I wrote last week about the many things for which we could give thanks as a church over the last year. So what have we got planned for 2016? The first week of January sees our week of prayer. We saw so many answers to prayer from the equivalent week last year. Any encouragements that […]
At our Carol Service this year I reflected on those end of year montages that you often see on TV programmes at this time of year. I am a bit of a sucker for them and I particularly enjoyed those on the Sports Personality of the Year programme that I caught up with subsequent to […]
I am afraid that Christmas is likely to pass the blog by- any spare thoughts I have on the subject tend to appear in the various special sermons at this time of year! But I did want to pull some threads together from our recent series on busyness. It is our tradition here to examine […]
Earlier this year I was asked to speak on the subject of homosexuality on a pastoral care course down at WEST. I decided that I probably ought to increase my range of reading on the subject so worked my way through Matthew Vines’ book God and the Gay Christian. Vines speaks movingly about discovering his […]
I noted last week some of the developments on the issue of same sex marriage and associated issues in the last year. For those wanting help to hold to an orthodox position the publication of Ed Shaw’s book The Plausibility Problem earlier this year was a particular encouragement. It is excellent- a combination of theological […]
It is a year since I wrote three posts on the subject of homosexuality and preached on the subject at a Sunday evening service. In sermon and posts I reflected on two things- homosexual practice is displeasing to God and homosexual temptation is a personal experience for me. I have not spoken at Woody Road […]
There is a memorable scene in the American drama The West Wing. It is a period of intense international threat. Pakistan and India- two nuclear powers- are lining up troops on their respective borders. President Bartlet’s mind goes to the book of Revelation and he refers to the so called four horses of the Apocalypse […]
I was speaking on 2 Corinthians 3 earlier this week about the glory of the new covenant. I was struck again by the importance of application. Without application I would simply have given a lecture on the difference between the old and the new covenants in Paul’s thinking. But it is application that makes a […]
For the last few years I have been teaching the Bible Handling modules on the PfS course. One of the lectures I most enjoyed giving was on the theme of application in sermons, Bible Studies and so on. I think there are various ways in which application can go wrong for preachers. There can be […]
Last week I wrote up some reflections on the couple of weeks I had speaking at the Oak Hall Alpine Bible School on Romans and a CU houseparty on 2 Corinthians. My chief reflection was simply the power to transform lives evident in the doctrine of the righteousness of God received by faith. However, there […]