Wish You Were Here
Today I submitted a photograph to a competition for amateur photographers. The subject of the competition was ‘Wish You Were …
Category Archives: Priorities
Be Ever Graceful
As I continue down the path that will eventually lead to ordination, or so God tells me, I learn and …
By Your Side
I am intrigued by the story of the Emmaus road where two friends who were feeling down were walking out …
iPriorities
Currently my iPhone is in for repair. It has been in for repair for over two weeks now. When I …
Clutch vs Consistency
I have always been a big basketball fan. Living in the UK it is not always easy to keep up …
Travelling Light
Have you ever been away from home on holiday/vacation or for some other reason and wondered how you managed to …
You’ve Got Mail
On Friday 26 October 1973 my father dropped me at Heathrow Airport and I flew to Sweden to join my …
I Want More
If you are a follower of Jesus then you are required to grow in your faith daily. Don’t take my …
Pressing the Pause Button
Last night I was one of eight busy people who rushed eight miles from home to my church house-group. It would …
The man I was made to be
“Love it will not betray you, dismay you or enslave you. It will set you free. Be more like the …
Mercy not Sacrifice: Emphasis
There is a man who stands in the town centre. He has done it for years. This photo is his …
The Great Unchangeable Me: Success
The film School of Rock ends with a battle of the bands. Jack Black’s fraudulently taught class of young teenagers …
Father and Son
Walking and Talking I spent a full day this week in the sole company of my eldest son, Nick. It …
Who’s the Daddy?
But although parents do fail regularly the issue is not about single events but the whole child. It would be easy to dwell on my own failures. With five children I have been given many opportunities to fail. When I look at my father who is eighty-years old I do not examine his failures but I celebrate his successes. I am proud of my father. It wasn’t easy.
Quality Brew
Several months have passed since I last wrote about tea. I am amazed that a simple cup of tea could …
It is all about Jesus
When I prioritise the relationship rather than the arrangement I find it easier to maintain both. I don’t hold myself to a legalistic schedule, I operate grace and somehow it has worked.
Stop, Look, Listen
Yesterday John and I took a pre-Christmas trip to Devon to deliver Christmas presents to my parents. While they went …
Skinny Love
I mean surely the Holy Spirit requires more room in the heart than it does in the belly. It’s not that I’m massively overweight but there has been a noticeable expansion in the gut region in recent years.
You don’t want Jesus to return…
I’ve been thinking a lot about advent recently. Advent is defined as the arrival of a notable thing or person. The Jews were living in advent of the Messiah. We live in advent of our own selfish desires. We are desperate for them, they consume us. There is one other thing we are waiting for, but we are not as desperate for – Jesus return.
You are a tool
And that’s the real rub isn’t it? Things not turning out how we expect. The world would be a much better place if things turned out that way I expected all the time. A much better place… for me at least.
Dear Footie
…but I built you up. I placed you on the altar of my life and worshiped you. You were a gift and I made you a king. I know you weren’t the only one, there were many others, but you were the one I needed the other day. You had your big chance. You blew it.
A Critical Delivery
He didn’t wait to obey the polite rules of society because he lives for the kingdom rules of God, he helped a brother see more clearly. Make no mistake Luke was criticising my brothers initial statement. I am privileged to be developing some links with this church and I’m thrilled to say this attitude seems to be present in more than one of the members.
Erasing God
Nice quote eh? I even thought to myself ‘I might use that in a sermon!’ Sometime later I remembered that thought and looked up the quote on the internet and this is what I found:
Untied
I’m worried that I am more bothered about being right than I am about loving my fellow Christian. The problem is that, even when I am right, unless I have love and unless that love is obvious then no one is going to want to listen.
Oh Baby
At those times I am a mess. A cacophony of desire and sadness, a mix of learning to let go while holding on. Then I remember that however much I try to protect myself, in the end my heart will out. I recently had a dream that I believe God spoke to me through, the dream was about taking satisfaction from the wrong source, and then being surprised about the cost of doing this.
Remembering
Moses expected to live out a royal life, until he killed a man. Joseph expected to be a favoured son, superior to his entire family, until his big mouth landed him in a deep pit. Jonah expected carnage until God brought revival. These men’s expectations for their lives were smashed, and they all experienced times of doubt, times in the pit (quite literally for Joseph). But all of their stories end in redemption. How did they get there?
Fight the Right Fight
Before the main thrust of what hopefully resembles some kind of point, a few observations – Atheists and agnostics are not the scary, super intelligent, God hating, Christian destroying behemoths we have been led to believe them to be. Some of them are just like us, trying to do the best they can with limited intelligence and their own chosen belief system
“…grow in grace”
My problem was how? How do I do life well? How can I live a life that pleases God? It must be possible, the bible talks about people who please Him. I found little success. I’d been taught that grace was only about being forgiven. Forgiveness is awesome, but on its own it can be a fresh start ready to be messed up again. My gratitude for God’s forgiveness didn’t seem to achieve much more than good intentions.
A Hard Slog?
Sometimes keeping the faith also feels like a hard slog, but I know that it shouldn’t. The challenges of my life and the so-called daily grind are nothing compared to what Jesus went through during those three long years of ministry. Sometimes I wonder why He didn’t give up?
Off Your Trolley…
Distracted by cheap food and rich conversation with my beautiful wife, I took my eyes off the trolley park for a bit, and when I looked back it was chaos. More trolleys had been left any which way, a lady approached and tried to slot her trolley into the back of another in the correct fashion, but this made more of a mess because of the angle it was now sticking out at.
Priorities
It is very easy to feel rejected. There can be many causes. Some trivial, some not. As a three-year old …
Ebs and Flows... 