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Learning from history

Learning from history

After buying a new phone you open the instruction manual and read up on product care, then find a few pages on how to ruin the product. Both have incredibly useful information to ensure that your product receives a long life as promised on the packaging, so you read both and notice a little paragraph about what happens when it is submerged in water, and promptly dismiss the warning..

  • Visiting the Holy Land

    I often reflect on my and my wife's first tour of the Holy Land in 1999 (although we have done others since). I thought of the millions of previous pilgrims who came before me and took in what I now was beholding.

  • Say Yes

    As we enter into the second quarter of 2019, I have been thinking what I can do differently this year so I canhaveanew outlook and fresh experiences. I also reflected on the past years and thought of the things I would or could have done.

  • What is joy?

    Galatians chapter 5, verses 22-23, where we find the Fruits of the Spirit, uses the Greek word χαρá (“chara”) for ‘joy’, which translates almost directly in the Hebrew. It has the same root as ‘Christ’ in χαá½·ρω (“chairos”).

  • Questions, but what of faith?

    Having recently started a degree in theology, perhaps one of the things I am learning are the variation of interpretations of the biblical text as translated from the original Hebrew and Greek - these appear not to be perfect stepping stones.

  • Use the best that you have got

    I had a very encouraging dream recently. In this dream I was with a group of Christians in a spiritual place trying to complete a difficult test of cooperation together.

  • Enjoy Yourself

    We’ve probably all experienced it. Someone asks us what television show we are watching, or book we are reading, and we wish they hadn’t. Some of us may be blushing, or stammering slightly, as we explain we know we shouldn’t like it, that it’s not very high quality or it’s somehow problematic, as if we need to apologise for enjoying it.

  • Jesus knows how this feels

    I feel so betrayed when my family eats the last block of chocolate in the house. Did they not think of me in those last few moments where they took that small little square of goodness and shoved it into their mouths?

  • Why does God care?

    Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why God cares about you? Or even more, why God should care for any person on this earth?

  • Hope through Pain

    Life’s struggles can sometimes seem overwhelming, and especially when we don’t see an end to suffering. The recent turn of events in our world is evidence enough to that end, and we can feel hopeless and vulnerable when we know not how to respond.

  • The missing piece

    I have often questioned what it is that we most desire as humans. So I often ask the young people I work with “What do you want most out of life?” Answers have included; fame, wealth, status, sex, making a difference and many more. But the most common thing that is said, which everything boils down to, is that people want to be happy.

  • Finding Community

    Community is an, if not the central, idea of church—a group of believers coming together with one another to celebrate God. Another way that most people describe it is “fellowship.” Whilst my family lived overseas, the community around us were an integral apart of our work and growth. Our team became like a family and other NGO workers became our church family.