Both as a society, and as individuals, we have the most amazing capacity to deny that which is completely obvious. And that capacity to delude ourselves actually has dire ...

When we’re travelling through uncomfortable, difficult, tragic or frightening times, what we really want to do, is to get out of that place as quickly as possible. But God … ...

When we’re travelling through uncomfortable, difficult, tragic or frightening times, what we really want to do, is to get out of that place as quickly as possible. But God … ...

When you find yourself in hot water, which of course happens from time to time, how confident are you, on a scale of zero to ten, that the Lord will step in to save you? And why ...

I’ve been in the workforce for close on half a century – forty-six years to be exact. And in all that time, there’s just a small number of people who stand out in my mind ...

There’s no shortage of wicked people in this world – none whatsoever, which is probably why (just in case you were wondering) you end up running into them on a regular ...

Have you ever been trying your hardest, and yet people don’t seem to appreciate all you’re doing for them? You feel devalued, don’t you? And then, let’s be honest, ...

Yesterday we chatted about self-interest – because all too often we’re way too interested in ourselves at the expense of others who need our help. So, what’s the ...

When politicians are uncertain in which direction to jump on any given policy, all too often they fall back on that old maxim – when in doubt, back self-interest … not always, ...

Have you ever wanted something to be true so badly that you’d do just about anything to make it happen? It happens all the time, and we head down that path at our own peril. Dr ...

Sometimes – we get the idea that, well, God only uses clever people. Important people. People who other people admire. But nothing, nothing could be further from the truth. Most ...

How often have the words that passed over your lips, the things you’ve blurted out without thinking, landed you in hot water? I’d hazard a guess that the answer is … more ...

The image that the world has of a loving God (if He were to exist at all) is that He accepts people the way they are. It doesn’t matter, so the thinking goes, what you do, or ...

One of the worst things we can ever do is to talk over the top of people, or even just hold our tongue – not with the aim of taking in what’s being said, but just so that we ...

I don’t know about you, but I am a master of self-delusion. So many times in my life I’ve believed something to be true, but then lived my life in completely the opposite way ...

It’s easy these days to get drawn into crazy arguments … all too easy. And before you know it, instead of following Jesus, instead of doing good, you’ve been sucked down the ...

Each and every day, as I read the news, as I see how people behave towards one another, the abject evil of so many people in this world just slaps me in the face like a cold fish. ...

Other people can be so incredibly annoying, can’t they? You’re planning on having a day of peace and joy, of honouring God, and then … boom. Some idiot comes along to ruin ...

Sometimes we get the idea that, well, God only uses clever people. Important people. People whom other people admire. But nothing, nothing could be further from the truth. Most ...

Deciding where to plant your seed and what sort of seed to plant, I think you’ll agree, is going to have a huge impact – the overriding impact in fact – on the crop that ...

Yesterday we explored the not unreasonable assertion that self-worship is the world’s fastest growing religion. Everyone, it seems, is taking “selfies”. And as it turns out, ...

It’s been said that the world’s fastest growing religion is … wait for it … self-worship. I don’t have any empirical data to back that up, but just look around. I ...

If there’s one human attribute that seems to be missing from the lives of so many people in this day and age, it would have to be humility; having a modest opinion of one’s ...

This week we’re unpacking what it means to “do good” in God’s eyes. And in an age when the line between good and evil has never been more blurred, knowing what ‘doing ...

Yesterday we read about what it means to “do good” in God’s eyes. And one element of that is to do justice. Let’s just unpack that. What does it actually mean for us to ...

The world these days seems intent on blurring the line between good and evil, have you noticed? And it’s easy for us, for you and for me, to get swept up in that. So … reality ...

We live in a world where so many terrible things are taking place. Wars, atrocities, exploitation, starvation not to mention the political and ideological difference tearing ...

There’s one word that will completely, radically, change your life. It’ll change the way you see things. It’ll change your relationship with God. It’ll put a song in your ...

Over the last few days, we’ve been discovering that Jesus is not always who or what we expect Him to be. Sometimes … yep, that’s a tad uncomfortable … but for good ...

None of us likes being offended. Sometimes we take offense, because the person dishing it out is just being obnoxious. Other times though, it’s because they’re telling us a ...

If only God would do what we want Him to do. If only Jesus would just stump up and fix this one problem, deliver this one blessing!! Have you ever found yourself thinking that ...

These days, people who have a positive impact on this world tend to be incredibly popular. But could it be that today’s celebrity culture has jaundiced our view of those who ...

One of the biggest criticisms of Christians today is that they’re judgemental. In a world where anything goes, how can these people who profess to believe in the God of love be ...

The reinvention of Jesus – who He is and what He said – has been going on for some time. I mean, why wouldn’t we want to morph Him into something that fits more comfortably ...

We live in a world where so many terrible things are taking place. Wars, atrocities, exploitation, starvation not to mention the political and ideological difference tearing ...

We live in a world where so many terrible things are taking place. Wars, atrocities, exploitation, starvation not to mention the political and ideological difference tearing ...

We’ve been thinking this week about why the basic tenets and beliefs of Christianity are so deeply offensive to the contemporary, secular mindset. And one of the reasons ...

One of the things we take for granted is the notion that a human life has a very high, intrinsic value. It wasn’t always so, and in some parts of the world where Christianity ...

In many parts of the world, marriage is becoming less and less fashionable. People just live together, break up, move on, find another partner … and that’s life. That’s just ...

Why is it, as time goes on, that Christianity … that Christians … are becoming more and more despised, more and more marginalised, and more and more offensive to the ...

As we look back on the events of history, we tend to judge the things that happened back in the days of old through what we know today. But it turns out, that there’s a big ...

I don’t know about you, but I have this objective to become a better person as time goes on – little by little, day by day – to deal with my foibles and failures, so that ...

Freedom is one of those things that we all cherish, even if sometimes we’re not entirely sure what this whole “freedom” thing actually looks like. Nevertheless, the idea of ...

You walk past people on the street – blank, emotionless faces and you think – I wonder what’s going on in their hearts today. Those faces hide so many hurts and pains ...

Propaganda has been a thing since time immemorial. It’s just that these days, with the way that all forms of media wrap their tentacles around every part of our lives, it’s ...

I wonder, as you look back on your life, who it is that stands out most in your heart for having helped you through some difficult times; for having stepped in when no one else ...

I don’t think there’s one of us who hasn’t said things that we later ended up regretting. If only we could take it back. If only we could un-say that stupid thing that came ...

Even though we’ve all faced difficulties in our lives, tragedies that we wouldn’t have wished on our worst enemy, I think it’s fair to say for most of us, we wouldn’t swap ...

As I look back on the journey that God’s brought me on, I can see the mighty things He’s done in my heart. And yet as I look ahead, I know that He has so much more work to do ...

There are times when we feel like praising God, and… let’s be honest, there are times when we don’t. And then, there are times when we have every reason to be praising Him, ...

One of the most common symptoms that we all experience during those difficult patches in life is a sense of separation from God, almost as though He’s cut us adrift, almost as ...

Sometimes it seems the more people we have around us, the lonelier we feel.  Loneliness is running at epidemic proportions around the world.  And it can strike when we ...

Boldness and bravado often mask deep insecurities and fears. I can tell you that unequivocally because that’s how I used to live my life; brutal toward people on the outside, ...

None of us likes being criticised. In fact, we much prefer to be praised, so we tend to gravitate towards people who pat us on the back, rather than those who tell us what they ...

Whenever we believe something passionately, as I certainly do when it comes to the Good News of Jesus Christ, there’s a risk – a big risk, in fact – that our passion can ...

Fake news is not merely a political cliché. It’s a profound problem – with bad actors, as they’re called, and even rogue governments deliberately undermining social ...

In any society, any community, there are winners and there are losers. And when you’re fortunate enough to be one of the winners, the tendency is to care less and less about the ...

We live, more and more, in the age of entitlement. I deserve better than this. I’m entitled to say and do what I want. How dare they tell me what to do? And yet to live in ...

When I was growing up, I wasn’t allowed to use the word “hate”. I certainly was never allowed to hate someone. That was strictly verboten. Even saying that I hated this or ...

On a scale of zero to ten, how much do you believe God wants to bless you? Not at all (0); a bit (3); yeah, quite a bit (7.5) or more than you can ever hope for, dream or imagine ...

Do you ever get the wobbles in your faith walk? Sure, you believe … but just in that moment, perhaps right here in this moment, it’s difficult to discern any rhyme or reason ...

None of us want bad things to happen to us, and yet they do. None of us wants sorrow to fill our hearts, and yet from time to time, it does. Suffering is an essential and ...

In our desire to be successful (something that’s been drummed into us from an early age) it’s all too easy for us to give sway to false influencers and start elevating false ...

Divorce is a subject that I come back to from time to time because sadly, it’s tearing marriages, lives, and families apart on a global scale, with devastating consequences. ...

The more individualistic we become in our outlook on life, the more prone we are to resisting authority and criticising our leaders. We’ve seen a lot of that over the last ...

There is so much pretending that goes on in the world today in people’s lives, perhaps even in our lives. In public, we say nice things about others, but in private we curse ...

Can I ask you, what mountain needs moving in your life just at the moment? What obstacle are you facing that’s preventing you from becoming all that God made you to be, and ...

On a scale of zero to ten, how much do you believe God wants to bless you? Not at all (0); a bit (3); yeah, quite a bit (7.5) or more than you can ever hope for, dream or imagine ...

On a scale of zero to ten, how much do you believe God wants to bless you? Not at all (0); a bit (3); yeah, quite a bit (7.5) or more than you can ever hope for, dream or imagine ...

Today is Sunday, our day of rest – a day for some good news, very good news. And perhaps you need some good news just at the moment. So without further ado, here it is: 1 Peter ...

It’s becoming more and more difficult, not just to be a Christian, but to speak openly and publicly of our Christian faith. So much so that God’s people are being coy, almost ...

When we’re confronted with some daunting task, something that we really don’t want to do, the easiest thing in the world for us to do is to put it off. I heard someone refer ...

We’ve been reading this week about dealing with the difficult people in our lives with the wisdom and the love of God. It’s not easy, is it? And we can’t talk about ...

Most days, I make sure that I read the news – local, national and international. I also make sure that I read God’s Word, the Bible. And I tell you, the gap between those two ...

We all have difficult relationships, don’t we? Some seem to fester away year after year without getting any better. The conflict, the hurt, remains. And it robs you of your ...

It’s a strange old world we live in. On the one hand, you can have a heart that yearns for God. But on the other, you can be surrounded with so much evil and injustice that it ...

When you hear someone talking about living the life God always intended, it’s all too easy to get the picture that it’s all about us. Our comfort. Our wants. Our status. But ...

As we’re growing from childhood through those awkward teenage years into adulthood we’re taught to rely less and less on others. And, up to a point, that independence is a ...

You see some amazing things on social media … I mean, mind blowing stuff. None more so than the mass delusion of people who call themselves Christians. How can people wander so ...

One of the things that I find so intriguing is how God can take something that He spoke to people thousands of years ago in a completely different context, and use it to impact ...

When it comes to … you know, those sinners out there … perhaps you’ve heard that saying, “hate the sin but love the sinner”. It’s something of a Christian cliché that ...

Thank God that we’re not all preachers. Can you just imagine? Everybody speaking, nobody listening … absolutely horrendous. And yet, in one way or another, everybody who ...

Truth, as things turn out, is a difficult thing to hold on to in these last days. As the time draws nearer to Christ’s return, just as He predicted there are many intent on ...

No matter what country you happen to live in, there are men and women who’ve gone before you, who sacrificed their lives in the hope of protecting your freedom. And that … ...

Low self-esteem is a social epidemic, silently constricting lives and undermining relationships. But God never meant for you to have low self–esteem. In fact, He has some great ...

The more social media’s taken hold of our world, the easier it’s become for everyone to have a voice, to state their opinions, to shout them into the faces and the lives of ...

There are people in this world who will oppose you – some for the right reasons, some for the wrong reasons. How you respond to them has a lot to do with your inner, core ...

We live in strange times. I mean, look back at just these last two years since the COVID pandemic hit us. Look at how different the world is today to what we expected, even just ...

It’s easy to come to the conclusion that being a Christian, following Jesus, honouring God, is much easier in the good times than in the bad – that singing His praises is much ...

From the youngest age, each one of us has been subject to rules. Our parents told us what we could and couldn’t do. And if you’re anything like me, as a child and as a ...

When you get together with friends and family, perhaps over a cup of coffee or over a meal, what do you talk about? I mean, last time you socialised with, perhaps, people from ...

Do you know what I’ve noticed? It’s much easier to make a joyful noise on a Sunday than it is to serve God with a good heart on a Monday. It’s much easier to sing those ...

Poor self–esteem is a global pandemic. Too many people are living with deep insecurities that are robbing them of the abundant life that Jesus died and rose again to bring them. ...

So, at what point did we come to the conclusion that it’s all up to us –  that following Jesus along that narrow, often difficult path is completely our responsibility, ...

So, another question for you today. When you speak up in defence of the truth, in defence, perhaps, of your faith, how do you speak? What does the expression on your face and the ...

Yesterday we read about loving your enemy – one of the many intensely inconvenient things that Jesus had to say. And it’s not just something that He said. It’s something ...

A question for you today … well, two actually. Firstly, how many people do you have in your life right know whom you dislike intensely? And secondly, when you run into them, how ...

The Good News of Jesus comes in two parts: forgiveness of our sins through His sacrifice on the Cross: and a new life from now to eternity. In other words, pardon from the past, ...

The pressure these days to depart from the truth, to forsake what God tells us is right, to dispense with it as the irrelevant babblings of an outdated church, is intense. Perhaps ...

At some point along the way, anyone who chooses to believe in Jesus has a choice to make. Will they actually do what He tells them to do, or will they just carry on with business ...