The story of Ruth is such a lovely one. It’s a story we can read and enjoy for its joyous ending and happy outcome for all the main characters. There was the big moment that is often written and preached about when she tells Naomi not to try to persuade her to go back to […]
Reading John 15 this morning, about Jesus being the vine and us the branches, it occurred to me that sometimes the power and significance of this passage is a little overshadowed by the sneaky fear some of us have that we might prove to be a ‘fruitless branch’, and that we might be ‘cut off’. […]
I was intrigued recently by an article in the paper, that was provoked by the Nasa mission to Mars and the quest to find some sign of microbiological life using the Rover Perseverance. The writer {Rod Liddle, The Sunday Times, February 21st} said that, after 50 missions, there is probably not a hope of that […]
I believe today’s blog is for those of us who find ourselves chewing over the things that perplex us rather like a dog with a bone. Just to clarify that statement, there is a good way to ‘chew’ on things, and just like the cows ruminating on their food, chewing something over can be a […]
Over the last couple of days we have been looking at how we can keep ourselves full of faith by feasting our hearts on God’s faithfulness. The illustration that comes to mind is of a ball, which represents the challenge before us, and the sun which represents God. If we hold the ball, small as […]
Yesterday, we were focusing our thoughts on the fact that my faith grows as I look at Gods’ faithfulness. If I feed my mind, my heart and spirit on God’s faithfulness, I can be full of faith for the challenges facing me. Moreover my feelings of panic or of being overwhelmed by a situation subsides […]
I was recently pondering on the word ‘faithful’ and thinking that unlike wonderful, by which we mean that something is ‘full’ of wonder, ‘faithful’ does not mean full of faith but ‘one who is loyal and constant to their word’ (according to the Oxford dictionary). It derives from the idea that someone who is faithful […]
In their book ‘Blessing your spirit’ Sylvia Gunter and Arthur Burk introduce us to the idea that we can ‘grow’ our spirit, and that our spirit is not given to us like one of our physical attributes, like our height or the colour of our eyes, which is in our genetic code. The spirit that […]
When Moses asked God what name he should give the Israelites if they asked him who had sent him, the name that God gave Himself was YHWH (which we now write as YAHWEH). These four consonants are known as the aspirated or breath consonants because the sound they make is like someone breathing out. I […]
We have now been pursuing our theme of thanksgiving for two months, and what is becoming clearer and clearer is that as we respond in all the various situations of life with thanksgiving, we are in fact choosing to respond to everything with faith in our hearts. As we thank God for the opportunities that […]