It is a year since I wrote three posts on the subject of homosexuality and preached on the subject at a Sunday evening service. In sermon and posts I reflected on two things- homosexual practice is displeasing to God and homosexual temptation is a personal experience for me. I have not spoken at Woody Road […]
I was speaking on 2 Corinthians 3 earlier this week about the glory of the new covenant. I was struck again by the importance of application. Without application I would simply have given a lecture on the difference between the old and the new covenants in Paul’s thinking. But it is application that makes a […]
For the last few years I have been teaching the Bible Handling modules on the PfS course. One of the lectures I most enjoyed giving was on the theme of application in sermons, Bible Studies and so on. I think there are various ways in which application can go wrong for preachers. There can be […]
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 […]
I remember starting my brief sabbatical about ten days ago with somewhat mixed feelings. It was odd being at church on my final Sunday thinking that it would be the best part of two months before I got to see everybody again. However, I was also deeply grateful for it- especially as I am aware […]
I enjoy Graham Beynon’s writing. He has an ability to take an issue that is relevant to us and then write balanced biblical sense on it. His book on self-esteem, Mirror Mirror, is excellent and three years ago he wrote on the subject of Emotions. I read the book earlier this year and thought I […]
Last week I wrote about my plans for the homegroups that I was due to lead on Wednesday and Thursday. Following the old pattern of Lloyd-Jones my intention was to see whether people in the group had a question for us to discuss and to spend around an hour or so trying to come up […]