Charlie and his family used to be missionaries in Mexico City. These days, Charlie teaches at Ridley College and the Church Missionary Society’s training centre – St Andrew’s Hall – in Melbourne.
Where do you live and go to church?
I live in Melbourne and go to Ormond Anglican Church.
Name a Bible character you resonate with and why.
Just one?! I resonate with the woman at the end of Luke 7 (verses 36-50) whose love for Jesus flows from her experience of God’s forgiveness. She trusts Jesus, she experiences the forgiveness of her sins, and she responds with extravagant love. The freedom of forgiveness is so wonderful!
What’s one thing from the Bible that’s stuck in your brain at the moment?
In John’s Gospel, Jesus prays that his followers may be one “so that the world may know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23). He says similarly in John 15:9, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” To be frank, I’d think there was something heretical about these expressions if they weren’t in the Bible and on Jesus’ lips. It doesn’t seem possible or right. How can it be? You see, I’m used to thinking that the Father loves us because of the Son, or through the Son, or for the sake of the Son, but I find it absolutely breathtaking that, in some way, the Father’s love for the Son is the measure of God’s love for us!
Name one part of the Bible you keep coming back to again and again and why.
I keep coming back to the poetry of the Psalms. I find the Psalms a great spur to praise and prayer. Athanasius said in the fourth century that, while all Scripture speaks to us, the Psalms speak for us. Actually, as a general practice, not just when I’m reading the Psalms, I find it adds depth and variety to my praying if I use the part of the Bible I’m reading to shape my prayers for myself and others.
Describe one of your Bible reading failures and what you learnt.
Well, when I was younger I could read the Bible in bed to finish the day. These days I’m so usually so tired at the end of the day that I just fall asleep if I try to concentrate on reading. Actually, the same thing applies for me first thing in the morning, which limits my options! If I try to read the Bible at those times of day, I hardly take anything in and it’s largely a waste of time, so I try to read the Bible at a time of day when I’m alert and able to focus.
If you were a monster what would be your defining feature?
If I were a character from Monsters Inc., I think I would be like Mike Wazowski—very grumpy on a bad day and totally one-eyed!
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