Faith in the Fire

Have a read of Daniel Chapter 3.

Although Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were worshiping, working and witnessing in the Babylonian culture they refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold and literally got fired!

The king made a decree.

The three friends defied him.

And the Lord delivered them.

No lessons - No test - No fee

As Remembrance Sunday approaches I've been thinking about my Dad. He served in the army during the Second World War as an engineer stationed in Malta, Italy and in Northern Ireland.

He didn’t talk much about those days but he did have a favourite story to tell and he told us about it quite frequently - especially as he got older!

When he was stationed in Northern Ireland he would go out with a driver to the artillery placements to repair the guns and other equipment.

We are family

In Mark chapter 3 Jesus is in a house and He’s teaching a large crowd.

Then along comes His mum Mary and His brothers.

And evidently they can’t get in to see Jesus because of the crowd, so they send in a message.

And Jesus says:

Who are my mother and my brothers?

Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, Here are my mother and my brothers!

Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.

And it might seem that Jesus is being rude.

One Anothering

“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you”

I’d like to consider what it means to accept each other.

What does accepting one another look like?

It’s no good just saying that we accept each other – it has to be worked out in our lives together with other Christians – in our common unity.

Accept one another

There’s a little section in Paul’s letter to the Galatians Chapter 2 where he tells us about the time when Peter came to visit him at Antioch.

¹¹But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹²For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. ¹³And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Jesus calms the storm

Matthew 8:23-27

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’
He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’

Some years ago my wife and I went on holiday to France with two of our children. We went camping in Brittany and travelled there by ferry from Plymouth to Roscoff – a six hour sailing across the western end of the English Channel.

The Bible - Part 1

There are a number of reasons why have have chosen to write about the Bible.

1. I've been thinking about writing about the Bible for some time. 

2. I was once at a meeting in a retreat house with a bunch of Christians and we were all asked to bring something important to us and share it with the group. Understandably there was a varied collection of stuff and some amazing stories.

A childhood teddy bear, a treasured family photo, a painting.

I took my Bible. Apparently most of my friends had guessed that that is what I would take.