Reunion
For the last year and a bit I have been typing up the journals I kept during my first two …
Category Archives: Hope
Just a Postcard
It was just a postcard. It arrived this morning along with a credit card bill. The credit card bill was …
Sarajevo
Sarajevo is an unusual city. It is a place where east meets west as the old town area that hails …
The Last Post
The ten days since returning from one of the best family holidays ever have been rough. It seems as if …
Beach Huts
The thought of having a beach hut appeals to me for some reason. It must run in the family because …
Clouds
I love the Joni Mitchell song ‘Both Sides Now’ (although I prefer the Judy Collins version). The song begins with …
Be Ever Graceful
As I continue down the path that will eventually lead to ordination, or so God tells me, I learn and …
Facedown
I can be a little deluded about myself and my giftings. I like to think it’s charming but I’m probably …
(Some) Things Change
It is so easy to become overly engrossed in your own small and largely insignificant life. To my shame I …
A Bitter Pill
Over the past months, and for what feels like an eternity, I have been up against the most painful situation …
Monkey Do Monkey Do
I write this on my phone in a cheap hotel room after meeting our son for the first time. In …
If it makes you happy…
Once in youth group I asked the young people what they thought God wanted for their lives. There was a …
A year on…
A year ago I wrote about the worst day of the year. Today I write a little explanation as to …
Broken
“BANG, SMASH” You look around and your heart sinks as you see the jar that was previously standing proudly on …
Barabbas
Jesus is nervous. He is awaiting trial. The people hate him and with good reason. The whispers about him are …
Wake Up Jesus!
The disciples are out on a boat. For the fishermen among them this is a place of safety. It’s what …
The Kings House
My favourite restaurant is called The Kings House. My wife and I would visit weekly if finances permitted. If we …
Tree Surgery
I was walking home the other day and coming towards me were two school girls. I decided to do the …
Running on Empty
The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is …
Mercy not Sacrifice: Emphasis
There is a man who stands in the town centre. He has done it for years. This photo is his …
First Trip
I was sixteen years old when I joined the Merchant Navy as a navigating cadet. After a two-week induction course …
Healing is in His Hands
Pain My visit ever visit to hospital as a patient was in 1990 when the cause of the debilitating pain …
The Worst Day of the Year
For couples who struggle to conceive Fathers’ Day and Mothers’ Day can be some of the hardest days of the …
Stranded!
Ebs or Ebbs? The title of this blog is important. Although it is a play on words associated with the …
Have you heard the Word?
Apart from a relatively few extremely gifted people a lot of us struggle with evangelism. We know we should do …
Doo
I remember saving up for holidays when I was little. I also remember blowing my entire holiday savings on the …
Trust Issues
Do you really trust God implicitly? Could you be as bold as King Jehoshaphat who called the nation of Judah …
Start with me
In 1904 revival transformed Wales. In the space of one year more than 100,000 people surrendered their lives to Jesus …
Comforting Accusations
You are rubbish. Honestly you are a totally idiot. No one else would waste so much as effectively as you do. No one else would use their time for such idiotic escapades. Who else do you know that abuses grace so profoundly as you? To be honest mate why don’t you just jack it all in? You lack discipline and you are probably never going to have enough to be good enough! Yes theres always grace, but don’t you think you have pushed it a bit too far? How many times can someone (specifically YOU) be forgiven? Does God really forgive everything?! You are taking the mick. And you know it. Why don’t you go out and spoil yourself – there’s a whole world out there to make you feel better – go for it kid. After all if you are going to ruin everything you touch you may as well have fun doing it.
Hubris
So I sat there, not sure about the content, not sure about the approach I was going to take, feeling a bit embarrassed about my oversight and concerned that I was failing in responsibilities to God and everyone who had showed up on a cold night in January. Then before the sermon we sang ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ – a classic and well loved hymn that I have been singing since I’ve been able to read. All of a sudden all my insecurities, worries and hopelessness were put into perspective,
‘Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.’
Wrath, Mercy & Jesus
A plague wipes out 70,000, and then God sends His angel to Jerusalem to smash it. But it becomes too much for God and He extends His mercy calling the angel off as he is poised over the threshing floor of Araunah. It’s at this point that David looks out and sees the angel with his sword drawn, poised but frozen and David is faced with the place where God’s wrath meets God’s mercy. This threshing floor goes on to be the site of the temple. This visual representation of the wrath/mercy smack down captivated me.
Ebs and Flows... 