Faith

Many people of my generation (I’m a boomer) learned about Jesus in Sunday School. We were shown the artist’s depictions, told the stories and often participated in Christmas plays. For most of us,...

We all have obligations. They start when we are very young, and the responsibility grows as we get older. Unfortunately, I have seen too many who think that the world owes them whatever they desire....

If you’ve ever spent any time in a park, you’ve probably observed a parent with a toddler who wants to race. The three-year-old doesn’t care that her legs are about a third of the length of her...

The Gospel of John identifies Jesus as the Logos of God. Even before acknowledging him as teacher, healer, or miracle worker, John proclaims Jesus as the Word who was God. Jesus Christ stands at the...

In John 10 Jesus presents himself to his disciples as a good and faithful shepherd who selflessly and sacrificially cares for his flock, encouraging, guiding and protecting them so that they might...

Hardly any of us can relate to what shepherds do, unless you live on a sheep farm. The closest I’ve come to sheep is seeing them by the side of the road a few times, eating lamb (which I really...

When we were young the biggest problem we had seemed to be whether our friends could come out and play. As we got older the problems seemed to grow as if they had a life of their own. That is because...

When Jesus described the kingdom of heaven1 as a mustard seed, he was teaching that God’s kingdom does not appear all at once in its completed form. Instead, it begins in a small and humble way,...

Have you ever been accused of being stubborn? I’m sure we’ve all had our moments. My wife and I sometimes joke around about which one of us is more stubborn. Truth be told, it’s me. Stubbornness...

When speaking of the Holy Spirit, we often say, ‘when I received the Holy Spirit.’ Jesus said that the glory the Father gave him – the Holy Spirit and all that he is – has now been given to us...

It is with a great sense of privilege that we find ourselves able, in John 17:1-11, through the preserving work of the Holy Spirit, to listen in on one of the most intimate, heart-warming and...

Kindness is something everyone values but is so rare we often find ourselves surprised when it happens. We don’t normally think of God as being kind, but since it means of a ‘good or benevolent...

From Genesis through Revelation, we have the story of God and what he has done for humanity despite our fall from grace. You may feel it unfair to be labelled a sinner at birth, but sinners we all...

In the Great Commission, Jesus commanded his followers to go into the world and make disciples. Few believers could argue against the idea that Christians are commissioned by Christ to engage in...

How do you get to know someone you’ve never met? We might speak to people who know them well or, these days, follow them on social media. While these things can help us know about a person, they...

The header scripture encapsulates the gospel and has a clear focus on the meaning of true happiness, which pervades the entirety of this Davidic hymn of praise. It would appear that most people are,...

It’s common when someone in authority in a church makes a mistake or a poor decision for people to not only stop going to church but turn their backs on God as well. This has always puzzled me as I...

Paul in his letter to the Romans has been speaking of the grace and love of God that we have been given as a gift, and how this gift changes our lives significantly. One of those blessings is our...

The Parable of the Sower is one of Jesus’s most familiar teachings, and it continues to speak powerfully to us today. Jesus described four types of soil that represent different responses to God’s...

Sometimes the most important things in life are easy to overlook. A small seed planted in quiet soil may seem insignificant at first. Yet beneath the surface, something extraordinary is happening....

Do you know what a white rainbow is? Better yet, have you seen one? I haven’t, and I only just learned that they even exist. White rainbows are sometimes called fogbows. They are like rainbows —...

We know little about Jesus’s early years, from his childhood growing up in Nazareth to the time he started his ministry, but he did learn what it was like to be a young child, a teenager and a young...

Many Christians, and people observing Christians, have the idea the way to heaven is to do certain things – be good, turn the other cheek, go to church – and to stop doing other things (you fill...

Did you ever have one of those weeks where everything comes undone? I am sure you did. This has been a week of the unexpected and the overwhelming. I set my mind to peace and organisation of my world,...

Romans 7 captures the deep struggle of the human condition. The apostle Paul describes the frustration of wanting to do good, yet finding himself unable to live up to God’s perfect standard...

New Year Resolutions – some of us do great with them. Some of us don’t make any resolutions. And some of us might want me to change the subject. I get it. It has been reported that only 8.9% of...

The Argentine footballer Diego Maradona once said, ‘The game of football is like a canvas, and it’s up to the players to paint the most beautiful picture.’ Coming from a player widely regarded...

Does God hear our prayers only if we’re good enough or if we say the right words in the right way? Does he wait to listen until we are in the correct position, or we reach a quota of...

I remember watching, many years ago now, a preacher who demanded healing in the name of Jesus. It was quite impressive; it was meant to be of course. The person being healed would fall backward and be...

One of the most common misunderstandings about grace is that it gives us permission to live however we want. If salvation is a gift of grace and not something we earn through keeping rules, does that...

Have you ever noticed how many times the word ‘therefore’ appears in the Bible? One rule of thumb that has been given to help understand a passage in scripture, is that when you see the word...

I had reached a London mainline railway station and was making my way across town to catch another train to the north. I had to take two different Underground lines to get to it. I had luggage with me...

Because we are God’s children, we are being transformed into the fullness of the stature of Christ. As such, we are becoming more Christlike. Our thinking will essentially be persuaded by Christ to...

Hagar felt she got a bum rap from Sarai after she had been given to Abram as an underling wife. She felt lost, without hope and invisible, so she headed out to the desert to die, but God found and...

I never really believed that I was an enemy of God. It is shocking to think that I was, that we all were. I did not intentionally go actively fighting against him in my mind. How about you? I did not...

Paul’s letter to the Romans is one of the clearest pictures of the transforming power of grace in the New Testament. At the beginning of Chapter six he asks a question that naturally arises whenever...

The phrase ‘dead to me’ has unknown origins but saying that someone is ‘dead to me’ communicates that you no longer want to speak or have any kind of contact with that person. This can be a...

The writer of the letter to the Hebrew Christians, in the well-known eleventh chapter, parades before us the Old Testament heroes of faith who performed such courageous and mighty acts  with...