The only prayer God needs from you right now is a very simple one: “LORD, HELP!” The trouble may not go away but HE will hear your plea and HE will be with you in your troubles and calm your heart. If you need to pray this simple prayer 100 times today that’s absolutely fine: Read more
So today is the 8th anniversary of my diagnosis with blood cancer. I had been sick for several weeks and therefore the diagnosis was not out of the blue. But what was less expected was that I would struggle with chronic illness from then on. I think we often think of even cancer as an acute condition and presume it will either kill you or you will get better. For me it hasn't just been the cancer itself but the knock on effects, almost like a series of dominoes falling over as I add diagnoses and new consultant doctors to the growing list. Read more
Twice a year the UK comes to a stop for a string of holidays. We often forget that the very word holiday comes from holy days. Without the concept of the need to stop our activities to devote ourselves to worship, the regular pause on Sundays would never have happened, let alone the prolonged time off of Christmas and Easter. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both national holidays, and on Easter Sunday most shops are required to be totally closed. Huge temples to the god of Mammon are shuttered up and their car parks lie empty. The irony is of course we consume huge amounts of food on holidays and they have become commercialized. Read more
Mary Magdalene woke that Saturday morning confused. Jesus was gone. How could the one who saved her from her demons not be able to save himself? How could the religious rulers who had been no help to her have felt so threatened by him that they manipulated Pilate into having him killed? It was the Sabbath so she couldn't even go and tend to his body properly, which had been hastily thrown into a borrowed tomb. Anointing it would have to be tomorrow's job. Today stretched before her like endless torment. Read more
Today is Good Friday, and appropriately enough the second edition of my book, Raised With Christ has been released today in Kindle, Paperback, and Hardback. We have to see the events of Good Friday through the lens of the Resurrection for us to see that the Cross really is good news. You can order the book on your nearest Amazon online store wherever you are in the World. We have been able to release this new edition of the book... Read more
Appropriately, I can announce that the second edition of my book is available today, at least on Kindle on Amazon US, UK and other amazon sites around the world.. The paperback and hardback will follow soon and hopefully before Sunday. Here is an extract from the book about Good Friday: As a young child I asked my father a series of questions one evening as he put me to bed. This is the conversation as I remember it: “Why is... Read more
It's 15 years since I authored Raised with Christ. In the book I urged Christians not to neglect the resurrection of Jesus. Today I am eagerly awaiting the publication of the second edition of that book. It should hopefully be available this week, just in time for preachers to use it in their sermon prep. At the end of this page are links to a few free chapters that may be particularly helpful as we all celebrate the most important day of the Christian year. Read more
Does religious faith have a valid role to play in helping people on their cancer journeys? We have two different answers today over on my Blood Cancer Uncensored website: My Religious Sceptic friend Maggie As an ex-convent boarding school child I was brainwashed! 60 years on I realise that the regime was destructive, abusive bullying and cruel. My beliefs at the time was it was abnormal to live away from my parents and that what I experienced was all... Read more
The events of epiphany and what followed are not well understood by many Christians. For sure the wise men did not arrive at the stable to pose with the shepherds as we often assume. The Bible is clear they came months later as we see from Herod’s asking when the star appeared so he could kill the potential rival king of Bethlehem. Many secular scholars question whether or not any of this is truly historical. The new Logos Bible Software... Read more
What a year 2024 has been. I was able to write a lot more than I did in 2023 which I enjoyed. This was also the year I marked a full seven years of my new life dealing with long term sickness and disability. I hope that my overview of what that has been like was helpful to many, and if you missed it that and some of my other articles are linked in this review of the year that has gone. Read more
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