In a competitive race you are up against other athletes. The race towards God’s Kingdom is different in this respect – we’re not racing against, or trying to out-do other Christians, if anything we’re helping each other. No. Instead we’re challenging ourselves… we’re reaching for our better self and fighting off the part of us that is chasing a selfish life. Effectively, we’re racing ourselves! The person crossing the finish line needs to be the best person we can be. Jesus did this by putting aside all thought for himself and instead did exactly what his Father wanted. It wasn’t easy This did ..read more

Patience and Endurance Completing an endurance race requires commitment, patience and perseverance. It is no easy feat, taking huge effort and often enduring great pain. Similarly we shouldn’t expect the “Race of Your Life” to be a simple undertaking. In part one we saw how being a Christian is like being an athlete. We also learned that Jesus was the example to follow… ..but he was the son of God – surely that’s an advantage? Well, perhaps, to some degree, but he was human like us and was challenged in the same ways we are. We’ll explore some of those points in part 3. The other thing to reme ..read more

The Athlete The life of an athlete is a combination of commitment, routine and diet – sacrifices must be made. A great athlete needs to focus upon a goal – the finish line, the victory, the prize! In the mind of any athlete the prize justifies the sacrifices. In this three part series we continue the search for meaning in a modern world through the lens of a very old book – the Bible. The life of a Christian is similar, in principle, to the life of an athlete. And this is not a new idea – it was a theme of God’s Word through the Apostle Paul 2000 years ago. The apostle Paul was originally a Je ..read more

In this four part series – Signs for our Times – we’re looking for signs, or indications, that the Bible still has something to offer in 2021. So far we’ve discovered that there’s a tricky road ahead but that God – creator of all things – has provided the Bible – His Word! It’s a spiritual combination of highway code, road map and destination guide to His Kingdom. With most journeys we have a sense of how long it will take or how far we are into the journey. So how close are we to the Kingdom? In this final part of the series we address the age old question of travellers with young children ..read more

In this four part series – Signs for our Times – we’re looking for signs, or indications that the Bible still has something to offer in 2021. Journey’s need purpose and direction and we covered that in part two. Here in part three we have our sights on the destination. …it is just as the Scriptures say, “What God has planned for people who love him is more than eyes have seen or ears have heard. It has never even entered our minds!” God’s Spirit has shown you everything. His Spirit finds out everything, even what is deep in the mind of God. 1 Corinthians 2 v 9-10 God knows us very well After ..read more

In this four part series – Signs for our Times – we’re looking for signs, or indications that the Bible still has something to offer in 2021. In part one we drew a parallel between the guidance of the Highway Code and the Bible. In part two we’re thinking about the purpose and direction of our journey with sights on the destination. Your word is a lamp that gives light wherever I walk. Psalm 119 v 105 No one sets out on a journey without a purpose – somewhere to go Neither would you expect the journey to be smooth without directions on how to get there. The same is true for the journey t ..read more

The Highway Code can be difficult to obey at times. Does that make it unnecessary? In this short series – Signs for our Times – we’re looking for signs, or indications that the Bible still has something to offer in 2021. It’s easy to write the Bible off as ‘old’ and ‘irrelevant’, but stay with me for a minute or so… In the UK the highway code has a variety of signs under a number of categories: Signs with red circles are mostly prohibitive. Red triangular signs give warning. Blue and white circular signs are mostly positive instruction and there are blue rectangular signs that give direction ..read more

The COP26 climate conference is held in Glasgow in November 2021. Here, the nations of the world gather together to discuss how best to deal with the threat of climate change to our planet, caused by industrialisation over the past 200 years. This has added more carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, which in turn has caused global average temperatures to have risen to around 1C above the 19th Century average, and they are projected to rise at least a further 1-2C by the end of this century unless worldwide action is taken. The purpose of this blog post isn’t to go into great detail on the s ..read more

I remember a friend, whose marriage had broken up, saying that although they could forgive their ex, they could no longer trust them.  It got me thinking about trust and how it depends on truth. We learn to trust those who tell us the truth. Lies, or betrayal in their actions, break trust and we struggle to regain it in the future.  The problem is that humans find it almost impossible to tell the truth 100% of the time! So is there anyone we can trust completely? The Bible says: “…It is impossible for God to lie” Hebrews 6v18 So can we trust God?  The psalmist certainly thought ..read more

How often are you given a task you really don’t want to do? How do you deal with it? Wrong Way! Jonah dealt with it in a way I can understand. He was supposed to be going to the huge city of Nineveh (in modern Iraq) to deliver a message from God. What did he do instead? He boarded a ship at Joppa (on the Mediterranean coast of Israel), sailing west to Tarshish – quite the wrong direction! While Jonah was on the ship from Joppa, he told the crew what he was doing and soon they were in the heart of the worst storm they had ever experienced. When the men realised he was running away from God, the ..read more