Tag: grace and forgiveness

  • getting rid of the goat

    A fragment of papyrus has recently been found in the Sinai Desert. It appears to be part of a Hebrew Priest’s diary… Day 3874 Still not made it to the Promised Land. Moses has told us that God has given us a new way of dealing with our sin: a Scapegoat. After he’d made himself…

  • a love story

    This Sunday morning in my sermon I will be exploring Hosea (the whole book). Every time I come to Hosea I find myself thinking, “What would I do if I was in Hosea’s position?” How would I feel? How would I cope? Hosea’s story is a love story… of sorts. The narrative is fascinating: Hosea…

  • the man in the seat next to me

    Our flights to and from Sweden were fairly uneventful. Apart from one moment. Remember that this was only a matter of days since the Egypt Air plane crashed in the Mediterranean, possibly (probably?) caused by a bomb. We were seated in a row of three, and in the seat next to us was a man who…

  • plank-eye

    Some things are so blindingly obvious that we miss them. Jesus had worked in Joseph’s carpenter’s workshop for 20 years. He knew about wood. He knew too how much it hurt when you got a speck of sawdust in your eye. It would have been a regular occurrence as there were no safety glasses in…

  • what God has got wrong

    I think God has got something wrong. Before I go any further I should warn you that this bloggage could be interrupted by a bolt of lightning as I explain my heresy, so if there is an unanticipated interruption you will know what has happened. So, gulp, here goes. I think that God has got…

  • I can see clearly now…

    If you don’t wear glasses you may not fully empathise with this bloggage, but give it a go anyway (you could try spraying cleaning spray on a mirror and having a look at it before you clean it to get the similar effect). Glasses-wearers among you will know that during the day glasses accumulate gunk, dust,…

  • fingerpoints

    This cartoon is both funny and disturbing at the the same time. It’s funny in the same way that it was funny when Jesus gave the original teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you…

  • diminutive accounting

    I’m back. (Sorry about that). I have enjoyed a good break and been blessed by being on the receiving end of Easter for a change. And this morning I returned to a relative avalanche of emails. I like to keep a tidy inbox. I like to have dealt with most emails on the day on…

  • from invitation to invoice

    When I read this I had to check that it was not April 1st: a five year old has been billed for failing to turn up to a party! Yes, really! If you don’t believe me, click on this link to the BBC website. Now I can understand that the host may have been disappointed that…

  • late mistake

    I seem to have got bigger. No, I’m not talking about my weight or waist size thank you very much (cheek!). In the last few days I have started my new role as a Regional Minister and my area of responsibility has expanded somewhat – seeking to support and encourage 60 churches across most of…