In the gospel narratives, it is clear that faithfulness is very important to the Lord. This is no surprise because it is another one of these essential characteristics of God Himself. Throughout the bible from beginning to end God declares Himself to be ‘the Faithful One’ and that is who His people prove Him to […]

So here’s a random thought. What if God wasn’t good? What if the creator of the universe – of you and me, wasn’t good? It’s an inconceivable thought. The word good itself comes from God, and our culture is steeped in the idea that God is good. This is clear by the way we use […]

Contentment is not one of the nine fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians but it is a quality of life that I believe most of us urgently need more of, as we live our lives in the 21st century consumer society. I am sure that every generation has had challenges in this area but […]

I love kindness!! It sounds so soft and gentle, and yet it is one of the most powerful attributes that our God has. It is so close to love and often they are blended and we read of the Lord’s ‘loving kindness’. The psalmists sing and write about it over and over again in their […]

The first three qualities listed as ‘fruit of the Spirit’, love, joy and peace would, I think, top many people’s list for qualities that would be signs of a good life. We have looked briefly at love and joy and earlier, in blog 137, at peace, so today we are moving onto ‘patience’.  As we […]

The first three qualities listed as ‘fruit of the Spirit’, love, joy and peace would, I think, top many people’s list for qualities that would be signs of a good life. We have looked briefly at love and joy and earlier, in blog 137, at peace, so today we are moving onto ‘patience’.  As we […]

It’s an interesting question; is fruit singular or plural. You can have a bowl of fruit that is full and containing various types of fruit, and you can have the fruit from a tree which describes a great number of pieces of fruit of the same variety, and then you can have a fruit salad […]

Yesterday we were looking at how the power of ‘Christ in us’ enables us to love others in the way that Jesus loves, something that Jesus spoke about at the last supper. He gave them a new commandment saying to them ‘love each other as I have loved you’, John 15:12. This was His great […]

I look at the size, beauty and complexity of the universe, at how magnificent it is, as we catch a glimpse of it in the giant telescopes that we now have, then when I think about how much beauty and intricacy of design there is in the tiniest creature that we can see in a […]

It is interesting that in the older translation of the bible, the AV, Galatians 5:19 reads ‘the works of the flesh are these…..’, contrasting that list quite dramatically with ‘the fruit of the Spirit’. It is interesting that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write about ‘the works of the flesh’ and ‘the fruit of […]