Tag: faith
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splashes of grace
On Easter Monday my wife, Sally, and I went for a walk at a local reservoir. It was a mild day and we decided to walk all the way around the reservoir. After a while we stopped and I took this photograph, and then we saw a bench so sat on it to have a…
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Who is Easter for?
I have been an ordained Baptist Minister for over 30 years. I have learnt a few things over those years (I would be worried if I hadn’t). I am a different minister today from the rookie who emerged blinking into the daylight of local church life from the low-light environment of a theological training college.…
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the certainty of uncertainty
Some things are certain. Scientific laws are an example, such as gravity: you can’t stop it, it’s always true. I remember as a child finding it amusing to read: “Gravity is a myth, the earth sucks!” But the reality is that gravity is always gravity. The strength of it may change (for example it’s different…
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still alive!
I know it has been a long time since I last posted on this blog, but I want to assure any of you who still have any residual interest in it that I am still alive and well, and the blog is still alive too. I have neglected you, dear reader, and I apologise for…
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faith in a spin?
Today I put my faith in the weather forecast. It told me that although it was going to be very cloudy it was not going to rain and there would be a good breeze. ‘Perfect,’ I thought, ‘just right for doing some loads of washing.’ Stop sniggering. So I put a load of washing in…
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the parable of the lovely notebook
Is it just me, or do others really enjoy having a new notebook or diary (if you still use a paper one)? There’s something attractive about having a notebook with crisp, pristine pages. I love it. I anticipate what I will use it for. I make myself promises that I won’t scribble or cross things…
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doubt that is bigger than ants
A while back I remember reading a little phrase that stuck with me because it needed to be mulled and pondered and reflected on: “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” Apparently it was Frederick Buechner who wrote that in Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC. I found it amusing, and…
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prayer support
I’ve just been writing my monthly prayer diary, which is sent to a group of people who have offered to pray for me and the Ministry to which God has called me. As I was about to send it out I remembered that my Grandparents told me that they used to pray for me every…
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oh behave!
How do you know how to behave in church and as church? You watch what others are doing don’t you. I was in a church a while back (preaching) which had a very different tradition to the one I was used to. There was standing, sitting, kneeling, responding, singing, praying, chanting and incense waving and…
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whether the weather
Following on from yesterday’s bloggage, today is the day when the shed is going to be put up. The nice men from the shed company have just arrived and the heavens have opened! We’re on the lookout for groups of animals moving around in twos. It has been said that there is no such thing…