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‘Let no one who is not eager for truth and peace enter here’ (Plato)

Articles on this site express varying points of view, to encourage mature thinking on serious issues. The assumption is that you will want to study a controversial topic from various angles before you arrive at a conclusion, rather than simply believe what someone told you when you were impressionable! (So some stuff here is ‘hot’. Proceed at your own risk!). See the Statement of Faith for John Mark Ministries' theological stance.

Coming alive and staying alive: your ‘gifts’ and God’s ‘calling’

By and others ⋅ August 12, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

by Nils von Kalm http://soulthoughts.com There has been a lot written recently about finding God’s calling on your life. It generally centres around finding out what makes you come alive and then going out and doing it. The common line is that where your gifts and the world’s needs collide, there lies your calling. Now […]

Review: Alexander Shaia, The Hidden Power of the Gospels

By and others ⋅ August 3, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

Alexander Shaia (with Michelle Gaugy), The Hidden Power of the Gospels: Four Questions, Four Paths, One Journey, Harper One, 2010. Now here ¢â‚¬â„¢s an interesting  ¢â‚¬Ëœtake ¢â‚¬â„¢ on the Gospels. Shaia ¢â‚¬â„¢s approach doesn ¢â‚¬â„¢t win the approval of some (most?) New Testament scholars. But the names of the people whose endorsements appear on the back cover (Brian McLaren, […]

Psalm 146: God vs ‘Princes’

By and others ⋅ June 10, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

Psalm  146:     God vs  ¢â‚¬ËœPrinces ¢â‚¬â„¢ Point of contact: On the way to church this morning a minibus drove past with a Bible text neatly printed on the back:  ¢â‚¬ËœAll have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ¢â‚¬â„¢ Romans 3:23). And on the side door:  ¢â‚¬Ëœ ¢â‚¬ ¦ ¢â‚¬ ¦..Gospel Chapel ¢â‚¬â„¢. I grew up in a  ¢â‚¬ËœBrethren Assembly ¢â‚¬â„¢ where […]

SMALL GROUPS: What does a really healthy small group look like?

By and others ⋅ April 20, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

WHAT DOES A REALLY HEALTHY SMALL GROUP LOOK LIKE? Christians have always met in small groups  ¢â‚¬“ leaders like Jesus and John Wesley built their ministries/movements around them ¢â‚¬ ¦ Small groups where Christians study, share, pray, and  ¢â‚¬Ëœmission ¢â‚¬â„¢ together come in many sizes and formats. (It ¢â‚¬â„¢s unlikely that a Pentecostal who  ¢â‚¬Ëœprays in the Spirit ¢â‚¬â„¢ for […]

Movie Review – Les Miserables

By and others ⋅ February 10, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

by Nils von Kalm http://soulthoughts.com If you wanted to find an illustration of what the Gospel is, you couldn’t do much better than going to see the latest film version of Victor Hugo’s  Les Miserables. As old as this story is, this is the first time I’ve ever been through it. I have never finished reading […]

Dom Helder Camara: one of my three top (male) heroes

By and others ⋅ January 7, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

          DOM HELDER CAMARA My top three (male) heroes are Jesus of Nazareth, Dom Helder Camara, and Francis of Assisi, in that order… (He’s one of three 20th/21st century Catholic Archbishops I admire, each of whom chose slightly different routes in opposing violent regimes. The other two: Pope Francis, and Archbishop […]

MEDITATION ON HANDS

By and others ⋅ November 24, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Note: (Allow up to half an hour  ¢â‚¬“ or more, for this meditation. Have sketch pad and colored pens/pencils etc on hand too). Tonight we are going to do a centring prayer. Centring prayer is where we purposefully bring our awareness to one thing, to focus on a word, a short phrase, a Scripture, a […]

Dom Helder Camara: ‘Bishop of the Slums’

By and others ⋅ November 23, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

`Bishop of the slums’ — Dom H ƒ ©lder Camara and Brazil’s church of the poor This year (2009) marks the centennial of the birth and the tenth anniversary of the death of one of the most significant religious figures of the 20th century, an instigator of the liberation theology trend in Latin American Catholicism and a […]

Joan Chittister: The Monastery of the Heart

By and others ⋅ October 19, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Joan Chittister: The Monastery of the Heart: An Invitation to a Meaningful Life, 2011. When people whose judgment I respect    (Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren et. al.) keep suggesting we read Joan Chittister,   I sit up and take notice. Others apparently agree: Google has 339,000 references to her (there can ¢â‚¬â„¢t be too many with a […]

Meister Eckhart: A Spiritual Genius

By and others ⋅ October 9, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Go out of yourself and let God be God in you The 13th-14th Century German mystic Meister Eckhart has been described as  ¢â‚¬Ëœthe man from whom God hid nothing. ¢â‚¬â„¢ John Stewart explores the life and brilliant insights of a remarkable Christian. A computer search for references to Meister Eckhart reveals more than 294,000  ¢â‚¬“ such […]

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