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Tag: Hope

The Elephant in the Room – Lessons from the transition…

The Elephant in the Room – Lessons from the transition…

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You may remember that some weeks ago I posted an entry entitled “The Challenge of Transition” in which I talked about how times of transition are difficult places to be and yet they are opportunities for much growth. This post was itself followed on from another post which I provocably entitled “Saying goodbye to student ministry?“. In that earlier post I talked about how I felt God was asking me to hold student ministry with an “open hand” and being willing…

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Life of Job: Hope, suffering and mystery

Life of Job: Hope, suffering and mystery

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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…

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Grieving for a friend – remembering James

Grieving for a friend – remembering James

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Saturday (20th June 2015) marks the two year anniversary of the death of a friend, James Witham who was tragically killed in a hiking accident in Norway while taking part in one of our Summer programmes. Somehow a whole two years have flown by! As I did last year I have been taking some time to remember James and think back upon his life and the impact he had on those around him. James was a remarkable young man full of such…

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God is not in a hurry

God is not in a hurry

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On Friday Debs and I attended a “Quiet Day” which was hosted locally by an organisation called “Hope Weavers“. It was a great opportunity to get away from our day to day responsibilities and have some down time with the Lord. For the most part this was an opportunity to have sacred space, Debs did some creative things while I (who am infamously non-creative except when it comes to DIY) spent some time in the Bible thinking about Hope once…

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Life of Daniel – Walking with Jesus ‘through the fire’…

Life of Daniel – Walking with Jesus ‘through the fire’…

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At the end of my post The Potter’s right to transform the clay you may remember that I refereed to Isaiah 43:2 (written many years ago to God’s people Israel) to encourage us that even in the difficult situations, pressures and challenges that we face day by day we can be sure that God is with us in them. Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When…

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Hope and God’s delight in us

Hope and God’s delight in us

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When you get your teeth into a subject like hope you find that it overlaps with a whole host of other topics and issues. In previous posts I have focused mainly upon the nature of our hope. In Rediscovering Hope we looked at some definitions of “hope” and sought to define and rediscover what we mean by the Biblical (opposed to secular) notion of “hope”. We then looked in Saying Goodbye to Student ministry? at how we tend to place our…

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Staying the course

Staying the course

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Yesterday was Jacob’s dedication and we had an excellent day. A number of family, friends and godparents joined us for the service at Above Bar Church and we dedicated Jacob to the Lord together. The service was followed by a BBQ lunch at home with family and godparents and then by Open House to which 60 friends (including kids) joined with us . Even the wet and damp weather improved in the afternoon to reveal warm sunshine. Why am I am…

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The challenge of transition

The challenge of transition

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Randy Alcorn in his book “Heaven” includes the following story: “In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to shore of mainland California. She’d already been the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. The weather was foggy and hilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam for fifteen hours. When she begged to be taken out of the water along the way,…

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Hope & the Promises of God

Hope & the Promises of God

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The past week or so I have been thinking a bit about Psalm 119 and was struck by the apparent connections between Hope and the promises of God. So for example the Psalmist writes 49 “Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. 50 My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.” Then repeatedly through the Psalm the Psalmist looks to God in hope to deliver him “according to His promise”; 58 I have sought your face with all…

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