The story is told of a man who got a permit to open the first tavern in a small town. The members of the local church were strongly opposed to the bar, so they began to pray that God would intervene. A few days before the tavern was scheduled to open, lightning hit the structure and…
Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C 27th March 2022 Lectionary Readings: Joshua 5 v9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5 v16-21; Luke 15 v1-3, 11b-32. The Joy of Forgiveness In Psalm 32, King David speaks of the blessing he has received from God in the wake of confessing his sins to him. ‘Our…
WEEK 7 This series of “Thoughts for the Day” is inspired by the study series, NOTORIOUS, written by Jeff Lucas. He and Pastor Brent discuss 9 different characters from the Bible who we would possibly call rogues, scoundrels or scallywags. Each one however can teach us something of our faith. JUDAS ISCARIOT We have a…
Faith of |Our Father : Expositions of Genesis 12 – 25 by Dale Ralph Davis Christian Focus, 2015166 pages £8.99 ISBN 978 1 781 916 445 Also available as an eBook To find a book of printed sermons which yet retain all the immediacy and attraction of the spoken original is a…
We have just spent five days on holiday in Norfolk, when apart from a very orange day on Wednesday thanks to the Sahara sand, we have had a lovely week. We have travelled less than five hundred miles during the week but the signs that have made my heart sink over and over again is…
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was a non-conformist hymn writer, recognised today as the ‘Father of English hymnody’. He preceded Charles Wesley (1707-1788) by many years and their output of religious verse is often compared and contrasted. They have both added enormously to all of our hymn books (1933, 1984, 2011) In Singing the Faith, for example,…
When Apollo 11 neared the moon in July 1969, the editors of the New York Times felt their coverage of the first step on lunar soil should go beyond headlines and photos to embrace an achievement shared by all humanity. So they asked Pulitzer Prize-winner Archibald MacLeish to write a poem. The day after Neil…
Three weeks ago this morning Russia invaded Ukraine. Terrible things have happened that people prayed would not happen again in Europe, or anywhere else in the world. We have been reminded of the extreme fragility of peace between nations and that despite all that is enshrined in our hopes for a world of united nations,…
As part of a management course today we were given an exercise to do, initially alone and then to discuss as a small group, we were told to imagine we had £2.5 Million which we could only spend on ourselves. We later had an equal sum we could only spend on others; it was all…
This week our 10 minute service reflects on Psalm 27:1 and we sing Even though I walk, through the valley (You never let go)