace of God, there goes John Bradford.” It was his way of acknowledging that he depended every day on the mercy of God, despite his sins, which...

In March, April and May this year the coloured frontal of the altar will have been changed many times – as will the colour of the priest’s vestments. Each colour – and there can be as many as six in a church’s store – has a different meaning. They reflect the significance of that day...

Here is a hymn that is so well known and loved that it has simply burst the bounds of Easter, and gets sung regularly at other times of the year. It has two stories behind it. First, the music. The rousing music did not start out as a hymn, but instead was written by Handel...

Palm Sunday From the Vicar With Jesus in Paradise Christian Basics No 4: What about the Resurrection? The empty tomb and the Risen Christ Handel’s Messiah Reflected Faith Series: Togetherness Easter Reflection ** Editor:  Canon Paul Hardingham considers the crowds of Jerusalem… Palm Sunday It must have been a dramatic sight on Palm Sunday when...

It must have been a dramatic sight on Palm Sunday when Jesus approached Jerusalem to the adulation of the crowds. The Bible tells us that ‘A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of Him...

It must have been a dramatic sight on Palm Sunday when Jesus approached Jerusalem to the adulation of the crowds. ‘A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed shouted,...

‘Easter is not primarily a comfort, but a challenge. Its message is either the supreme fact in history or else a gigantic hoax.’ (CS Lewis). As we celebrate another Easter, what is the significance of Jesus’ resurrection for us? As Paul writes, ‘if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still...

‘So they (the women) went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.’ That’s how some early manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel finish. It’s an unexpected twist, when you consider the confident announcement at the outset: “The beginning of the good news...