The Whitehouse Church Podcast

There are many things that the Bible actually says, and even more that have been tortured out from its pages that cannot be considered consistent with the life and teaching of Jesus. Bad exegesis and interpretation can easily create false gospels. The post-transfiguration life for Christians means walking away from – repenting of – violence, power over, and authoritarian control. It means repentin...

Just as the Ten Commandments were the foundational laws in the society of Israel, Jesus is presenting a manifesto for the new community of the kingdom of God. In all these teachings Jesus expresses what the true fulfilment of the law should look like, not as a doctrinal statement but rather as a beautiful vision of a holy community relating towards one  another with love and respect.

If you are exhausted but still holding on in spirit, if you are grieving or in despair, if your gentleness is triumphing over your violence, if you are seeking for God’s justice in the world, if you are merciful and pure and making peace, if you are persecuted or mocked for following Jesus. Celebrate and rejoice! The time of citizenship, comfort, prosperity, satisfaction, mercy, theophany, adoptio...

A tent of meeting tried to contain something of God’s nature. There was a tabernacle, and a temple, and an ark, and a Holy of Holies, but none of them could not contain God. They all passed away, yet God still desired to dwell among his people, he still wanted to be with us. And so, he took on flesh like us. And within Mary’s womb became the temple of the very enfleshed Word of God! The one who co...

Jesus’ kingdom isn’t from this world, which should be obvious because worldly kingdoms always defend themselves with violence. Worldly kingdoms are insecure and fragile realms led by insecure and fragile kings that are founded on the blood of their enemies. But Jesus’ kingdom is from another place, and instead of violence, trickery, and insurrection, his kingdom is founded on the love of his enemi...

It is not foremost our orthodoxy and creeds, or our pageantry and performances, or our offerings and sacrifices that make us Christian. It is our love of God and the love of our neighbours that shows how close we are to God’s kingdom.

Somebody needs to lead and somebody needs to hold power, it’s just that Jesus simply doesn’t recognise this as a prerequisite for greatness. Having the most power, prestige, influence, money, or might is irrelevant to Jesus’ definition of greatness. It is obvious who Jesus thinks is great. He draws attention to the widow with a few coins, the good Samaritan, the faithful Centurion who petitions fo...

Our picture of God must be shaped by our understanding of Jesus. He is the only true perfect representation of the father, and he is the lens through which we must interpret all Scripture and revelation. His teaching and example are superior to all others, and when we are faced with complex theological and moral conundrums the sensitivity, graciousness, and kindness of Jesus must be our model for...

When Jesus defines the boundaries of belonging he makes it clear that it is the people that cause others to stumble, the people that exclude others, and the people that are focused on defining themselves as the greatest that should be worried.

We must trust that war and violence, death and suffering, greed and malice, and all manner of evil will ultimately be done away with in the kingdom of God. We must trust that the unjust, apathetic, unmerciful and  evil empires, powers, and authorities will receive judgement and that the poor, the oppressed, the broken, and the innocent victims of the world’s corruption will receive life everl...

Today we have the wonderful Chevelle Hibberd sharing about favouritism from the book of James.

Even though the psalmist of Psalm 84 longs to be back in the courts of the Lord, he knows that there is a blessing for the pilgrims who seek out God. God gives his children the strength to carry on even through the Valley of Weeping. God is just as real on the journey as he is in the temple. God is just as present on the difficult road as he is in the sanctuary of his courts.

Solomon had a listening heart but sadly the later part of his life was dictated by him listening to the call of his wives’ pagan worship and idolatry. Solomon is an example of wisdom, but he is not the fulfilment. Jesus is the true beacon of wisdom that we should seek to follow.

The crowd that followed Jesus missed the signposts that were pointing them to his true identity. They were able to connect the dots and see how Jesus was like Moses, but they couldn’t see past their physical reality to the spiritual reality being revealed.

Today we have something a little bit different as our face-to-face  meeting was shifted online due to Covid. Instead of a regular sermon Geoff guided us through a Bible study in John 6:1-21 using a range of visual tools including maps and interlinear Bible resources.

The church should be a place of healing, not a place that causes trauma. And not just miraculous physical healing, but the kind of healing that  comes from deep abiding relationship, from connectedness, intimacy and belonging. The kind of healing that comes from extended times of  listening, from tea and from coffee, and from the breaking of bread.

Today we have something a little bit different as our face-to-face  meeting was shifted online due to Covid. Instead of a regular sermon Geoff guided us through a Bible study using a range of visual tools to help show how he reads the Bible and prepares his messages.

These incredible stories are signposts for us in the gospel of Mark. Jesus didn’t heal everyone in the world or raise every dead person in the region. But in these examples, we see what his kingdom will be like in the time to come. God is remaking the world through Jesus and one day his kingdom will look like all the signposts that Jesus left behind in his ministry. The oppressed are set free, the...

The mustard bush was not a plant that any farmer would sow into his field. They are an invasive plant that grows and takes over! It is a weed! And the kingdom of God is like this, it will get into every nook and cranny, it will find every space and it will grow. There is no stopping it! The kingdom of God is going to uproot the kingdom of the world, it is going to overthrow the corrupt systems and...

The teachers of the law had a sinister agenda. By labelling Jesus as 'possessed' they were also trying to justify to the people what they were planning to do to him. This is a common tactic even today when authorities want to get away with hurting people. Our media is often complicit with policy makers in creating labels that dehumanise people with the explicit agenda of justifying institutional a...

Ultimately, spiritual maturity is about balance. We want to be sensitive to the subtle and emotive voice of the Holy Spirit whilst being tempered with the wisdom and discernment that the Holy Spirit offers. Simply being stoic and emotionless does not make you mature; it makes you a cold and unfeeling. At the same time, always being ‘led’ to do things without wisdom, discernment, and appropriate re...

God is love. God is not some warmongering, violent, capricious, malicious, angry being in heaven that hates everyone who disagrees with him. God is love and he sends his son as the witness and example of that love, and his son dies for us. This is the ultimate example of love: To lay down one's life for one’s friends.

There are definitely things in your life that need a pruning. Old ways of thinking, habits, toxic ambitions, destructive behaviour, selfishness… even grief and hurt. These things must give way so that new things can grow.

My experience as a child and as an adult has been blessed because I have always known that my mum loves me. All my life she has laid in the gate and protected me. She has been a good shepherd. I have never doubted her love, and there is nothing that I could do that would stop her from loving me. She bore me in her womb and fed me at her breast. She carried me in her arms, and in her heart and pray...

Jesus’ physical incarnation, physical death, and physical resurrection, marked by Christmas and Easter, are central to his embodiment of humanity and show us that the flesh is fundamentally good and capable of housing the divine presence. Our bodies are not bad. Our flesh is not bad. This world is not bad. When God created the earth and everything within it, he called it  ‘good’, and when he...