Being Humble during Lent – Vicar’s Comment
The period leading up to Easter which we call Lent reminds us of Jesus’ time in the wilderness, and can also remind us of the need for self-sacrifice – as we seek to follow in his footsteps. However, if we’re not careful it can also be a contradictory time. For example, in Matthew 6 Jesus […]
‘The joy of the Lord is your strength’ – Vicar’s Comment Feb 2020
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]’The joy of the Lord is your strength’. So says Nehemiah to the returnee Jews in 8:10 (NIV) of the book which bears his name. Where do you draw strength from? The temptation might be to think that the simple pattern of rest / work / rest / work […]
God is big enough – Vicar’s Comment
I wonder how you view a New Year. Perhaps it depends on whether you are naturally more of a planner or a ‘live in the moment’ sort of person? If you’re the former, perhaps it’s tempting to think of new seasons of life such as a new year as opportunities to clear all the rubble […]
Jesus of the Nativity (and the Resurrection) – Vicar’s comment
One person I know read Mark’s gospel not so long ago, and was struck by the fact that Jesus knew He was going to die. It wasn’t just something out of control that happened to Him. Perhaps that’s a telling observation. At Christmas we recite that first nativity story, of our Lord being born. However, […]
Be still and know – Vicar’s comment
I wonder how often you ask someone to give you their perspective on something about you or your life? I’ve been struck recently by the fact that even when by God’s grace I think I sense where we’re heading, it’s possible to feel a bit ‘foggy’, like when you feel you see the day-to-day detail […]
Coping with Failure – Vicar’s comment
I wonder how you cope with failure?? My feeling is that in this country we don’t deal with it very well (although I don’t know enough about other cultures to compare). It feels to me like times of failure are so often dealt with by acting as if they haven’t really happened and just moving […]
“Know this love that surpasses knowledge” – Vicar’s Comment
I wonder if you’ve ever had the experience of tidying a room and it taking far longer than you planned. Why? Well because as you went through all of your stuff, you kept finding things that you’d forgotten existed and so you spent time looking at them. Perhaps you stumbled across an old diary or […]
“Life in all its fullness” – Vicar’s comment
Our memory verses for the summer are taken from Psalm 139. In the opening verse of that Psalm David says ‘O LORD, you have searched me and you know me’ (NIV), before going into further detail about how God knows him inside-out. However, at the end of the Psalm David asks God to ‘See if […]
Thy Kingdom Come – Vicar’s Comment
The beginning of June is when most of the Thy Kingdom Come prayer initiative falls this year. As Christians we all know prayer is a good thing, we all know it’s something we should be doing, and yet I think there’s something mysterious about it which perhaps we don’t often think about. You see if […]
Celebrate the ‘old story’ – Comment by Chris Collins
There’s an old hymn that begins ‘Tell me the old, old story, Of unseen things above, Of Jesus and His glory, Of Jesus and His love’. At Eastertime the ‘old, old story’ is re-told at churches around the world, as the accounts of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection are shared once more, and Christians celebrate […]