252,756 miles from home. God was there. Already. Three days ago, four human beings were 252,756 miles from home. You read that too quickly. Not 252 miles. Not 2,500. Two hundred and fifty-two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-six miles from everything you treasure, find reassuring or familiar. Breath-taking and at a distance from Earth greater than any human… Read More »
What you can and can’t roll away. Easter is just over our shoulders. The tomb is still fresh in the imagination, the pre-dawn silence, the women moving through the early morning light with spices in their hands, braced for grief and tears. They had come to do something. Something tender and necessary. Something that, as it turned out,… Read More »
What happened to it? What have you borrowed recently? There is something quietly familiar about the idea of ‘borrowing’. In Christianity it seems to be the rule that when someone borrows your books, do not expect to see them again. The books, that is. Not stealing, not quite owning. Just having for a time, as if the world… Read More »
The moment it happened Britain’s Got Talent – it’s that time of year again! In case you don’t know it the overview is simple. Four judges. A stage. Thousands of acts who have been practising in living rooms and community halls for years, hoping this is the moment. And a fair number of acts that are not from… Read More »
Fully trained and capable? I’m always intrigued as to how the disciples felt ministering alongside Jesus. Noone seemed to be saying, “Jesus, I’ve got it!” Over in Luke 10, Jesus sends out seventy-two people. Not just the Twelve or even the the inner circle. Seventy-two ordinary followers who have seen Jesus ‘do His stuff’, sent ahead of him… Read More »
Do you have a good excuse? Paul wrote Romans 7 as a cry of anguish but sometimes I wonder if we have turned it into a ‘permission slip’. Somewhere between the writing and the reading, one of the most transparent, vulnerable and honest passages in Scripture became the most theologically ‘convenient’. A heart-felt confession became a comfort blanket.… Read More »