I first preached Song of Songs by accident. A few years ago I was asked to speak on Oak Hall’s Alpine Bible School. The print deadline for their brochure was coming up so I had about twenty minutes to work out what I wanted to do 16 sessions on. I had recently done Job and […]
One of my favourite books over the last few years has been Jack Miller’s “The Heart of a Servant Leader”. It is a compendium of letters from an older pastor to younger missionaries and church workers and was actually recommended to me at a Pastoral Refreshment Conference a few years back. Amongst other things, Miller […]
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 […]
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 […]
So it was slightly mad- and at various points I felt like I was mad. 16 sessions on Romans for the Oak Hall Alpine Bible School in Northern Italy followed by speaking at Caleb and Jana’s wedding on the next day before Psalm 62 at Woody Road and four talks on 2 Corinthians at a […]
I am back at work now and looking forward to meeting people again at our prayer meeting tomorrow evening and church services on Sunday. I am very thankful to those who have been praying for me- I am coming back well rested and refreshed. We’ll see how long that lasts! One of the joys of […]
I am currently in the last week of my sabbatical. There is loads I am thankful for- I have visited some beautiful places (I’m writing this looking out to sea!), caught up with some good friends, appreciated being able to have fellowship with different churches and read a number of good books. Being honest, it […]
I am very thankful that the Bible is good at using illustrations. In part, that’s because I am useless at coming up with my own but it is also because daily life should remind us of the Lord and what it means to live for Him. As part of my holiday I spent four days […]
There have been various encouragements over the past week. It has been great to visit various people, including briefly catching up with a Christian friend I haven’t seen for about 15 years. Things like that are always good- a reminder of the Lord’s ability to keep hold of us. One of the highlights of the […]