Samuel had a most unusual childhood. He was born as the result of God listening to the prayer of his mother, Hannah, who had been barren for many years. Samuel was given to God’s service and spent his life serving the priest Eli at Shiloh. He was faithful to God from a very young age …
I have recently published my second book! The cover looks like this: What is this book about? While the topic is retirement, this book explores what the Bible says about older age more generally. Here is the official blurb: Most of us assume that when we reach a certain age, we will retire from …
I love to plan ahead. I have goals for the year and the term, a to-do list that is extensively used, and an empty email inbox. I have had the basic plan of what I will preach on each week this year ready for some months and am always a few sermons ahead of what …
This Christmas, make sure you spend some time being quiet. I know that sounds crazy. Many of us have end of year gatherings, shopping and food preparation to do, children home from school, holidays to pack for, and church events to be involved in. Some of us even have Christmas sermons to write! There are …
Christians can speak to God anytime, anywhere, in prayer. Have you considered how special that is? It is easy to get so used to the idea of prayer that we take it for granted. We can speak to the Almighty God, the Creator of all that exists, and He listens to us! How can that …
What shape do your prayers tend to have? I know how easy it is to be so self-focussed when it comes to prayer. Whatever issue is dominating my thinking at the time is what I ask for. It is so easy to come to God with our shopping lists, expecting him to fix everything. And …
I recently led a short theology class on singleness, love sex and marriage. The second session explained the Biblical teaching on sex. There were 27 people in the room, most of whom had grown up in Christian households. As part of this, I asked the group how many of them had their parents make some …
An increasing proportion of the population of the world is single. According to the latest census figures (2016), 24% of Australian households contain only one person. That percentage is rising sharply. There are a number of reasons for this, of course. An ageing population means there are a larger number of widows and widowers. A …
Have you ever slammed your finger in a door? Or stubbed your toe? The pain is immediate and significant. At that point in time, you cannot think of anything else. The whole world is reduced to the pain in your finger or toe. Nothing else seems to matter. After a while, when the pain subsides, …
‘Faith’ is one of those Christian words that everyone assumes that they know what it means. However, it is one of those words that people mean different things by. So let’s start by seeing what faith is not, before we see more clearly what faith is. Faith is not blindly hoping something is true. I …