Rather than my life following the tick-tock unceasing rhythm of the clock, God wants my life to be in time with the pendulum that swings from being ON and OFF, because FATIGUE is one of the greatest barriers to prayer and spiritual growth & victory.
How to dig up treasure – the Circle
The reason Christians are fearful is that you read too many papers and not enough Bible.
The Threshold
I’m having a liminal moment. Liminality is linked to the idea of thresholds (the Latin word is related to doorsteps), it’s about passing through into somewhere, something new. It’s the place where transformation happens. The Scottish anthropologist Victor Turner had a lot to say about these ‘betixt and between’ times. Times when you wobble between being one thing and another. He looked at those ‘Rites of Passage’ whereby tribes would send boys off into the jungle to eat horrible food or fight a bear or something and come back a man. During the trial you were in the liminal phase. Not one thing ( a boy) – yet not the other yet (a man). I have such a rite to go through tomorrow – don’t worry, I don’t have to be circumcised or do anything life threatening – in fact I’m looking forward to it a great deal. I had to fill in a form earlier – it asked about occupation. Well…. I’m ordained in the C of E. But tomorrow I get commissioned to lead a non CofE church. […]
Sunny Manchester
This morning I met an absolute Manchester legend – Mike Shaft.
Our fantastic last Sunday!
Still shaking my head over yesterday’s phenomenal outpouring of love here for my last Sunday! The church family and local community came together for an amazing time of gratitude to God, quite overwhelming at times. Apart from making me eat unmentionable things in ‘I’m a Northerner get me out of here!’, having to sing ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams, and being presented with a beautiful album of our time here and far too many hugs and kisses – we were also really privileged to baptise 25 people! What a day – I will never forget it. Thanks to everyone – and thanks be to God! There are too many photos to upload an it takes ages – but here’s a little sample – Thanks be to God!
Because of You
…we started talking about there is something to thank God for even in the hard times, sharing about when we were boys etc. I remembered a really hard time my Mum and Dad must have been going through when I was about 11 or 12. I was still at the age then when I thought desperate prayer might just work
All things working together for good
Terrible things you have done or were done to you were not caused by God. God doesn’t bring cancer or credit crunches in our lives to teach us a lesson. We have a choice…
Nameless and Faceless
I’m sometimes concerned by the quoting or naming of names like e.g. Benny Hinn & Kathryn Kulhman etc. some involved can fall into, perhaps in a bid to seek to authenticate or bolster credibility for it (actually it’s a dangerous way to do it, as whoever you mention, someone will have a problem with them!). There’s also a great deal we Brits are unhappy about when it starts to look like promotion of people rather than God, and that’s a hostage to fortune.
Jesus has answer to knife & gang nightmare
Parenting guru Steve Biddulph reports that this macho front is a classic sign of what is called under-fathering (he says the opposite extreme of the same problem is to become and remain a ‘Mummy’s boy.’). Where are young men to look for role models?
Wise enough to know our limitations
continually curious, asking questions and learning to applying knowledge in practical situations and learning from mistakes. He honed all his senses to observe in a way that combined science and art and formed connections between different observations and problems.