Christmas used to begin with the film of the Coca Cola Truck arriving on TV. This year Christmas begins with the delivery of the vaccines that just might change everything.
But like many things it all began in relative obscurity…
If you’re never going to see someone again, you think hard about what to say. You say what matters, and you might say it with tears.
Paul speaks to a group of leaders and through them to the church and reminds them of what is really important – both then and now.
And he says it with tears.
Advent is the season when we remind ourselves that hope for the world came with the relief of an exhausted mum hearing her new-born child crying. As every mother knows, those angry tears are the sign that there’s life, that things are well, that there is hope. Jesus came into the world crying so that our tears could have hope.
Don’t assume things are ok, don’t let people edge away, don’t forget people. Take the risk of looking like you’ve overreacted by calling the folk who come to mind. You might just stop someone falling…
It’s possible to accept all the truths of the Christian faith, to try and live it all out, to know that God loves you and wants his best for you and still miss out on the very life of God that he promises.
Being filled with the Spirit is not about a one-off event in a worship service somewhere, it’s a permanent prayer for the everyday life. It’s about allowing yourself to be open to God and his gifts so that something new can begin, something beyond our imaginations.
If we want to be wise, we’ll learn humility. Because if we don’t, there’s every likelihood that we’ll be humbled.
Tomorrow we begin another month of lockdown. We’ve been here before. But this time we know what we need and what we don’t need. We don’t need to stock up on toilet rolls, some folks can’t have used up all the ones they bought in March yet. We do need to stay in contact with…
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When you’re in a minority and surrounded by things that you think just aren’t right, how do you react?
Paul’s time in Athens was uneasy. He felt deeply troubled by all the signs and symbols of false gods, but he chose not to attack, but with brilliant wisdom offered anyone who would hear a new way of seeing the world.
His experience marks out a path for us to follow – in our own places, in our time, with all we face.
Every generation has music bands it’s not cool to like. When I was at school, you couldn’t say you liked Karen Carpenter’s voice, or the pop tunes of Abba. If you did, you would be shamed.
If you’re older than me, it will have been others. For at least some of you it will have been Coldplay…
When Christians say that Jesus is Lord, it can sound spiritual, holy even. When people heard it being said in the 1st century, they knew just how subversive that was…
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