Powerful Me or Powerful Gospel?
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…”
I’m so thankful for the Gospel. It has powerfully transformed my life and continues to guide me forward in righteousness as I live by faith. Yet, this scripture challenged me recently, that when I share the gospel, a lot of the time, I’m reliant on my own words…
Cascading Light
Today, as part of my devotional time, I read 2 Corinthians 4: 6.
“For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Navigating the Unfamiliar
A while back I was invited to attend a wedding up in the Yorkshire Dales – a great place, for sure. But I had never been there, or round that way before. So I set up my phone navigation app, I inputted the desired destination and set off with confidence.
Ten Years Later
Last night I met up (on Zoom) with some university mates I had not seen for nearly a decade. A group of 9 of us led the Christian Union together for a year at Birmingham University with a heart to reach that campus for Jesus.
Rattled by Worship
Have you ever heard a worship song and been so struck by it that you keep hitting repeat? Each time you play the song it's like the words just sink deeper and deeper into your heart, lifting your spirit in an indescribable way!
Where is Unity?
The anger on the streets of Western nations this week, not least the cities of America, reflects a deep agony in our hearts. The agony of centuries of racial prejudice and subjugation, hidden biases and explicit racism are filling our news feeds and we're right to be angry at our shared inability to foster unity through human means.
Filling Time
What can I do with this time? This was one of the questions I was desperate to answer when lockdown began. I don’t live with family or friends and I saw the isolation as scarily empty and quiet.
So I did what any rational person would do and panic-bought a 1,000 piece puzzle and a very long book!
Being Untroubled
I know it wasn’t a surprise – most of us have so much information available that we saw it coming. But none the less I still had to take a deep breath when hearing the lockdown extension confirmed. No one, not one single person, in our nation (as well as many other nations) is not impacted in some way by this lockdown.
Wisdom for today
How do we live, think and pray at a time like this?! What is going on? In the UK and beyond it feels like empires are falling, foundations are shaking, and fear is spreading.
20 Years, 20Lessons
Helen and I step into a 3rd decade of leading this amazing church family today, and after 20 years we’re pausing, taking stock and sharing some of the lessons we’ve learned through many joys, breakthroughs and miracles, 10.5 million minutes of leadership, 1000 Sundays, 1500 sermons and countless mistakes...
God is not love
As a church we’ve been reflecting a lot recently about the nature and extend of the love of God, and then the other week I caught a snippet of the final of Love Island on ITV2 – it got me thinking…
Why bother to gather?
It's another grey Sunday morning when the duvet is extra-warm and a lot of people are asking, 'why bother going to church?' It's a good question.
I can think of loads of reasons not to:
I’m a Repentecostal
Recent events in the fellowship of churches I belong to have got me thinking, praying, wondering what has gone wrong. Because something has gone wrong, and the need for us all to humble ourselves before God and ask for Him to do something new among us has never (in my experience) been so acute.