In the book of Isaiah, we read both of God speaking to His people prophetically, and the prophet Isaiah, responding to His words and praying for His nation. At one point he reminds God of all the times when He did amazing things to rescue His people, and then he acknowledges the bad state that […]

Over the last two days we have seen how keeping an attitude of gratitude, keeping a thankful heart towards God, can help us to stay flexible. It can help us to avoid being locked in to rigid views about what should or shouldn’t happen, both in our own  lives and the lives of others, or […]

In the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, that magnificent book for adults that children enjoy too, the encounter the four children have with Mr and Mrs Beaver in the beaver’s house is beautiful. It also contains some wonderful truth. C S Lewis had a marvelous way of describing profound things about the Lord, and […]

A while ago now I bought a small Monkey Puzzle tree in a pot, for Mark. We like Monkey Puzzle trees and, although we know they are slow growing, we were looking forward to it becoming a beautiful tree. We replanted it first of all, into a very large pot, to give its roots plenty […]

Thinking more about yesterday’s blog and the power of Jesus’ life in us, I was reminded of the promise that Jesus made, when He stood in the Temple in Jerusalem on the last and greatest (most important) day of the feast. We are told that ‘Jesus stood up and cried out in a loud voice, […]

I had a dream last night, a strange dream. In it Mark and I were at a public swimming bath, and when we got into the water, all the water drained away. In the dream I knew that this was a ‘manifestation of the presence of God’ and felt quite excited by it. All the […]

This blog is really a post script to No.224, published ten days ago on ‘Thanksgiving and Holiness’. It is a post script because I very recently read a paper by Bob Mumford entitled ‘Stepping over the Threshold’, in which he shares some really illuminating insights into what he believes is happening, both in the world […]

Another wonderful thing about being a child of God is that our wonderful heavenly Father helps us to ‘grow up into Christ in all things’ Ephesians 4:15. One of the ways in which He does this is by helping us with, and guiding us through, our problems.  And yes, we do all have problems, it’s […]

It seems to me that the word ‘love’ and the ideas behind it have changed quite significantly over recent years. People still like to read 1 Corinthians 13 on love at weddings, but the modern use of the word love seems quite frequently to have a different emphasis. This can be trivial or major. We […]

It is important that when we are talking about the Lord’s disciplining of us, His children, that we see that He never uses coercion. The Lord never seeks to control us like robots. We said yesterday that there are times when God uses hardship to discipline us. He can also use difficulties and trouble to […]