To be honest I ended up preaching Jude by accident. We had a couple of spare weeks before our main autumn series started and Jude seemed to fit. Given that it is not the easiest letter I thought I probably ought to tackle it myself rather than give it to one of our younger preachers. […]
My colleagues are always wary of me returning from sabbatical. That may simply be that they have enjoyed a working environment that features a bit less of me. But I guess it is also reflective of the fact that I tend to return with ideas. (“Hey- let’s plant a church!”). This time has been different. […]
I am writing this on the last day of my sabbatical. It has been a huge privilege, for which I am grateful, to have time away to read (I think I have got through twelve books), enjoy scenery and get ahead with sermons for the new academic year. But the thing for which I have […]
A few months ago I did a teaching session for another church on evil and suffering. One of my convictions was that we need a clearer grasp of how Satan works. It is much easier to resist Satan when we spot what he is doing. And when we fail to spot him at work, we […]
One of the highlights of my sabbatical has been a morning spent on Aberdeen beach (beautiful but a touch chilly) reading the end of the Screwtape Letters. Here is the second half of summary of main themes from the book with an advance warning of spoilers! Spiritual Decline Once the “patient”, as Screwtape terms him, […]
I had long been aware of it but had never actually read C.S.Lewis Screwtape Letters until my current sabbatical. You may be familiar with the overall thrust- they are imaginary letters from a senior demon (Screwtape) to his young nephew (Wormwood) offering advice on how to lead somebody away from the Lord (The Enemy). The […]
Let me tell you a secret. Most preachers find certain types of biblical material easier to preach than others. I suspect most of us in this country find New Testament letters the simplest. Personally, I have never found Old Testament narrative easy and, perhaps curiously, have always found it difficult to open up miracles for […]
One of the privileges that I have had for a number of years now is spending an hour each week helping out at the South Central Ministry Training Course. Alongside doing occasional expositions on 2 Corinthians (what else would you teach to those who are often in the early years of ministry?!) and leading a […]
I have faced an interesting discipleship issue this week. For the first time in my life I am living in a country where I dislike our Prime Minister. It is not simply that I disagree politically so much as that I think character matters. There is no fundamental break between our public and private personas. […]
At our church weekend away we pondered, amongst other things, the joy of Christ. Matt Searles pointed us to something I had never noticed before- the disciples were unsurprised when Jesus talked about “My joy” in John 15. He evidently had a reputation for being full of joy. We noticed a foretaste of that in […]