Hope is a powerful thing. A couple of weekends ago, I was in Calais doing some worship mission with an amazing group of people. Discussing the refugee crisis and the lengths that some of the people we’d met were going to, one of the team talked about the power of hope. These were a group… Continue reading Hope.
In a time when women were marginalised and unimportant, the presence of any woman’s name, let alone five women’s names, in a Jewish genealogy was remarkable. The fact that they are there tells us a lot about Christianity – it tells us that this faith is a counter-cultural faith, that women are valued and that everyone… Continue reading The Grace Files – #005 Rahab
One of the names of Jesus is Lion of the tribe of Judah. Judah refers to the baby I mentioned in the last post, born in wonderful and grace-filled circumstances. So surely, he was a great guy all-round and that’s why he gets a prominent feature in a name of Jesus? Not quite… Judah was… Continue reading The Grace Files: #003/004 Judah & Tamar
In the last post I briefly mentioned Leah. She was Laban’s eldest daughter, and the one who Jacob was tricked into marrying. Though not mentioned by name in the Matthew 1 genealogy, Jacob had more than one wife and it is Leah’s son who is an ancestor of Christ. Let’s look into her story to… Continue reading The Grace Files: #002 Leah
One of the best things about Christianity is that no one is disqualified, no one is too “bad”. At the very heart of all of it is a message of grace, which is literally available for anyone. And Jesus was the perfect embodiment of it. He dined with the ones who religion says can’t come… Continue reading The Grace Files: #001 Jacob
I think the desire to solve mysteries is part of human nature. It’s why Cluedo is such a popular game and why TV shows like CSI and Criminal Minds are so successful. We’re just desperate to know the reason why something has happened, whodunnit? or how a certain situation transpired; everything has to be accounted… Continue reading Trust in the Mystery
“Uh-uh! A river! A deep cold river! We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!” If you’ve been to primary school in England in the last 20 years, it’s likely that you’ve heard these words at some point. Having worked with children in recent years,… Continue reading Going Through
The way you respond to the circumstance is entirely more powerful than the circumstance itself. I tweeted this earlier today as I sat and reflected on the madness that not only this past week has been, but also just my entire life and the lives of people I know and love. Nobody escapes difficult circumstances;… Continue reading Grab That Joy
do the write thing 