Sunday is typically a day of rest for the church. We have several rest days, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas among them. For some these days are glorious opportunities to say no. For others, such days are demanding and we dread them. They hang over our heads like a dark … [Read more...] about The Sabbath Under Our Feet
Life in Christendom
What is the vision of life that we are called to delight in? What does life under the throne of grace look like for families, cats and bankers? Here is my attempt at making some inroads into the beauty of a Christ centred life.
Impossible Demands Made Possible
In Luke 14:26-35 Jesus turns to the multitude of weary, shepherdless sheep that have been following Him and fires off a Gatling gun of impossible demands. "Set aside your wife, children, mother and father. Bear your cross, count the cost, renounce all that you have." The … [Read more...] about Impossible Demands Made Possible
The Cost of Faithful Worship
One of the things we learn from the opening chapters of 1 Samuel is that it's God who opens and shuts things. If Hannah cannot bear children it is because God has shut her womb. If Hannah bears a son it is because God has opened her womb. Beyond childbearing, we recognise this … [Read more...] about The Cost of Faithful Worship
It’s Good to Forget
Heaven, it has been said1, is not a hallway of mirrors. That would be more like a freakish hell than a heavenly bliss. You, you, nobody but you. Seeing nothing, hearing nothing, but you, you, you, for all eternity. Such a world would be joyless agony. Our own … [Read more...] about It’s Good to Forget
Those Glorious Little Mercies
The things that happen to Hannah could happen and do happen, to anyone. Okay, so she can't have kids. But then she can. It happens every day. So, why does she sing such a grand and momentous song about such a relatively small matter in the big scheme of life? My heart exults in … [Read more...] about Those Glorious Little Mercies