If you’ll allow a brief return to a day we’d probably rather forget: on 23rd March 2020, the UK entered a full national lockdown for the first time in 100 years. One immediate effect of this was that all church buildings were shut. No services of any sort could be held. What would happen to … Read more
On this day in 2018, the writer C.J. English published the bestselling book ‘Rescue Matters’. It charts the astonishing story of Keith Benning, who, using his own garage to house those rescued and with just a small team of volunteers, over four years rescued 4,000 dogs from terrible situations: unwanted, starving, mistreated. As the subtitle … Read more
I don’t know about you, but it’s not easy to name a child. It was a bit more straightforward with our first child Amelie, but for our second, we spent weeks batting around various names. We didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl, so we had to have at … Read more
Blessed are the self-sufficient, for they will never need help from God, or anyone else. Blessed are those who have no problems, for they will avoid pain and discomfort. Blessed are the assertive, for they will usually get what they want. Blessed are those who don’t want to be too good, for they will avoid … Read more
Shared experience is a powerful thing. So much of what binds us together as humans lies in what we can share – in a sense, we were made for it. It is particularly powerful when people who have experienced similar challenges or opportunities find comfort and inspiration in each other. In today’s passage we see … Read more
It’s always a lovely surprise when you hear about people with unexpected gifts. Friends you thought you knew suddenly appear in a different light, as they manifest some striking creative ability, or describe an unusual hobby. People never fail to surprise you! I often feel the same way about Joseph, as he is described in … Read more
Today we flip from Luke back to Matthew, to allow us to cover the story in broadly chronological order. Mary is now pregnant, so it’s time for Joseph to enter the picture. Like Elizabeth, Joseph is another of the great unsung heroes of the text – he is usually pictured as being a frail old … Read more
‘How will this be?’ It’s not a bad question to ask, is it? You’ve just received some of the most extraordinary – and shocking – news anyone could imagine. Perhaps as you’ve read today’s passage, you found yourself remembering such a time in your own life, when you received news it was hard to take … Read more
Names matter. They certainly matter in the bible. A name wasn’t just a parental preference, it was meant to signify something. We can learn a lot from names. Take Gabriel, for example. It means ‘God is my strength’ – a perfect name for an angel. Mighty as Gabriel was, he knew where his true strength … Read more
Poor old Zechariah. It’s easy to give him a roasting. All those years waiting hopefully and serving faithfully, and when his big moment comes… But I wonder if Zechariah is not somewhat more like us than we care to admit. One of the great pointers to the truthfulness of the bible is that the characters … Read more