Simon Jooste I am the pastor of a multi-cultural English-speaking Reformed church on the southern tip of Africa in a city called Cape Town. Since 1652, when the first Dutch settlers landed in the Cape, the church has struggled to fulfil the Great Commission amid common cultural enterprise with itsContinue Reading
By Simon Jooste, pastor of RCSS Embodiment is central to salvation, so is suffering in the body. Without the incarnation, passion, and ongoing enfleshed intercession of Christ, there is no redemption. This was the heartbeat of the apostle Paul’s preaching in ancient Corinth, a city pulsing with ideas and illicitContinue Reading
Recently, I read Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations for the first time—a bracing read in a weighty and contentious season. Likely written around the 170s, the material later published as Meditations probably wasn’t meant for public consumption. Marcus Aurelius (Roman Emperor from 161–180 AD) kept the journal, a collection of short mentalContinue Reading
By Rev. Dr Simon Jooste Just as God uses the churchly means of Word and sacraments to justify and sanctify sinners, he also uses all kinds of broader social means to uphold and sustain a common humanity. Like civil government, the institution of medicine is providentially used by God toContinue Reading
By Rev. Dr Simon Jooste The proclamation of the crucified Christ and the cost of Christian discipleship is folly to the world. This is because the world, particularly Western culture, naturally gravitates towards a theology of glory. Whether atheist or not, most forms of modern Western spirituality exalt human autonomyContinue Reading
By Rev. Dr Simon Jooste The Christian is not to be conformed to the world’s pattern of thinking (Romans 12:2). But it is particularly tempting to bow the knee to the pharmacological fruits for therapeutic narcissism and its pragmatic ethics, particularly when the billows of suffering roll in. Prozac canContinue Reading
By Rev. Dr Simon Jooste Christians suffer in this life. This is because they live in a fallen world, but also because of their cross-bearing identity with Jesus Christ. Depression is one way that believers hurt. The difficulty for Christians – who see humans as both body and soul –Continue Reading
By Rev. Dr Simon Jooste If Adam had not sinned in Paradise, he would have entered into a state of eternal embodied bliss. However, the story did not end that way. Instead, since the Fall of Adam and Eve death and decay have ravaged body and soul. Things are notContinue Reading
Sara de Moor writes: Shame: The intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging. As Christians we believe that we—and this world—are flawed. We see evidence of brokenness all around us. This is the reality of living in a fallenContinue Reading
Most of us have at some point in our lives been shocked and appalled at the suffering in this world. You drive past the mangled body on the side of the road. Your neighbour is beaten to near death for his cell-phone. Another helpless girl is gang-raped. Many people inContinue Reading