I shared last night with some people at one of our church gatherings about my current situation. As I talked it through with my colleague who would be interviewing me, the theme that surprisingly came through very clearly was this: I have hope. What hope isn’t I want to be very clear about what I don’t mean […]
This is my 100th post on this blog. I’m quite pleased with that, and I felt I should mark it in some way. While working out what that might be, I reflected a little on what the purpose of the blog is. The point hasn’t been to build up a regular readership. The point hasn’t […]
Yesterday our dog Mika did something which was just beautiful. I want to tell that story for two reasons. First, it’s a great story, and who doesn’t love cute dog stories? Second, it encapsulates something of the beauty of what Jesus has done. (And I guess third, it’s a story about limping, so how could I not?) […]
Three days ago, for the first time ever, I removed a post from this blog. There have been posts which on reflection could have been better, posts which I’ve added clarification to, and a couple posts I wrote but thought better of publishing at all. But this time I deleted a post. It went live […]
I’d be lying if I said I never have doubts about faith. I cannot claim to fully understand God and it’s uncomfortable. I don’t want uncertainty, but where there is uncertainty, doubt is normal. Doubt is hard enough to live with. Trying to follow God who is so wonderful He eludes our comprehension is difficult. […]
I was asked a question recently as part of a staff retreat day: When was the last time you changed your beliefs? It’s not an easy question, but a good one. Why I don’t like changing my mind Changing my mind about what I believe is true has a lot of drawbacks. It means accepting […]
A few weeks ago I missed an opportunity, I think. I was preaching, and the sermon was on Jesus as our ‘great high priest’ from the book of Hebrews (4:14–5:10 if you must know). As part of it, I said this: “Jesus is the perfect high priest because he entered into the grittiness and the […]
On Sunday, The Independent newspaper published an article by Amber Dillon entitled ‘Christianity is not the problem. The Bible is.’ (The full article can be found here) On Sunday, I also preached a sermon which – in part – was about boldly standing for truth even where it is unpopular. I struggled a lot with […]
Why do I choose the image of limping to describe the walk and the journey I am committing to? Wrestling with God The simple answer is that it refers to a story from Genesis (32:22-32) where Jacob physically wrestles all night long with God and leaves the encounter with a limp. I myself have never […]