I stumbled upon this today, an Orthodox icon of the resurrection of Christ, resurrecting with Him, Adam and Eve. Jesus: the head of a new Humanity! I dunno, I just kinda liked it!

Having finshed our current run on “Practices for Growth“, we have now launched into the next series: a good look at the book of Isaiah. I am really looking forward to it actually, though it may be a little more challenging than some of the others we have done.

The series was kicked off on Sunday with some great stuff from Adam and Adrian. After Adrian’s very helpful “why read it anyway” introduction, Adam gave us the historical and geographical context. I have to say that this is some of the hardest stuff to communicate well, and Adam did a great job [certainly better than I would have done]. Adrian followed up by adding in his English teacher skills looking at the poetic aspects of Hebrew prophetic writing.

Honestly, this great bible teaching. [trouble is they left me no time to do the preachy bit!!!]

Download it here [it is my fault by the way that it misses the funny intro...]:

 

 Introduction to Isaiah: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Introduction to Isaiah

Here are my introductory thoughts on Isaiah:

The book of Isaiah has been called “the gospel of Isaiah”. Why? Because contained within this Old Testament book are all the elements of God’s great plan to redeem the world, fulfilled in Jesus. It s outlining this great plan and laying out how God is going to do it and the promises of what it will be like capture the heart of the Gospel expressed in the New Testament Gospels. Of all the great Old Testament books to read, this one is right up there! There are many bits of Isaiah that would be quickly recognised as texts often used and quoted with reference to Jesus. We, obviously, are not going to read every chapter of the book, that would take too long, but equally we are not just going to read the bits that are clearly about Jesus. We are going to attempt a sweep of the book that captures the flow of the narrative it tells and identifies its various themes. I am sure we will find it intellectually interesting, spiritually enriching and theologically deepening.

This is from an Introduction sheet written to accompany it, downloadable here.

I am doing some preparation for a talk I am doing on the parable of the lost son. After some searching I found a painting that I had seen a while back [it was on the laptop that got nicked!!]. I would really like your comments on it. Honestly, please comment on this one!

Do you like it? What about it adds to you perception of the story? Is there anything about it that you don’t like? or something that subverts the story?

Leave me a comment!!

I am doing some preparation for a talk I am doing on the parable of the lost son. After some searching I found a painting that I had seen a while back [it was on the laptop that got nicked!!]. I would really like your comments on it. Honestly, please comment on this one!

Do you like it? What about it adds to you perception of the story? Is there anything about it that you don’t like? or something that subverts the story?

Leave me a comment!!