Posts from 2018 (Page 3)
More Jottings From My Journal
A Moment in Time I knelt to lace up the familiar little shoes for my two-year-old granddaughter. As I began, a strange thing happened and, like the change of seasons in a movie, I saw it. I was doing this very same thing but now it was her older sister smiling down at me and, no sooner had those memories flashed by, than it was their older brother, a concentrated look on his…
Pastors Ponderings
We’ve been working through a series of videos by N T Wright in young adults group recently and there are certain ideas and questions that keep coming back around. Here’s a simple version for those of you who might be unfamiliar. The bible teaches us… God is so all-powerful and utterly good that the goodness of anything is measured by how well it aligns with Him. Evil is not a thing unto itself, but what is evil is only…
Pastors Ponderings
A dream by Bill I was awakened at 5 am in the morning because of a dream which I wrote down so as to not forget it. This was the dream. I was with a friend (the people of God) – we were walking in the country (a wilderness) and we came upon many small gold nuggets upon the ground – ripe for the picking, so we began to collect them until our hands were full. We began to drop…
Pastors Ponderings
During our Sunday service prayer time, Colin shared a prayer that he had written just through using scripture verses. I wanted to share this with us for a couple of reasons. First, to encourage us to also do the same. 1 Corinthians 14:26 speaks of each of us bringing a song or a prayer to share when we meet together. So if you haven’t thought of being pre-pared for church, or you don’t like praying off the cuff, then have…
Letting Light Shine out of Darkness.
We’ve no doubt heard this before: its not what happens to us but how we respond. This is so true, but over these past few days this saying has taken on a whole new meaning for me. I’ve been reflecting on the passage from 2 Corinthians 4 where Paul says…so then death is at work in us that life may be revealed in you. Paul was constantly facing hardship, persecution even death but he saw these circumstances as times when…
Pastors Ponderings
This week’s blurb is the latest from a Jesus follower: Contained within the walls of God’s sovereign purpose I’m finally getting it! After days, weeks even, of having new and exciting snippets of God’s truth seep into my dull brain, I’m finally seeing a clearer picture. I need to begin way back when I was a child growing up. All of my life I’d had the security of my parents’ love and the knowledge that they would do everything in…
Pastors Ponderings
This pondering has been written by John, and is a very timely word, particularly given the Sunday message last weekend that spoke about never forgetting the wonderful things God does for us. Have you ever spent some time inside a great church cathedral or maybe a small, humble, country church building? I find there is something special to these kinds of spaces. Perhaps it is because in them I feel a stronger connection with the church through the ages. Perhaps…
Pastors Ponderings
A couple of weeks ago, I suggested it was time to consider and define what ‘freedom in Christ’ is. Galatians 5:1 says, “it was for freedom that Christ has set you free. Now make sure you stay free.” It’s difficult to stay free, if you don’t know what freedom looks like. Then, in last week’s pastors ponderings, a transcript of the word that the Lord gave to CBBC was provided that you could pray and then together we might discern…
Pastors Ponderings
This word from the Lord was delivered to CBBC via our own very lovely Phil. Please pray over this word and feedback to us what especially spoke to you. Next week, in pastors ponderings, I will give you my own take but I wanted to give you opportunity to prayerful consider this without my influence. “Listen! Listen! Listen! To what my Holy Spirit has been saying in my Church. This is all I desire, I want your will. And for…
Pastors Ponderings
Galatians 5:1 says, “It was for freedom that Christ has set you free!” Do you ever read the Bible and feel like saying ‘duh’? I mean, doesn’t this verse seem, well obvious really. I have been set free so of course it’s freedom I’m living in, what else could it be? Except, I’m wondering if it is that obvious? Christ has set us free but you can say in simple words what Christ has set you free from? And you…
Pastors Ponderings
This word from the Lord was delivered to CBBC via our own very lovely Phil. Please pray over this word and feedback to us what especially spoke to you. “Listen! Listen! Listen! To what my Holy Spirit has been saying in my Church. This is all I desire, I want your will. And for you to repent of your pride. I will not force anyone; I want you to do this willingly. Humble yourself, remove your pride and come to…
Older but not wiser
I have been shocked at how quickly I can become disillusioned and discouraged as I’ve got older. Once it seemed so easy to believe…to acknowledge God’s hand in so many different ways…to trust him for the future. But somehow in all the twists and turns of life, the future hasn’t quite gone as I thought it would…things happen…prayers aren’t answered as I expected…things I thought to be secure and took for granted have crumbled around me. Yesterday I was reading…