Jesus himself said:`It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” Acts 20:35 “Can you teach yourself to be happy?” That was the title of an article in a magazine I bought last week. So feeling a bit down about the rugby, I picked it up and read what I had to do to change my mood. It was a bit of a shock. Most of the time when I feel low I think that what I need to do is more things for myself. This might be going for a walk with the dog or  watching what I want on the telly or eating...

Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching. I want to go. I need to go. I have to go! They might be the demands of your 4 year old as you sit on the M6 in a traffic jam about 20 miles from the nearest service station. But they’re also the different attitudes that people have to going to church. We’re...

Psalm 32:1 Of David. A maskil. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.   I’ve been struggling to forgive someone. Not just recently, for years. And often that unforgiveness has been agony. Because I have spent hours in my...

Mark 13:8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth-pains. I think “Marvel Avengers: Age of Ultron” has been out long enough for some theological reflection without having to declare any spoilers! There was one conversation that grabbed my attention (amongst all the fighting, flying and generally duffing up bad guys!). It came  at the end of the film. It was between Ultron (baddy) and Vision (goody). They were reflecting on the human race. Ultron basically says that there is no hope for them....

Matthew 12:49 Pointing to his disciples, Jesus said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” I am a great fan of families. However, reading Ed Shaw’s book “The plausibility problem” (Get it now and read it!) has challenged me about the way that I am in danger of idolising the nuclear family over my Christian family. The church is a wonderfully broken family. It’s made up of people who willingly admit that  they are so messed up and rebellious against God that...

Ezekiel 34:2 `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? Of course I disguise it as wanting Heaven on earth. I come across as really quite caring sometimes; wanting the best for people. Wanting the struggles and suffering to end. Wanting them to be wholehearted, happy followers of the Lord Jesus. Wanting them to have meaningful, fulfilling, loving relationships that always work. I’m generally pretty good as disguising my motives. But deep down a lot of what I do is about...

John 15:13 Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. I was engaging in some serious theological reflection this morning on “X Men: Days of Future Past”. And it suddenly struck me that the film makes no sense! This is not simply because  I can’t work out why Charles Xavier is alive when I remember him disintegrating in X Men 3! But rather because, once again, it is an action hero film that celebrates the strong making sacrifices for the weak. For those who don’t know the gospel according to X Men. Evolution has produced...

“Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him…” Mark 15:32 “We have avenged the prophet Muhammad.” That’s what the two brothers who carried out the terrorist atrocity in Paris this week shouted, having murdered 10 people at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. They felt the magazine’s cartoonists had insulted Islam. Whatever you believe the Koran teaches, they believed their god required them to avenge the name of his prophet. The God of the Bible is very different. He doesn’t need defending from insults. He came in the person of His Son, Jesus, to be insulted. To be humiliated....

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… I give my wife the dregs of my love. And like the bottom of the beer barrel, the dregs taste bitter. At the end of the long day at work I come into the kitchen and collapse with little or no emotional energy left to spend on her. So I make a few helpful comments about the tidiness of the house from the position of my chair, before slumping into the tea (supper for you southerners!) that she sets before me. I think...