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 […]
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 […]
It doesn’t have to be this way- but I am aware that it is very easy for your Christianity to get out of shape even as you spend your life talking about being a Christian. It is largely that the pressure of responding to concerns, needing to produce a sermon, working through a TO DO […]
How do you pray when your soul is overwhelmed with sorrow? Or in the furnace of temptation? We need to know because all of us will experience those things. Recently we concluded a series on prayer in our homegroups. We started with the Lord’s Prayer as Jesus answers his disciples’ request to teach them to […]
A couple of years ago I wrote a few posts around the theme of personality. It is perfectly clear that we all have different temperaments- look at people’s approach to a crowded room of strangers and you’ll quickly notice a difference between introverts and extroverts. We probably sense within ourselves (especially if we are reflective […]
Earlier this week the evangelist Michael Green went to be with the Lord. Hearing the news brought back precious memories of “Choose Life”- the OICCU Mission of 1997 that happened when I was a student. I well recall Michael preaching the Gospel with radiant joy in the Sheldonian Theatre normally garbed in a slightly absurd […]
One of my favourite books from last year was Mark Meynell’s When Darkness seems my Closest Friend. It is a description of mental illness from a Christian pastor who has experienced it. One of the best features of the book is his ability to articulate the reality of mental illness for those who haven’t endured […]
Last term in our homegroups we spent time reflecting on the character of God. There is a limitless wealth of material when you do that and, inevitably, you cannot say everything. But there is one reality that I wish I had focused on more because I am not sure it is a strength of conservative […]
So what was 2018 like for you? Looking back I have had a good year- enjoyable holidays, pleasant times with family and friends, the privilege of speaking in a variety of contexts alongside a good year for us as a church (that I’ll aim to write about later in the week). But what if 2018 […]