How do you respond to hard times? The temptation, and the one that the richer members of James’ audience had fallen for, is to look after yourself at any cost. The motto of such people is “Let everyone else suffer, I’m not so weak.” So, difficult times encourage exploitation as we seek to protect our… Continue reading Patience as a better way
Tag: trust
Every promise
There have been some fantastic new hymns written in recent years. One of them in “I will stand on every promise of your word” by Keith and Kristyn Getty. It describes a number of circumstances we might face, from the simple arrival of each new day through to the horror of failing God and stumbling. … Continue reading Every promise
Rescuing Lot
Lot has headed off to live near Sodom and Gomorrah. He quickly becomes entwined in the life and politics of Sodom and when an enemy raiding party attack the city, he is caught up with the captives (Genesis 14:1-12). This is reported back to Abram and I guess it would have been easy for him… Continue reading Rescuing Lot
Trust, doubt and negotiation
How do you feel about free offers? Do you snap them up or think they must be too good to be true? Who likes to negotiate and barter? What’s happening with Abram? Abram has been promised by God that he will be blessed and that through him God’s promised blessing (Jesus) will come to all… Continue reading Trust, doubt and negotiation
What is Birmingham’s bankruptcy saying to us?
Yesterday I wrote about our city going bankrupt and what that might mean for us. As I explained in the article, there’s actually a lot of uncertainty and the honest answer to “what does this mean?” Is that we really don’t know yet. It is entirely possible that for most of us we’ll see very… Continue reading What is Birmingham’s bankruptcy saying to us?
Esther and the King
Esther goes to see the king (Esther 5:1). Remember that this was potentially dangerous. It was possible that he would not welcome her and if so, this could lead to punishment by death. It’s funny isn’t it that we tend to report and gloss over these facts in a matter of fact way. Of course,… Continue reading Esther and the King
The secret to good sleep
When we were going through a particularly challenging period, I remember an older pastor asking me “Are you able to sleep through the night.” Insomnia is of course a significant emotional health warning and many of us will have at different times struggled with it, finding ourselves unable to drift off or alternatively being suddenly… Continue reading The secret to good sleep
My burden as well?
When we were little, my mum used to read Jungle Doctor stories to us. These were a collection of stories that a missionary had told to help communicate the Gospel and were later put into book form. The stories were allegorical tales about the different animals. In one story, Antelope comes across Monkey. Young monkey… Continue reading My burden as well?
The good shepherd carries me
You are probably familiar with that old little poem, a favourite of greeting cards, bookmarks and fridge magnets. It talks about two sets of footprints across the sand. The speaker though spots moments when there is only a single track and complains that at the point when life seemed hardest, it looked like Jesus had… Continue reading The good shepherd carries me
How do we make sure that we are not spreading ourselves too thinly?
The morning, I preached on the feeding of the Five Thousand and I asked two questions. One important, practical question that came out of the sermon application was “How do we know when to keep going with things and/or to take new things on and when to say no? Can we end up spreading ourselves… Continue reading How do we make sure that we are not spreading ourselves too thinly?
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