Category: Reflections
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Give a dog a bone
I’ve had the privilege of looking after my friend’s dog this week while she and her husband were on holiday. I used to be terrified of dogs, but I’ve known Pepper since she was a puppy and over the years we’ve built a strong bond of love and trust. I’m still not keen on dogs…
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Giving and receiving love
Today I want to think about about giving and receiving love – how we communicate to other people that we care about them. I’m not talking about romantic love, but more about how we express love in friendships and family relationships.
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Is there a dark side to religion?
Two big criticisms of religion are hypocrisy and judgementalism and Jesus has a lot to say about both. So let’s start with hypocrisy. We hate hypocrisy don’t we? We see it in politicians, thought leaders, celebrities, religious people, business tycoons… the list is endless.
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Creative prayer part 3 – 10 more ideas to help you pray
This is the third in my occasional series with some ideas to inspire your prayer life. • Do a prayer walk treasure hunt. I have created a list of things to spot as you walk around your community and prayer suggestions for each. Download the prayer treasure hunt here.
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Are we efficiently miserable? Relational breakdown vs the Kingdom story
Sometimes it’s hard to see what the goal of human progress is. As technology develops, we’re doing things quicker and more efficiently than ever before, but at what cost? We’re bugged by constant reminders and notifications. We have advanced technological systems to keep us in line and ‘on track’ but what’s it all for? We…
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Have it your way
Burger King tells us to ‘Have it your way’. Radio Disney promises to give us ‘Your Music, Your Way’. As consumers, we’re constantly fed the message that we come first – that our world revolves around us. We are so steeped in consumerism and we don’t even realise it. That doesn’t necessarily mean having loads…
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Identity 3 – Our Christian identity
In the previous posts in this series I looked at identity in society and culture and God’s identity revealed to us. In this final instalment we’re going to look at our Christian identity. What is our identity in Christ? (i) Uplifting images These are the ones that are on all the bookmarks, cards and posters.…
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Bamboo toothbrushes and justice for the poor
Christians – especially evangelicals – are sometimes rightly criticised for being environmentally irresponsible and simply not caring enough about living sustainably on the earth. It’s hard for church to be attractive to my ethically aware friends when they’re confronted by hundreds of disposable plastic communion cups. And I must admit that for a long time…
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Identity 2 – God’s identity revealed to us
In the last blog post in this series I looked at identity in society and culture. In this post I want to focus on God’s identity revealed to us. The importance of names Pause to think: In Biblical culture, names (both place names and people names) were very important – you can pick up on…
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How can I love people I don’t like?
It’s hard to love everyone. It’s almost impossible to like everyone. Yet, there are ways that we can develop a more Jesus-like heart towards those we find difficult. God has been challenging me about loving my enemies. “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be…
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