Midweek Musings – Dropping Off During The Sermon
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…
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…
It’s easy to be swept along by the well meaning claims of others. It’s easy to be frightened by alarming ‘facts’. It’s easy to ‘like’ or ‘share’ without thinking too much…
Paul and Silas continue on the mission to Philippi, but very soon life becomes increasingly difficult.
What can we learn from their story, about continuing in missional activity, when life gets difficult?
Friday night is music night. At least it is in our house. Fuelled by BBC4 and Sky Arts it’s part nostalgia, part education in stuff we missed the first time around. This week we watched Soundtracks: Songs that Defined History, an episode about the Civil Rights era in the US. Watching the footage of unarmed, ordinary black Americans singing hymns and gospel songs as protest songs while facing water cannons, police ready to beat people and white folks with guns was awe-inspiring.
But why did they sing?