Over the weeks coming up to Christmas, we will be sharing excerpts from our books: Christmas devotionals, to ex–pro footballers, to the writings of Spurgeon, Owen and many more. We want to encourage you in this season. To give you a pause that will enable you to reflect on the truth around Christmas.
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All worry is sin. Most of us probably don’t believe that. Even if we do it can seem near impossible to quit worrying. For some of us it seems like a normal part of life. There are other sins in life that have clear practical steps that can be taken to stop. If you struggle with drunkenness, do not keep liquor in your house and never go to the bar or a place that serves alcohol. Those clear steps will make a radical difference.
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Books on Christian Growth often follow one of three basic approaches. The most common of these follows a systematic theology model, sometimes taking into account the order of salvation, or more often focussing on biblical sanctification or holiness. The second type focusses more exclusively on holiness and practices that promote it, such as prayer. More recently the tendency is toward down to earth Christian self–help manuals, majoring in ‘how it feels’ to be a believer or how to tackle mental heal
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If you’ve ever read a fantasy book or watched a fantasy film, you’ll know that a common trope is that the protagonist is often the prophesied ‘chosen one’. They are called to stand up as a hero and save their people because it was ‘written in the stars’ before they were born, or promised by an old seer, or revealed in a dream.
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That is no exaggeration. As a nine–year–old boy in a mid–week children’s’ meeting in our village Presbyterian church in North Wales, during the winter months an elderly lady serialised the story of Thomas Charles (1755–1814) on a weekly basis. And it was exciting. In fact, I remember being one of the children who wanted her to carry on with the story. Why wait a week before hearing more? We were enthralled. ‘No’, was her firm and regular response, ‘come again next week and hear more’.
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There is no such thing as untested Christian faith.
Testing is part of Christian experience. Not in the sense that God sets us tests we have to pass to qualify to be Christian. If he did, none of us would make the grade! But our Christian faith is tested and ‘proved’ in life generally when we face sickness, bereavement, and family problems, or when we experience doubt, depression or injustice. We naturally start wondering, ‘Is God really there? Does he care about my life? Why do I have to wait so
I don’t know about you, but I feel tired. When people ask how I am, I am inclined to answer, “busy,” and hurry on with my life. Between work commitments, personal commitments, church commitments, weddings, hen parties, travel, I’m starting to sympathise with Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings when I said, “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter over too much bread.”
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We all have them. ‘Yuk’ moments. Some notice them. Some are unaware of them. Some ignore them. Many form addictions in an attempt to eradicate them. What are they? They are those moments when for whatever reason we feel a lack of fulfilment and purpose and a feeling of emptiness washes over us instead.
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Have you been following the space exploration that NASA and other groups are doing? I like to check in on the Mars mission that began in 2020 with the launch of the rover that the scientists have named Perseverance. Perseverance was launched in July 2020 and landed on the planet Mars on February 18, 2021. That was a long trip, and all would have been wasted if the rover had not landed safely.
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We’re delighted to introduce the newest member of our team, Julian Gittings.
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