New Earth tools #19 – Compassion
For this nineteenth tool in the New Earth series I’d like to discuss a tool whose power I have only recently come to recognise: compassion. That itself seems weird, because I consider…
Recent posts
Blog
Genesis 3:6 – Adam, Eve and the apple: choice or dilemma?
On Easter Sunday I heard a sermon that included a recapitulation of Genesis chapters 2 and 3: Adam and Eve, temptation and Fall. The preacher phrased this as Adam and…
New Earth tools #18 – Sincerity
In this New Earth Tools series we’ve looked at a lot of useful emotional tools. Some of the tools we need at our sides all the time, like a carpenter…
Revelation 22:14 – Hollywood film structure in the Bible
Historically, there’s been a lot of controversy about what’s been included in the Bible and what’s been omitted. But, whether by human design or divine providence, the end result of…
New Earth tools #17 – Vulnerability
When we’re caught in the middle of an emotional crisis, under incredible pressure yet simultaneously trapped, the question arises: what do I do? Which tool in the emotional toolbox do…
New Earth tools #16 – Balance
The journey to Christ is a perplexing one, an endless series of shifts, reversals and abrupt changes of direction. It’s like a stock market graph—gradual gains over an extended period…
New Earth tools #15 – Gratitude
The Christian mystic William Blake wrote that “It is an easy thing to triumph in the summer’s sun / And in the vintage and to sing on the waggon loaded…
New Earth tools #14 – Self-love
There are many references to love in the Bible. A drop-down list on Bible Gateway of the various kinds of love references ‘love is patient’, ‘love your enemies’, and ‘love…
Ezekiel 37 – From the valley of dry bones to the Kingdom of Heaven
The Old Testament is an incredibly accurate emotional account of its time. In it, I see the eternal brilliance of God shining through very temporal commands. Paul understood their transient nature:…
Deuteronomy 6 – How ancient taboos created modern social rules
In Essential Torah, George Robinson writes that the first five books of the Bible—the Pentateuch—contain 613 commands. These taboos were a response to the new physical and psychological landscape that…