When you pray

Prayer is a wonderful privilege for believers in Christ. How wonderful to be able to talk to God, to know him, to have a relationship with him. Yet often, just as some peopel end up with an unhealthy relationship with food, we can end up with an unhealthy relationship with prayer. It becomes a legalistic… Continue reading When you pray

The narrow gate

13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few[1] We have been thinking about what it means to be part… Continue reading The narrow gate

What kind of gift?

When we were younger, my sister wanted a Wendy house for her birthday. My dad kept insisting that she was getting a tin of baked beans, much to her annoyance and his amusement.  Well, the day of her birthday came and she went downstairs. To her joy, there was the Wendy House ready assembled …… Continue reading What kind of gift?

Stones and Serpents

I don’t want to make too big a deal out of this but I was fascinated when looking at Jesus teaching on prayer to spot one of those little but intriguing connections. In Matthew 4, Jesus goes into the Wilderness where he fasts for 40 days and nights and experiences testing from Satan.  Satan basically… Continue reading Stones and Serpents

Get these two words in your regular vocabulary

This is a subject I will keep coming back to because I believe it is so important that we get this right if we are going to see healthy gospel churches. They are “sorry” and “forgive”. Elton John sung that “sorry seems to be the hardest word.”  It shouldn’t be should it. We know that… Continue reading Get these two words in your regular vocabulary

How do we allow others to help us remove our logs and specks?

In a previous post I began to build on Steve Kneale’s post on the challenges of “logs and specks” in the eye of the church.  Steve said that the challenge is that we often cannot see our own logs to remove them. Here are some further thoughts. First of all, whilst I may not be… Continue reading How do we allow others to help us remove our logs and specks?

Seeing clearly and reporting accurately (my responsibility in a dispute part 2)

On our After Eight slot for Bearwood Chapel we were talking about the bit where Jesus says to take out the log in your own eye before attempting to remove your brother’s speck the other day. I asked Sarah, in the context of this, what she thought was our primary responsibility in a dispute. She… Continue reading Seeing clearly and reporting accurately (my responsibility in a dispute part 2)