Category: Thoughts

In the famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins to teach His disciples, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Here, Jesus Christ turns the world upside down or rather, the right side up! Christians are poor in spirit…… Continue reading Rich, Poor and Comforted Mourners

Have you felt a sense of shock or concern about the level of swearing you hear in public these days? I’m sure I didn’t hear so much when I was a lad – and I’m only in my early 40’s! I don’t want to sound like a moralising grumpy old man but it is a…… Continue reading ‘Not just words’

Copy of Christmas Message submitted as a peice amongst other church leaders in the local newspaper: I love to see the children in our Church family at Christmas time and always! We’ve been blessed with new little ones this year. I have three children myself and I know that it is a daunting joy to…… Continue reading Christmas Message 2011

From an article to a local paper: In terms of any comments from a Christian perspective, I see two main areas of concern. Firstly there’s the social / community aspect. Clearly there are vulnerable people behind some doors who will be terrified by Trick or Treat callers. Children are potentially vulnerable to some people behind…… Continue reading Halloween Dangers

This is not a promotion for our own church, which bears the word ‘evangelical’ in its title! Evangelical is not a separate denomination. There is no Evangelical HQ which tells affiliated churches what to believe. Evangelical properly refers to a movement which runs through a range of mainstream Christian denominations. My thesaurus tells me that evangelical…… Continue reading What is an ‘Evangelical Christian’?

One key word that parents try to teach their children is ‘sorry’. Maybe we can remember our own parents trying to get us to apologise for hitting our brother/ sister or for breaking the window, or whatever! Can you remember that battle within you as you knew what you should say, but pride and stubbornness…… Continue reading The Hardest Word to Really Mean

Sometimes people with firm beliefs are accused of being intolerant. Yet it can also be the case that people with strong beliefs strongly believe that we need to respect others even if they strongly disagree! We must not confuse disagreement with intolerance nor assume strong belief as unreasonable. In fact we have a strange and…… Continue reading Intolerant Tolerance

By now the refuse collections and a visit to the tip have cleared the remnants of Christmas! We moaned at the voluminous packaging, food the children didn’t eat and the bin that was too small for the rubbish! There’s even a gadget available to squash it down. It would be far better if we did…… Continue reading What a Waste!

When US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said “… there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns…” many people, with furrowed brows, struggled to make sense! But as we try to peer round the edge of the year into 2005, what hopes can we have for…… Continue reading The Knowns and the Unknowns