A little more on the angry god today.

One of my favourite biblical passages is Romans 5:6-11. Here Paul tells us how Jesus died for us while we were still in our sin and thereby proving his love for us. Clearly God’s love for us was the motivation for the cross and not the other way around. The death of Jesus did not open the way for him to love us, he already did so.

But it is verse 10 that is possibly the most amazing...

On a scale of 1 to 10 (where 10 is very angry), how angry is God with you today? In answering this question don’t respond in the way you think you should, rather try giving it your gut reaction. Your answer will reflect a number of things – not least your own upbringing at home, where your understanding of God’s fatherhood will have been heavily influenced by your parents. But the answer will also be influenced by your ...

For as long as I can remember I have had a lot of anger in my heart. This anger rarely spilled out in public – but it destroyed my first marriage. And because I generally kept a lid on it, this anger was turned inwards and resulted in a lot of depression over the years – a depression that resulted in two episodes of serious ill-health needing medicine.

To read Jesus saying that keeping a lid on anger won’t do in the Ki...

Empire continues to respond to Jesus and his kingship following his sentencing by Pilate as the soldiers gather to give him a hard time. Mark (15:16-21) tells us that they called a whole battalion together, which could have been in the region of 500 men. Whether Mark intends for this to be taken literally as the whole cohort or just as a figurative term we cannot tell. What it does tell us is that a greater number gathered around Jesus to abuse him.

The abuse is based on Jesus’ king...