Recently, I was reading again the story in Matthew 8: 5-13 of Jesus’ encounter with the Centurion. You may remember that he came up to Jesus and told Him that his servant was paralysed and in great pain and Jesus said “I will come and heal him”. The centurion said “I am not worthy for […]

This Christmas you may have many visitors, or none. You may be surrounded by family and friends, or you may be having to isolate, or be separated from those you love by circumstances, difficulties or practicalities. You may be in good health or poor. You may be rich or poor, surrounded by gifts, or there […]

It’s funny, isn’t it how we human beings, who are so full of failings, and so prone to make mistakes, often have in our heads a ‘driving voice’ that says “This has got to be perfect.” ? This can be true of a ‘one off’ special day like a wedding, a big celebratory party, or […]

Proverbs 30:9 says ‘Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say “Who is the Lord?” or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God.’ When the children of Israel came into the promised […]

Yesterday we were appreciating the fact that, when it comes to things that will help us to live Godly lives, we can ask God for His help, with confidence. Because of course the Father will give us anything that helps us to grow into the likeness of his Son, but what about other things? What […]

Yesterday we were thanking God that not only did He ‘give’ His only Son so that we might have life, but that we can also ask Him with confidence for all that we need to fully live that new life, to ‘live it abundantly,’ John 10:10, as Jesus Himself would like us to. Today I […]

Yesterday we were looking at the wonderful truth that ‘receiving’ is at the heart of the gospel. We have also recently been considering the contrast between the tradition of Father Christmas, who brings gifts to ‘good children’, [although he does seem to turn a blind eye to a lot of bad stuff!] and our Heavenly […]

Over the year we have looked at many aspects of thanksgiving and how it is so important and such a blessing to God and man. And, whilst we may have already recognised this in our journey, it is good to be reminded how much it marks out a key difference between true faith and much […]

Yesterday I mentioned that recently my eye seems to have been continually drawn to huge blown up red Santa figures. Our western Santa Claus has travelled a long way from the original St Nicholas of the 4th Century. A Saint who, tradition has it, did many good things and whose legacy has been embellished by […]

Last Christmas I was so sad as I walked around a garden centre looking at all the Christmas decorations and paraphernalia, because I could only find one small ‘nativity tableau’ table decoration. It was the only thing in that centre that held any reference to the true meaning of Christmas. A few years before I […]