Category: Reflections
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Loving God
“Jesus replied, ‘“Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt 22: 37 – 38) What does it mean to love God? Maybe some of us would struggle to answer that question. When I was younger I…
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Screens, screens everywhere
One of the things I’m finding hardest about lockdown is the increased reliance on screens, not just to do my job, but in order to be able to keep in touch with family and friends. I’d almost rather have no contact than the frustratingly inadequate two-dimensional experience of staring at my pixelated friends (and my…
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He must become greater; I must become less
Lockdown is hard and many of us are struggling to feel good about ourselves. As we are all cut off from community and being driven online we need to guard against getting our value from Facebook likes, emojis, and cheap uplifting sentiment shared online. Instead we need to look to God for our worth and…
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Coronavirus – opportunities for mission
In these uncertain times, many people are understandably feeling a mixture of emotions including fear and anger. For many, the things that they find security in like health, work, finances and comfortable living are being taken away. It’s easy to panic. It’s easy to react by hoarding tins of meatballs and packets of loo roll.…
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Giving what is most precious: Lessons from a young boy and his Easter egg
When I was younger, my family and I were often on holiday over Easter. Mum and I had a tradition that we’d always go to the Easter service at the local church, which I really enjoyed. One Easter, we were on holiday somewhere in Wales and I was sitting in the pew next to a…
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What’s wrong with the world?
The word ‘sin’ isn’t used much these days is it? We talk about making ‘mistakes’ as if it’s accidental. We talk about ‘inappropriate’ behaviour (a bit like wearing ‘inappropriate’ shoes for a night out). We talk about ‘misconduct’ as if someone wasn’t paying attention in deportment lessons and has been presenting themselves is a sloppy…
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BCE: Is it really time to erase Christianity from history?
It seems there’s more and more pressure to erase Christianity from history to avoid offending those of other faiths or of a secular worldview. A recent investigation by the Mail on Sunday found that more schools using BCE and CE instead of BC and AD to avoid offending those of non-Christian faiths. This strikes me…
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God’s moral law
It seems that we’re living in a post-truth world, surrounded by fake news in a post-modern culture of extreme moral relativism. How many times have you heard someone say, ‘Well that might be true for you, but it isn’t true for me.’ or ‘This is my truth’? A difficulty with moral relativism is that right…
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5 ways the prophecy of Joel challenges today’s church
Joel as a missional book I recently wrote an assignment for my Master’s which involved a missional reading of the book of Joel. I could pick any passage of Scripture I liked and there were several times I regretted choosing Joel, but I’m glad I stuck with it as it’s an oft-neglected book of the…
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Doesn’t religion treat women terribly?
One of the many reasons that I love Jesus is his radical approach to women. At a time when women were treated as possessions and had virtually no voice in public life, Jesus unequivocally saw women as equal in worth and value to men. Luke 7: 36 – 50 records the account of Jesus eating…
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