I have to confess I find worship difficult! Why? Well, I love worship in church and we are so blessed to have wonderful worship musicians and a great worship leader, but it personal worship, when I am on my own, I find hard. Why I can’t seem to find a way to “adore” God as I sit by myself each morning? However towards the end of last year I found something that has really helped. I started beginning my devotional time by listening to a couple of carefully selected worship songs. Three albums have been a particularly helpful so I ...

No its not an attack of wishful thinking or a correction of my recent birthday; I am getting used to writing “60” when asked for my age. The number is a reference to Isaiah 58. Some time ago I wrote about the challenge of global poverty and shared a video that introduced an upcoming project by this name. Recently I received a second email detailing another stage in the project’s development and sharing some more initiatives. In Isaiah 58 the prophet challenges us to examine the practice and motivation of our fasting. So for those who ...

The importance of choice has been a recurrent theme in my thinking so far this year. The amazing reality is, that God gives us the opportunity to choose whether we serve Him, obey Him, or indeed pay Him any attention at all. As I thought once again about choosing, I was reminded that often our choices include a decision not to choose. Sounds like a conundrum I know, but let me explain. 30 years ago when I gave up smoking it was an agonizing process, but the key was to make the choice that I was no longer going to make a choice. When offered ...

Some times it feels like a "Christian diet,” or maybe a way of getting God’s attention so He will pay more attention to our prayers. Yes its that time again, time for what has become part of our pattern at New Life Christian Fellowship, time to start the New Year with a fast. Next Monday we will begin our 21day fast for 2012. Of course it’s not a weight loss program or an attention getting device neither is it something only for those who are especially spiritual. We do it to be obedient to the words of Jesus in Matthew 6. As part of ...

To begin our new year and as we prepare for our fast on January 16th (more about that later) here are a few thoughts from the message last Sunday. The importance of “choosing” came home to me powerfully, the things that we choose to do and those we chose not to do! Often the latter is harder than the former and how are we supposed to make these choices. As he approached the end of his life Joshua reminded the people of all the things God had done for them in the past, the promises He had kept, the words He had fulfilled, the grace and ...

Here are a few more things that have made me think recently “ have you been taking your MED’s” This unusual quote is apparently a question that Andy Stanley frequently asks his colleagues. He mentioned it in a Leadership podcast when he was taking about the importance of leaders seeking and mentoring their successor’s . However as I thought about it the principle is applicable to almost every area of a Christian’s life. The letters stand for Modeling, Explaining and Demonstrating. It would seem that whether it is as parents, ...

Yes you are right it’s an idea I had in the shower! I realized that I read and hear things frequently that make me think. Sometimes I tweet them, sometimes I highlight them, sometimes I make a note of them, and sometimes I either forget them or forget where I made the note! Then I remembered a comment made by Mark Batterson that if you write a blog it should be firstly for yourself. (I am sure that is not an accurate quote. Sorry Mark! but you get the idea). So there I was in the shower and all of sudden it came to me, why not write an ...

Once again my membership of the IVP book club has provided me with a book that has challenged my thinking in unexpected ways. Almost without exception these books have been ones I would not have known about let alone read, if I had not been a member the club. Currently I am captivated by “ Practicing the Way of Jesus” by Mark Scandrette. I feel sure I will write more about this book in the future, but for the present in summary the author challenges his readers to ensure that we do not simply learn about the way Jesus lived. He ...

Maybe you have heard that Maggie and I are flying to Nicaragua on August 8. We are going to visit Open Hearts Ministry, a faith based, non-profit Christian mission, whose primary ministry outreach is aimed towards helping and encouraging children through rescue homes, a local school, and various churches. Chris Farrington graduated from seminary with me and, with his wife Krista went straight to join this ministry, founded by Krista’s family in 1997 and we have followed their work since them. So why are we going? Ever since we received ...

The Body of Christ worldwide is mourning the loss of one of this century’s most influential followers of Jesus. Dr John R W Stott’s exposition of scripture was without equal and paralleled by a daily commitment to live all he preached. Everyone who met him , and I was privileged to be one of those, was first struck by his overwhelming gentleness and humility. He was one of those few remarkable people who made everyone who met them feel that they were, for that moment, the most important people in the world. While Rector of All Souls ...

The challenge of communication has been much on my mind lately. I realize these observations are specific to New Life Christian Fellowship, however I suspect that for every church, the principles are much the same. Recently I heard a couple of comments that really got me thinking. (Both are anecdotal and serve as illustrations not accusations!!) The first went something like this “ Why did I not know about …” the second “ why didn’t ------ know about this?” Certainly, as the staff of your church it is our job to make sure that ...

The challenge of my response to the plight of the poor seems to have been a message that God has been sending me in a number of different ways. In the course of preparing a recent sermon on the heroic behaviour of Boaz (the sermon series is entitled “Heroes”) my attention was caught by the process of gleaning. I wanted to know more so I read further in Leviticus 19:9-10. Here we see how God established this practice to provide for the poorest and most needy people in society. It seems He did not make it “a suggestion” He made part of ...

As I mentioned in my two previous blogs I am currently reading “ Surprised By Hope” by N T Wright and it continues to make me think deeply about my perspectives on our future hope. Right from the outset Dr Wright suggests that our thinking about what he calls “life after life after death” has, over time, become deeply flawed. The theology reflected in many of our hymns and songs, (for example the one I used in title of this article) does not reflect the teaching of scripture or the preaching of the early church. He says Frankly what ...

At the outset of the series we finished recently, Why Believe, we talked about principles that had followed us right the way through the series. First we saw that we all believe in some things that we cannot prove. That the sun will rise tomorrow and that we are loved are just two examples! Most if not all of the subjects we considered had aspects to believing them which could not be proved in the literal sense of the word. There is no (unarguable) proof for the existence of God or for that matter that He does not exist. Whereas there is clear ...

When I was planning to complete the Why Believe series with yesterday’s sermon on heaven, I thought it was similar to the whipped cream and cherry on an ice cream sundae. It finishes it off and the dessert would not be complete without it, but the substance is in the ice cream. However, as I prepared, God showed me that I could not have been more wrong! In fact the message on heaven makes sense of it all! It is the fulfillment of God’s plan and the final glorious chapter in God’s story. In my devotional time I have just begun to read N ...

When I spoke last week in the sermon about our actions not backing up our words I got to thinking about places in my life where I am most vulnerable to this and my mind went to my prayer life. How often do I tell someone I will pray for them and allow the commitment to fade in the business of life? I never mean to let that happen, but in all honesty it does. I have read a number of books on prayer in recent years so I thought I would share one or two of the ideas to help keep our intentions alive. 1 Write it down as soon as you have the ...

One of the great joys of feeling better is that the desire and ability to read has returned. For the last year each time I would pick up a book it would be a signal for my eyes to close! I had a very dry year, spiritually. I never doubted the hand of God on my life and His control over all that was happening, however often the control room seemed a long way away. And such intellectual and physical energy I had was focused on asking the Father for weekly sermons and then preaching them, only to crawl into bed to accumulate the energy for the ...

Today like any other day comes round each year and every year; it’s my birthday!! I was encouraged to write some reminisces of what has been a remarkable year in so many ways. Last January I was writing as I began a year’s treatment for Melanoma, In fact my birthday was in the middle of the first month of very intense treatment. During the year I have experienced all sorts of interesting side effects; a significant loss of balance, which included taking a fall at the bottom of an escalator in Atlanta airport. a variety of digestive ...

Two months to go and that seems like an eternity sometimes. But I do want to reassure you that I am very much alive. I say this because I was recently in conversation with a good friend who told me that he had heard that I was on my way out. He may of course been referring to my car which is not only on its way out, but has left the station.Somethings make time go fast and next week, Maggie and I travel to the UK to celebrate my parents' 60th wedding anniversary and I can't wait to see my family. I know that the net result will be two weeks ...

It’s been a while since I blogged and often I conclude that I don’t have anything of interest to say. However, I’ve had a number of comments asking how I am and so I thought I would give you an update with apologies to those who’ve heard the information many ties before. The battle for normal blood sugar has been won but it leaves me injecting insulin each day for the present. The three injections of interferon each week carry on relentlessly and the side effects vary from very little to more significant. Indeed over the past couple ...