A couple of weeks ago I was able to stay with my parents. Because I live on my own, the Government’s support bubble system kicked in and I was allowed to visit them. As I did so, I was very conscious of those who were not in the same position. At that point those living […]
I happened to be speaking on the subject of singleness exactly a month before lockdown was introduced. With hindsight I might have included some material on singleness in a pandemic but I wasn’t a sufficiently good prophet to foresee what would take place. However, the experience of being on my own in a flat for […]
Robust Christianity in the face of a pandemic requires an ability to multi-think. You need to hold two things in your mind at once. The depressing news and speculation about the length of time that social distancing will be required can be all consuming such that we lose any sense of God. But, on the […]
In a parallel universe somewhere I am currently in Heathrow Airport, about to fly out to Kenya to speak at a couple of conferences next week. It is one of a number of events that I was looking forward to this year that will no longer happen. And my own experience in this regard is […]
“Two men looked through prison bars/One saw mud, the other saw stars” That little ditty has been running through my mind a bit over the last week. I suppose lockdown naturally brings jail metaphors to mind. To be honest I am beginning to regard Port Meadow as a fairly pleasant prison exercise yard. You wander […]
Last autumn the elders decided that our vision verse for 2020 would come from 2 Corinthians 1:9. The apostle Paul had faced various difficulties and persecutions- to the extent he felt like he had been sentenced to death. But he notes that these happened that “we might not rely on ourselves but on God who […]
Those who have had to listen to my preaching a bit will know that I have a couple of hobby horses. Partly because I think they are under-taught I will tend to major on the themes of union with Christ and strength in weakness. What I have not been good at is bringing those two […]
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. […]
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 […]