It takes a long time for me to trust someone truly, but when I have invested that trust in someone, I will stick with them through thick and thin. However, on the flipside of that, if that trust is violated, then I struggle with the desire to maintain a relationship with such a person.
Read MoreHow often do you find yourself just putting up with stuff? I don’t just mean significant things, I mean all the small things that aren’t much of an issue, but over time they develop into irritants, and then they truly start to get on your nerves. The reality is, however, that it would only take a short amount of your time to sort stuff out, but for some reason, we create workarounds and just put up with them.
Read MoreOver the first three parts of this series we have defined, admittedly in a simple way, why we should think of the Holy Spirit as a person and not an ‘it’ or a ‘blur’. But how does the Holy Spirit fit into the concept of the Godhead? That is the Holy Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?
Read MoreThe Holy Spirit bears at least three characteristics of what makes a person a person: Intellect, Feeling, and Will.
Read MoreI did a bit of checking recently and came across a survey done in 2009 by the Barna Group (a research and resource group focused on the intersection of faith and culture). It was a wide-ranging and nationwide survey, admittedly across the USA, but one of the points of the study was most enlightening.
Read MoreAt Freedom Church we spent a year talking about activating the gifts of the Spirit and living lives where the Fruit of the Spirit is there for all to see. We heard some beautiful messages over that year, but just over halfway through God sprang the thought on me that, even as Charismatic believers, did we have any real notion as to who or what the Holy Spirit is?
Read MoreThere’s an idea that I read about some years ago and I think it’s incredibly relevant to the Christmas season. The idea is this: The medium of the message is as important as the message itself.
Read MoreWhat do you think of when you read or hear the word ‘mission’, what images come to your mind?
You might imagine small huts in remote jungles of South America or see a row of African woman wearing colourful robes, lined up for a photo – kind of like the ones we see on the news when they show us stock images over a story about tribal Africa.
Read MoreJohn Wesley was the founder of what became the Methodist denomination. Initially, this group was called the ‘Holy Club’. People, like Wesley, who formed this club had became frustrated with aspects of the Church of England and wanted to reform parts of it.
Read MoreMy first ten years of life were spent on an unusually quiet street in my city that had a dead end and in fact at that ‘end’ was a little roundabout. There was nothing I liked doing better than riding my bike up and down that street, and when I’d get to the roundabout, I’d peddle as fast as I could around it and try to get back up the ‘busy’ end as quickly as I could.
Read MoreIn our modern, British culture there are so many definitions of what Church is, and even what it’s function is.
Read MoreIn 2 Timothy 3:16-17, we find Paul talking with his spiritual son and disciple Timothy. By this point in history, the New Testament hadn’t been fully formed so Paul would be referring primarily to the Old Testament, but nevertheless, these sentences have made their way to us two thousand years later and so, without doubt, we can read our New Testament stories and place them with equal importance to the old.
Read MoreThe Bible is an amazing and inspired collection of books and letters given to us from God to help us live righteously and to equip us to help advance the Kingdom of God with a desire to bring Heaven to Earth.
Read MoreLet’s talk about stories.
Our salvation story isn’t just about the moment of deliverance through Jesus Christ. It isn’t about repeating that moment over and over as if the brilliance of it will somehow bring others to Christ.
Read MoreI realised some time ago that as I walk around, my focus is downwards about ten to fifteen feet in front of where I’m walking. I look up only occasionally to make sure I’m heading in the correct direction. The crazy thing is I don’t think I’m on my own, and you’ll find that most people do this do too.
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