As we move rapidly into the heart of another Christmas season (its only 8 more sleeps until Christmas Day!) I have been reflecting somewhat on the incarnation and that moment when “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14a). In my earlier post Rediscovering Hope we thought about the nature of hope and Paul’s depiction of God as “the God of Hope” (Romans 15:13). This notion of hope was not wishful thinking but something that is certain, confident and…
For some time now I have been thinking a little on the subject of fear. Such thoughts have been stirred by my seemingly never ending study of the topic of hope but also from observing the cries of my heart. All to often my default reaction to pressure, difficult and suffering is not faith and hope but rather fear… There goes the fear… The Oxford Dictionary defines fear as “an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm”…
The life of Peter is an inspiring story of how God uses us despite our failures. Peter, so adamant that he would not betray Jesus ends up doing exactly that. Yet unlike Judas his failure is subsequently turned on its head as hope wins through. Jesus restores him, commissions him and then we read in first Peter how he had experienced this living hope. I have always really appreciated the life of Peter. Perhaps that is because I can identify with his…
I’ve been reading through Jeremiah and Lamentations over the past couple of months. Its been a fascinating and very challenging read. It has however made me very grateful that God did not ask me to be an Old Testament prophet! Parallel to my reading in Jeremiah has been another challenging period for our family. Below I detail three recent disappointments and some of the questions they raise before turning to some reflections from the life of Jeremiah… Firstly last week was quite difficult as a nasty sickness/stomach…
Exploring the power of hope in meeting today’s challenges in the hope and strength God has for us today… Following an excellent summer the last couple of weeks have been more of a challenge and so I want to return here to the notion of hope and specifically the power of hope. Proverbs 13:12 says “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. That is quite the statement but notice the difference hope makes –…
Learning to see the world through the lens of eternity and live accordingly.. Its been a while since I last posted something and this was a post which I started some months back but held back on because I was sharing a little on this subject in Norway. In previous blogs we discussed hope as a culmination of a temporal hope (based on God’s promises for us now) and an eternal hope (based on God’s promises for us in the future)….
My title this morning reflects two things; firstly today is the beginning of our annual Discipleship week here in Skjolden, Norway and there is a growing excitement and expectancy about what God is going to do amongst us all this week. Secondly with reference to my previous post “Hope and the Spiritual Battle“, there is a real sense of the darkness lifting after what has been a particularly difficult build up to our time here in Norway. Some of you will…
This morning we had a phone call from our 6 year old son Benjamin’s school saying that they thought that he had broken his arm. Quite concerned, Debbie went up to the school only to find (to our our great relief) that it was now thought to be a false alarm. Benjamin (like his daddy) is not good with anything accident or health related and had been refusing to move his arm at all. This had made his teachers think he may have broken…
You may remember that in “The Potters right to transform the clay” I talked about three foundational truths about God; namely that He is completely Sovereign (He always wills what is best for us), He is infinitely wise (He always knows what is best for us), and He is perfect in love (He has the power to bring it about). The premise was that the implications of experiencing suffering would hit us on one or more of these things. At such times…
Earlier this year I was reading and reflecting on the story of Job in the mornings and I remember being quite surprised at how applicable it was to our situation. We have been through some tough times and the two year anniversary of James’ death at the weekend served as a timely reminder of the pressures and challenges we have been through. In the life of Job there is no indication that God ever explained to Job the reasons behind his…