It has been a particularly busy couple of months which somewhat explains my silence on here. I am aware that I’ve left Hudson Taylor in the middle of his life- and I plan to return to him soon. But I was conscious a couple of weeks ago at having been somewhat grumpy and grouchy in […]
I hadn’t intended to write anything over the Christmas period. However my family (including nephew and niece) are currently out visiting fish (pet ones apparently rather than things you eat) so I thought I would jot down a brief thought. Each year at Woody Road we have a testimony evening on the final Sunday evening […]
I had a very encouraging time last weekend. I was down in Kent teaching around eighty people for Oak Hall’s Unlocking the Bible weekend. Oak Hall does a terrific job of providing fellowship and teaching to Christians- especially a number who were there from smaller or struggling churches. A number of things excited me- meeting […]
Regulars to Woody Road will know that each year we have a vision statement. We’ve found it a useful way of spending some concentrated time thinking about one aspect of what God wants us to be. Often it is easy as we preach through books of the Bible, which is our normal pattern, to look […]
This coming Sunday evening we start something different at Woody Road. We are beginning a four week topical series on the theme of work. If I’m honest I’m inherently suspicious of topical series and have tended to resist calls for them- God did not, after all, inspire the Bible to be written topically. So I […]
Don Carson has written a helpful chapter on the subject of church and state in his book Christ and Culture Revisited. He refers to the “rich complexity of biblical norms.” In other words- this is not a straightforward issue. The fact that God is creator of the world indicates that His values and priorities cannot […]
The case against strong Christian intervention- or the reasons why you may not want to sign the latest petition- in the non-Christian state need to be heard. There is a danger that we simply assume that it is the right thing to do. Groups such as the Christian Institute and Christian Concern make the case […]
In my first post I noted the differing reactions amongst evangelicals to the issue of whether Christians should seek to argue for biblical ethics to be put into national legislation. In this post I want to argue for an “interventionist” position- or, to put it another way, provide reasons for signing the Coalition for Marriage […]
On July 17th this year, the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act became law. It is now legal in this country for two people of the same gender to marry. Bible believing Christians obviously have a problem with that- God’s pattern for marriage revealed in creation is between a man and a woman. So how should […]
Sabbatical has now given way to annual leave so this will probably be my last post under the sabbatical thoughts heading. Suffice it to say that I am deeply thankful to the Lord for the way He has refreshed me and very thankful to the church for giving me this period- especially to those who […]