Planted by Water

I’m back! What a week!! Praise God for full lives!

But over the last couple of Sundays I did actually get round to bringing the word that God has been giving me about sacrifice. I know that the OT sacrifices ultimately point to the once and for all sacrifice of Christ on the cross - as far as dealing with sin is concerned, there is no need for anymore sacrifice! And yet - we still do …

Very sorry to regular visitors but I’m going to have trouble doing any blogging this week - it’s crazy! My wife goes into hospital tomorrow for the day for a minor operation, my son is in various performances and rehearsals for theatre productions, I am preparing to teach nearly 100 people how to ballroom dance this Saturday night after not having done any myself for about 20 years(!!) - the things I do for the sake of the gospel - and I’m preaching this Sunday. Along with all the other meetings, appointments, bible tour …

Good time with the students yesterday - we considered 2 of the biggies in terms of cultural trends - Consumerism and Celebrity Culture. What was especially interesting was considering whether the church is being affected by these trends. Today we get on to other things like the anti-hero trend, therapy culture, litigation culture and more. The point all the time is to consider how we avoid being carried along with the tide of these trends - and it starts with being aware of them, not over-reacting against them but making sure …

I am down in Cardiff - enjoying the wonderful hospitality of Jon and Ali Dumville - as I am lecturing tomorrow and Friday at the Bible College. We will be looking at current cultural trends and considering how we respond biblically and spiritually to them. I’ll keep you informed and hope to keep on blogging, courtesy of Jon’s laptop, and will let you know how we get on. Thanks for all your comments recently - they’ve been …

It’s not very often that I get round to sending off a response to a TV documentary I have watched,  but yesterday evening -having watched a documentary on Channel 4, by Rod Liddle, called ‘The New Fundamentalists’ - I sent one straight away. You can read a little about it here but it is not very informative, helpful or at all balanced. Below is an idea of what I sent to Channel 4. I have obviously used terms and expressions appropriate to a non-Christian public …

There was a first for me yesterday. I have often been in meetings where I was ready to preach but the Holy Spirit did something different and I never got to preach. But this was the first time when I am nearing the end of my preparation, having done all the study, writing notes etc., well before the meeting, but then felt the Holy Spirit tell me I wasn’t ready to preach it yet! It was about this …