Celtic Odyssey

“I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.” — C.S. Lewis As many of you know, I smoke a pipe. And while I really don’t mention it a lot on this blog, if you were to visit me we would, more likely than not, find ourselves sitting outside having a nice conversation and I’d be smoking a pipe. I might even offer you one, if you’re so inclined. What I’d like to do is write a little series on pipe smoking. Perhaps some “how to’s” and what not. Who knows? I might even start a YouTube channel about it. But one thing I’d like to try to do is tie pipe smoking together with theology and biblical study. A lot of people find the two — pipe smoking and spiritual commitment — diametrically opposed to one another. But as we saw in the Lewis quote above, i...

Romans 6:1b-11 (NET; 1 adapted): Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? Absolutely not! If we’ve died to sin, how can we still live in it? Or don’t you know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we’ve been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. For if we’ve become united with him in the likeness of his death, we’ll certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.) Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we’ll also live with him. We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he’s never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. For the death he died, he d...

Matthew 9:35-10:8 [9-23] (CEB; adapted): Jesus traveled among all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, announcing the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The size of the harvest is bigger than you can imagine, but there are few workers. Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers for his harvest.” He called his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to throw them out and to heal every disease and every sickness. Here are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, who’s called Peter; and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee; and John his brother; Philip; and Bartholomew; Thomas; and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus; and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean; and Judas, who betrayed Jesus. Jes...

I recently posted a link on social media to my short series on all people being God’s people (you can read the first article here ). A few days ago, I was contacted by Johannes Steenbuch who runs the web site, Mercy Upon All . He said he’d read my series and asked about putting it up on his site. After checking out his site, I naturally said, “Yes!” So, if you’ve a mind to, check out my article on his site and then take the time to read through his excellent site. It’s filled with articles, sermons, church history, etc. that all point to “the restoration of all things” ( Acts 3.21 ). I’ve been pouring over it when I get some time and, let me just say, it’s fantastic! So head on over to Mercy Upon All and if you do, tell Johannes that I sent you. ~~~ In the Love of the Three in One, Br. Jack+, LC