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Many years ago, I had a wonderful spiritual mentor who had been a very high-ranking officer in the army.  He was also a great man of God, and in many ways he epitomised the kind of faith shown by the centurion in today’s story.  Although Christians serving in the armed forces has long been a … Read more

I’ve always loved a good sandcastle.  As a family we often head for the beach if we’re on holiday, and my particular speciality over the years was always a sand speedboat. Give me half an hour and a half-decent spade, and I can rustle up a passable sand-boat, complete with two seats and aerodynamic bow … Read more

Surprisingly, 2022 was a bumper year for apples – at least it was a bumper year for the apple trees in our garden.  To be honest I know very little about these things – I’m generally better at destroying than growing things in our garden – but I had expected the very hot, dry summer … Read more

It is an unfortunate fact of human nature that we’re very good at spotting other people’s sins.  More than that, we’re most likely to spot the things in other people that we’re most prone to doing ourselves.  I personally know loads of people who do that… and that’s the point isn’t it?  Of course I … Read more

One of my all-time favourite Christmas films is ‘It’s a wonderful life’.  It tells the story of George Bailey, a man who gives his life to helping others, but falls on hard times.  Despairing of everything, he thinks about ending it all, when he happens to meet an angel, Clarence Oddbody, who shows him, in … Read more

We all want to be like someone.  When I was a child, I wanted to be like John Robertson.  John was a skilful winger who played for my favourite team.  For my 6th birthday I got my very first team kit – a visual feast of red nylon, for those who pine for the heady … Read more

We live in a society that loves making laws.  We pass between 25 and 50 new Acts of Parliament each year, and rarely repeal the old ones – although one major clear out in 1867 took 1,300 statutes off the book.  This love of creating rules and laws runs throughout every area of society – … Read more

When I used to work in London, I had a very difficult client, who for a while made my life a misery.  Nothing was ever good enough, and whilst the work we did for her was generally of a high standard, I remember one particular occasion when I made a small mistake and got a … Read more

Yesterday we looked at Jesus’ groups of people who are blessed.  This was revolutionary enough – however, it doesn’t end there.  Jesus goes on to describe four other groups who are the opposites of those blessed (vv24-26).  What are we to make of these? The context here is a long-standing misunderstanding of the Law by … Read more

So Jesus has just picked his cabinet – if you’ll pardon the political analogy – and it’s time to set out his manifesto.  The crowd that has gathered is remarkable, not least for its geographical breadth: Jerusalem and Judea are in the southern part of Israel, Tyre and Sidon are so far north that they … Read more