Bending the Knee

I was at the Potteries Museum on Saturday with the rest of the family. Tabitha has been learning about the Tudors in histroy at school, and they had a Tudor day at the museum, so we all headed along to see what was going on. Well, there were a dozen or so people in Tudor […]


Disciplined Worship

I wonder if you have house rules? And if you do, I wonder how they came to be decided. Let me give you some examples. In our house it’s my job to load the dishwasher and put it on before I go to bed. We didn’t need this rule before we had a dishwasher, and […]


The Top of the Hill

During the summer Tabitha and I went on an expedition. We set out at around 9:30 in the morning and caught two buses from the place we were staying to reach the place where we would start walking. The cloud base was quite low and we started walking in the cloud, with grey all around, […]


Fasting

Jesus was sent by the Holy Spirit into the desert for forty days. Jesus is right at the beginning of his public ministry. He had just had one of the most awesome spiritual experiences that anybody could ever have: he had been baptised, the Holy Spirit had descended into him to empower and equip him […]


What’s the choice?

I don’t have any choice. You don’t have a choice. He doesn’t have a choice. These are some of the hardest words that can be spoken or heard in today’s culture. In our country it’s all about choice. Having the right to choose. The right to choose where our kids go to school, the ability […]


What’s Missing?

Marmalade. This is the marmalade that I made from some of the left over Christingle oranges. I know that I was warned that they were the wrong type of oranges, but I thought I’d give it a go anyway. As you can see, this marmalade is a bit on the runny side. There is something […]


Glory to the New Born King

Hark the Herald Angels sing. While mortals sleep the angels keep their watch of wondering love. The Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell. The angel of the Lord came down and glory shone around. A shining throng of angels praising God. A few weeks ago I spent a Friday night in Hanley at Nightchurch. […]


Joy to the world?

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Now, in common with a lot of people, Paul was in the habit of putting the things that he thought were most important at the beginning of his lists. In this case, the […]


Weary at Christmas?

I wonder if you are feeling weary today? I know that I am, a little. I think it might be worth naming some of those things that might be making us feel weary. They might be health problems, either our own or those of people we are close to. Worry about finances, and how we’re […]


Where is God?

On the third of August, 2007, a seventeen month old child was taken to a London hospital, where the child was pronounced dead. The child had very severe injuries. Now three people await sentencing for, “causing or allowing the death of a child”. During the course of the last week there has been extensive news […]