It is human nature to notice the things that are wrong rather than the things that are right. We complain about traffic so quickly, but don’t revel in a smooth car trip quite so much. We love to tell others about bad experiences we have had with customer service, but don’t leave positive feedback when …
Exam times bring a special level of stress to most people who go through them. The better students push themselves, driven by a desire to get into the course they want or to achieve a score they have in mind. Struggling students can be driven by fear they won’t pass. Everyone feels the pressure of …
Life has some big important moments and a lot of smaller moments that seem less important. The big moments might include deciding to get married, accepting that job offer, or deciding to move countries. We want to make the right decisions at those key times in our lives. The big things do indeed matter a …
Christians are to be fully devoted to God, with changed minds and new ways of living in this world. This does not only influence how we live in our workplaces and our families; it also influences how we think about church. We see this in Romans 12:4-8: 4 For as in one body we have …
Everyone tells me that they are busy. It has become the standard response whenever I ask anyone how their week has been. It doesn’t matter what their life situation is, whether they are a working single mother or a long-term retiree, it is a badge of honour to claim busyness. If we are busy, we …
In Malachi chapter 1, God pointed out a major problem with the worship that the people of God were bringing to him. The people of Judah had returned to their homeland after many years in exile. They had rebuilt the temple and the walls of Jerusalem and had resumed the worship required in the law …
Occasionally someone calls me a priest. I have been given all kinds of labels, from pastor to minister to teaching elder, and I can live with most of them. Yet the word ‘priest’ is not appropriate. The task of a Christian minister after the time of Jesus is not to be a priest in the …
The local church should be a radically united group of people, the kind of community that cannot be found anywhere else. We have such unity because of Jesus that this should flow into real unity between diverse people in our churches. It is not always like this. The Galatian church was deeply divided. It was …
Everyone wants to express their opinion. Everyone wants to get their views across. We want to be heard and valued and noticed. All of this is perfectly natural. What has become less natural is to listen. To really listen. It is incredibly difficult to listen well to someone else. There are two broad reasons why …
I have heard people say that they don’t feel that they feel connected to the local church family that they go to because there is no-one there who is like them. Perhaps this could be said by a young person in a church mainly populated by middle-aged or older believers. Perhaps this could be said …