Author Archives: vineyarddiscipleship

Revelation 16 God wins his world back. Just like in Exodus, God uses plagues of judgement to prize open the grip of the Pharaoh. Here, through the symbol of seven bowls we see the same truth as the seven trumpets and the seven signs; God has such commitment to justice on his earth, God hasContinue reading “Revelation 16-22”

Revelation 11 The stuff about the trumpets and the woes and the witnesses and the woes interlaces back and forth like a bowl of spaghetti. If we try to follow all the progress of the trumpets and the woes we might feel a bit dizzy. But there is a massive truth in here that weContinue reading “Revelation 11-15”

Revelation 6 The lamb begins to enact the plan. Is this future stuff? Or has it already happened? Or is it both?? There is much debate about that, but the passage doesn’t major on it and nor should we. To try to pin these verses to specific years is to miss the inclination of theContinue reading “Revelation 6-10”

Revelation 1 Wow.  That is quite a start.  It’s like when you go bowling and your first throw is a strike.  You stare in slight disbelief, a little tweak of a smile in the corner of your mouth. You begin to hope that this will be your night.  So let us start by laying outContinue reading “Revelation 1-5”

1 John 4 “We know and rely on the love God has for us.” (v14). This is the wonderful voyage of our faith. There is always a fair wind behind us.  Whenever we feel like we are just lolling around, going nowhere, lost at sea – we can come back to this. We can raiseContinue reading “1 John 4-Jude”

2 Peter 2 “I watched a really good video online the other day. This preacher from South Africa was opening up some really deep truths…” Sound familiar? With the increasing availability of all kinds of teaching on the internet this chapter is more important than ever. Continuing the guide-dog metaphor, a genuine risk in exileContinue reading “2 Peter 2-1 John 3”

1 Peter 2 How to thrive in exile is the major theme of 1 Peter. Exile is disconnect from the presence of God. Exile is struggling to see God’s purposes coming to pass. Exile is being surrounded by people given to other gods, who seem to be getting along better than we are. For theContinue reading “1 Peter 2 – 2 Peter 1”

James 2 This passage is laced with the spicy Jewish flavour we saw in chapter one. Faithful Jews always knew that they must be defined by their God. Religion was not a segment of the grapefruit of life; sectioned off to certain practices on certain days. No, religion was like the chocolate in a chocolateContinue reading “James 2-5, 1 Peter 1”

Hebrews 10 Encouragement in the faith comes not just from Jesus.  There is huge encouragement from him; His character and his identity and his provision for us is immense.  The last 9 chapters have called us to dwell on them and fix our eyes on them and be encouraged and strengthened and fuelled by them. Continue reading “Hebrews 10-James 1”

Hebrews 5 I’m glad the writer has much to say about Melchizedek because to be honest – I’ve not nothing. He seems like an obscure character used to answer a question that is never asked by a non-Jew like me. But the stuff about maturity hits me between the eyes. Maturity is about being ableContinue reading “Hebrews 5-9”