Favourite preaching feedback ever

This week I’ve been preaching to teenagers at some nightly youth events.  I’ve never really seen myself as a “youth leader” and have avoided “youth work” for most of my ministry.  I wouldn’t go as far as Philip Larkin but I’ve always understood his line about childhood:  ”Growing up I thought I hated everyone.  Now [...]

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Some manly things Jesus did [repost]

Three pictures of manliness in the gospels: ONE.  Jesus, pictured as the father in Luke 15, (seriously the father is Jesus.  Just straightforwardly and obviously Jesus.  There’s no question in my mind).  Where was I?  Oh yes, Jesus, pictured as the father, is turned in his stomach with compassion, hitches up his robes, runs to his [...]

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Happy Friday

3D Street Art – see them all here.  

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Behind closed doors

How does porn impact a young girl who discovers her father’s stash?  Michelle VanLoon writes about it in My Father The Porn Addict.  This sentence struck me more than any other: Porn taught me that the single most important thing to grown-ups was this mysterious world of fantasy, pain, and animalistic impulses too powerful to [...]

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Biblical Freedom As Depicted By A Real Estate Sign

Discuss!  

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Male anger – Female anger?

Emma’s got a great post up contrasting Amy Winehouse and Anders Breivik: One person couldn’t cope with fame.  The other couldn’t cope with ignominy.  One person’s life was out of control.  The other was extremely disciplined.  One was full of self-doubt.  The other was certain he was right.  One revealed her problems to the world [...]

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Five youth talks on Christ from the Old Testament

I’ve been asked to give some talks to teenagers on Christ’s “mission impossible” – that’s the name of the camp they’re on.  They suggested I do it from the OT. I thought at some point in each talk I’ll address a sneaking suspicion that Christians have deep down that eats away at our faith.  So, [...]

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“There’s no room for me!”

Recently someone complained about the sermons at my church: “You go on and on about ‘Adam and Christ’, but where do I fit in to that??  You say Adam takes us down to hell and Jesus lifts us up to heaven, but where’s the place for me to make my decision about Jesus, and repent [...]

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Happy Friday

One of the best… about some of the worst… And anyone who says sarcasm is the lowest form of wit should take it up with the LORD.

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Passover is…

… the ultimate plague (i.e. judgement)  (Ex 11:1) … judgement upon the gods (Ex 12:12) … the defeat of the Enemy (Ex 6:1) … liberation from slavery to overlords (Ex 13:14) … liberation to the service of the LORD (Ex 8:1) … the cause of unparalleled sorrow for the enemies (Ex 11:6) … the cause of [...]

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On Being Wrong

Good on diagnosis I think… As for cure… Dealing with self-righteousness takes more than pointing out its folly.  Or showing the broad vistas of human discovery that open up when we “step outside the tiny terrified space of rightness”.  Maybe it’s just me, but the minute I make that step on the road to open-hearted [...]

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The Gospel According to Zophar

I was reading Job 11 and 12 this morning.  It struck me how very “God-centred”  that worthless comforter Zophar was.  Or so he would claim. Job has been insisting on his innocence in suffering throughout the book.  Long chapters consist of Job saying “I really am suffering, but no I’m really not guilty.”  But the [...]

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Influence of Bible on Science, Economics and Democracy

[Some notes from part of a talk I did yesterday morning] The bible’s influence on… Science Other cultures produce technology, ingenuity, inventions, not science Other cultures seek to investigate the world, but by different means Some cultures good at the practical, but they’re not looking for patterns (or “laws”) In other cultures they believe in [...]

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Happy Friday

I’m off to see Dylan Moran tonight!  Enjoy this (language warning):

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How are you? [repost]

How do you answer that question?  It’s been a very tough week and there you are sipping a cuppa after the service, and someone asks cheerily ‘How are you?’  What do you say? Emma and I have had experience of chronic illness of one kind or another for many years now.  I confess that when [...]

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Tolle Audi Tolle Audi

      Christ Alone: Luke 10 by Rich Owen Trinity and Polyphony by Doug Jones Psalm 22 by Steve Levy Revelation 2 by Paul Mallard Psalm 66 by Paul Mallard . Rich and Steve’s sermons are some of my very favourites of this year.  

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Why Bother With Christianity? Sermon on Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon Audio When I lived in London, one of the things I loved to do on a Sunday was visit Speaker’s Corner.  Every Sunday at Speaker’s Corner you have the right to go and proclaim whatever you want to proclaim about – could be true, could be a pack of lies, doesn’t matter – as [...]

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A Tract Themed Around the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible

If you can find a use for this, feel free to use it – A5 tract, folded to A6: Publisher File PDF Putting words in our mouth Have you ever “made a peace offering”? Or found a “scapegoat”? Ever been at your “wits’ end”? Or “given up the ghost”? Then the Bible has been “putting [...]

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