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    • Not in Vain: 1 Corinthians Devotional
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    • Explore Ecclesiastes
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That Happy Certainty - Gospel | Culture | Planting
jesus

You worship a sheep?!

The concept of a God being worshipped for dying on a cross has always been mocked. In our Growth Groups this year we’ve been journeying through 1 Corinthians, and there Paul begins by acknowledging that the world will always see the ‘word of the cross’ as foolishness and weakness, whether it be looking for religious signs or philosophical wisdom. This derision is infamously played out in a piece of graffiti discovered from first-century Rome. The artist, seemingly intent on making a mockery of Christianity, has scratched out a man bowing down to a man with a horse’s head, hung on a cross, with the caption, ‘Alexamenos worships [his] God’. The implication couldn’t be clearer: these Christians are utter fools.

I was reminded of this when I read Revelation chapter 5 this morning. In the previous chapter John had been shown a vision of a magnificent heavenly throneroom, containing no less than God himself. Perhaps unsurprisingly around the throne are many who are praising ‘the Lord God Almighty’ (4:8) because, we are told, it is He who is alone the Creator of ‘all things’ (4:11).

But in chapter 5, we’re introduced to a new character, and it’s one of those passages where over-familiarity can mean we rush over the shock of the content. Suddenly John sees ‘a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain’ (5:6). Isn’t that a bit of a surprise when you stop and think? There in the middle of this glorious throne-room, with all its brilliance and splendour, is a dead sheep. What’s more it’s not bleating and running around like… a lamb. No, this Lamb steps up to do what no one else ‘in heaven or on earth or under the earth’ could do (5:3): open the scroll (5:7; Ez 2:9,10). In the context of Revelation, that’s one pretty special sheep.

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April 12, 2012by Robin Ham
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Back in the game

It’s been yonks since I last wrote on my previous blog, over at Blogger. But for a number of reasons I’ve made the call to pick it up again, albeit over here at WordPress. Chiefly this decision to step off the bench is because, as I originally intended it, I believe a blog provides the discipline of writing that will help me to develop as a communicator and thinker. Having not done this for a while, I think I’ve missed this, so here goes with v2.0.

I don’t expect the content to change much; the same mix of thoughts, reflections, and reviews of things I’m experiencing, reading & listening to, or just generally engaging with in life & Christian ministry. When I first began That Happy Certainty (based on a quotation from Luther on the joy of the assurance of knowing Christ through His work), I was an undergraduate up at Durham. I then picked up the blog during my spell in London as a ministry associate at a church, and I’m now in Cheltenham working full-time for another church, whilst seconded on a part-time basis to a Christian organisation involved in secular youthwork, so to some extent the context and detail of the things I’m writing about will be different.

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April 12, 2012by Robin Ham

About Me

 

Hello, my name is Robin. Welcome to That Happy Certainty, where I write and collate on Christianity, culture, and ministry. I’m based in Barrow-in-Furness in South Cumbria, England, where I serve a church family called St Paul’s Barrow, recently merged together from two existing churches, St Paul’s Church and Grace Church Barrow.

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“If we could be fully persuaded that we are in the good grace of God, that our sins are forgiven, that we have the Spirit of Christ, that we are the beloved children of God, we would be ever so happy and grateful to God. But because we often fear and doubt we cannot come to that happy certainty.”
- Martin Luther

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