Diet and exercise are hot topics today. Many of the best-selling books and highest profile online companies are those who offer help either with what we eat or how we move. Yet Christians don’t often think of the connection between diet and exercise and our faith. There are two extreme positions here that we need …
The collection of songs typically sung in Christian churches are heavily weighted towards praise songs. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It is a fundamental truth that Christians will want to thank God for what He has done! It is great to be given thoughtful words to sing that express our thankfulness to the One …
One of the strangest things for newcomers to church to grapple with is a group of people singing aloud together. If you’ve been a churchgoer for a long time, maybe that doesn’t strike you as unusual. It is just something churches do. But think about it: where else in our cultures do groups of people …
God is in complete control of the world. Yes, complete control. There are no surprises to God. Everything He wants to happen does happen, just the way He wants it to. We see this in all kinds of places in the Bible, including: Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every …
Some people like to plan for the future; others just seem to deal with whatever might happen to them. I am a planner. I like to make lists. I like to know what my diary is likely to look like next week, and what major events are planned next month. I realise that not everyone …
In the past few months, I have become more regular with working on my physical fitness. I have managed to fit a few different exercise sessions in each week as part of my everyday routines. At the start, it didn’t seem like much had changed. Starting something new meant that my muscles that were used …
While I was on Sabbatical recently, I took the opportunity to visit a range of churches in my city. I chose churches that I had not visited before and where I had some kind of connection. Some of them were very good and taught from the Bible, welcomed me warmly, and told me the gospel …
Weeds have been dominating my garden lately. I have all kinds of beautiful plants I would like to see flourish, yet the things that are most successful are the weeds. You don’t need to put in any effort for weeds to grow. They just happen. And if you don’t do anything about them, the garden …
Information, knowledge and wisdom are all different things. I know that sometimes people use these words interchangeably, but they are distinct. We live in an information age with torrents of information being delivered to us every day. Yet not much of that information actually settles in our brains to become knowledge, something we know. And …
I’m sure that all Christians have heard glib, basic conclusions in Bible teaching in churches. Maybe you’ve heard a preacher tell you that God is love or God is in control. Or a Bible study leader tell you that you should love God and not money, or that you should tell other people about Jesus. …