Read: Galatians 5:16-25 In today’s reading from Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul sets out the contrasts between life in the flesh and life in the Spirit. He argues that those who have fully accepted life in Christ are in a different world from those who have not. In referring to the ‘sins of the flesh’,…

Read: Luke 24-44-53 Today is Ascension Day. The Bible reading explains how Jesus reminded the disciples that the Old Testament Law, Prophets, and Psalms had been fulfilled; he had suffered, he had risen, and soon the message of repentance and forgiveness would spread out, starting in Jerusalem but reaching all corners of the world. Jesus…

Read: Acts 13:26-33 Today’s passage is an extract from the account of Saint Paul’s first missionary journey. He was in Pisidian Antioch, where he was outlining to a gentile gathering how Jesus had been treated. Quoting Isaiah (53:1-4), he explained that people who had been promised a deliverer despised him when he came. The Sanhedrin…

Read: Acts 10:34-48 In the garden outside our dining room window, we have a completely random and uncontrolled mixture of spring bulbs. Over the years, they have been added to indiscriminately as things turn up, usually as gifts. Most recently, a kind friend gave me five tulip bulbs with the comment, ‘I have no idea…

While the authenticity of large-scale performances is known to be doubtful, I believe that genuine spiritual connection can be found in any setting that moves us. This conviction guided my experience at the Good Friday performance of Messiah in The Royal Albert Hall—first when I was 19, and again this year as I witnessed the…

The other morning the kettle would not work. Our water is very hard, so we are used to kettles having a limited life. The immediate assumption was that this was the day for buying a new kettle. Then it transpired that several other things in the kitchen were not working either because the trip had…

(Familydestinationsguide.com Images) Many of you will have experienced the frustration of trying to close an overfull suitcase, fit everything into the car for a family holiday with little children and all the equipment associated with babies, or pack a few items too many into an overfull cupboard. All my adult life I have been quite…

The source of the River Thames in Gloucestershire is a muddy hole in wet times, marked by an almost indecipherable stone tablet but adorned by three wooden signs. The Thames Path will lead a walker to Woolwich and then to the sea. Throughout Lent, I have been reflecting on the temptations of Jesus in the…

Matthew 4:11b: ‘…and suddenly angels came and waited on him.’ Last week we reflected on the lull after the storm; the peace that descends when the raging is over. For Jesus, the temptations were over, the devil had gone and he was left but then, we read, ‘suddenly angels came and waited on him’. Jesus…

Matthew 4:11 ‘Then the devil left him.’ The storm raged, the sea crashed, and all night long the gale blew. In the morning, the sun came out and the wind abated. The sea was still rough, but all that remained of the force of the night’s activity was seaweed on the road and some spray…