Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:3-4) We are not surprised by this; we should not be surprised. ThisContinue reading “To the believers from Mosul”
Author Archives: Matthew Pullar
Nocturne
Dance the night amidst the mist and hover cloud above the earth; sing the streets in silent vigil, sleep the world aright. Water soil, the dew of nighttime, watch the sleeping grasses grow; let the nocturne song surround you as you come and go. Rain falls on the just and unjust; nighttime fallsContinue reading “Nocturne”
Mark 11
No doubt if food was all that He required He could have made it bear for Him but leaves had presaged early fruit and nothing showed there yet. Not the season for figs, and yet He who made the fig tree sprout could change the seasons with His will. If curses worked, then why notContinue reading “Mark 11”
Catechism 28
If last week’s catechism question was hard, this week’s is vastly harder, and it’s with great trepidation that I approach setting this to poetry. But the question of divine punishment of sin is one from which we cannot escape if we want to grapple with what it means to live before a righteous God. MyContinue reading “Catechism 28”
Boab
Upside-down-like, you bulb from earth – your beauty breaks in root-like branches. Spindly fingers reach to sky, gaunt and stretching, delicate, your certain trunk a monument, a stout and stolid testament to passing years, millennia. Shedding pods to paint; a home, yet prison; sacred; den for slaves – drawing, standing, reaching out – a signContinue reading “Boab”
Catechism 27
This next question from the New City Catechism is a hard pill to swallow. It touches on what for me has long been one of the toughest questions of faith: the doctrine of election. The Bible is full both of invitations for all to come and also clear teaching that not all will come, and indeedContinue reading “Catechism 27”
Imago: For David Malouf
Who knows by what mysterious means the body moves to its ends? (David Malouf, An Imaginary Life) Half right, Ovid: we metamorphose, yet Not so wildly. There are leaps which we may Never take, gates which bar the backwards way. Infinitesimal, our movements, but breath Charges with possibility each step. We perish like beasts, toContinue reading “Imago: For David Malouf”
From Ashes 12: Metamorphosis and Sophronismos – Neuroplasticity and the Renewed Mind
As I approach my 30th birthday, which brings with it much reflection on all that God has done in my life so far, I have found myself drawn again to one of the most well-worn parts of my the Bible – Psalm 139. For many, this is their favourite psalm, and it is certainly oneContinue reading “From Ashes 12: Metamorphosis and Sophronismos – Neuroplasticity and the Renewed Mind”
Catechism 26
What else does Christ’s death redeem? Christ’s death is the beginning of the redemption and renewal of every part of fallen creation, as he powerfully directs all things for his own glory and creation’s good. (New City Catechism) Yet the cost went deeper than souls into soil and weathered the tree-trunks and witheredContinue reading “Catechism 26”
From Ashes 11: The Poor in Spirit and the Fainting Minister
Poverty in spirit is the porch of the temple of blessedness…Till we are emptied of self we cannot be filled with God. Stripping must be worked upon us before we can be clothed with the righteousness which is from Heaven. (C.H. Spurgeon, “The First Beatitude”) I remember a dream I had once, when I wasContinue reading “From Ashes 11: The Poor in Spirit and the Fainting Minister”
The Consolations of Writing 