There are few more important questions that Christians face from their friends and colleagues than the relationship between science and Christianity. Many dismiss Christianity thinking that science has explained it away, especially when it comes to the issue of the origin of the universe. The standard theory of evolution is accepted as adequately explaining everything; …
Have you ever slammed your finger in a door? If you have, just reading that last sentence might have made you flinch. The pain is immediate and terrible. You would likely scream for help. At the time, it dominated your thinking. You were unable to remember whatever it was you were thinking about before, and …
We all want to belong somewhere. There is something comforting about being with the people we love in a place where we know we are welcome. There is something special about home. The apostle Peter wrote his first letter to Christians scattered through the world. Peter described his readers as “elect exiles”. To be elect …
Like a significant number of people in my city and the world, I spent most of the past two weeks in isolation. My wife and I and two of our children contracted COVID. While the children recovered very quickly, it was a rougher few days for the adults of the house, worse than I expected. …
I recently wrote some documents for our church annual general meeting. I know, that sounds boring, right? Most of us hate going to meetings, and we usually have a series of drawn-out unnecessary meetings in our past that have made us feel that way. Yet preparing these documents were a great reminder of God’s kindness …
All of will wonder at some time or other if God might have more important things to do than to pay attention to us. There are always big problems in the world. Right now it might be COVID and the Ukraine; next year it will be something else. And who are we? Small people with …
What makes a sermon a good sermon? Everyone will have a different personal opinion. Some like loud, enthusiastic preachers who call for ‘Amens’ and ‘Praise the Lords’ at regular intervals. Others like careful, logical, well-thought out dense sermons. Many have a favourite preacher. But how might we assess preaching in a Biblical way? The basic …
The advertised time for the church service I am part of is 10am on Sundays. This is not a new time, but is the time our church has met for decades now. Yet, most Sundays, less than 50% of the people who will ultimately be present are there at 10am. Sometimes the service leader stands …
Greed is one of those sins that creeps up on you. You see it in the lives of other people. It is easy to silently pass judgement on that person who bought that luxury car or lives a lifestyle you would be uncomfortable with. If your name doesn’t appear on some list of the wealthiest …
Most parents have a certain dream for their children. They hope that they grow up to be nice, well-adjusted people. They hope that their children are respectable and, ideally, wealthy. The parents want them to be good to other people. If someone had a child who grew up into a nice, middle-class, friendly person, they …