asadmin

‘May the force be with you.’  One of the most famous lines of cinematic dialogue, and one which certainly as a young lad in the playground I would happily shout at my mates as we ran around, pretending we were flying the Millennium Falcon or fighting Darth Vader. Looking back now as an adult, I … Read more

What do you think about when you hear the phrase ‘born again’?  Sadly many of us tend to associate the phrase with one particular expression of the Christian faith, with (what might seem to us) the ill-fitting cultural clothing that comes with it.  We may think of a fiery preacher in an expensive white suit … Read more

All of us, at one time or another, experience the wilderness.  I remember just such a season back in 2002.  I called it a season for ‘burying my face in the dust’.  As I tried to articulate my thoughts, I wrote at the time that I was ‘easily broken, like a twig in a gale…. … Read more

I love this story.  I make no apologies for including it in these daily inspirations.  Simeon has got to be one of my favourite characters in the Bible.  He only appears in this one episode, but what a cameo!  A lifetime of faithfully walking in God’s ways crystallised in this one moment. I don’t know … Read more

‘Behold, I am doing a new thing!  …Do you not perceive it?’ (Isaiah 43:19) We use the word revolution a lot nowadays.  But in truth, genuine revolutions are very rare.  Arguably, the Covid-19 pandemic witnessed (at least temporarily) a revolution in church life greater than anything since the Reformation, as large sections of the global … Read more

The wind and the sun once had an argument as to who was the most powerful.  The sun smiled: ‘See how I can dry up the desert.’ ‘Pah!’ scoffed the wind. ‘That’s not power!  Look at what I can do to the trees, even entire oceans.  See how they tremble when I blow.’  As they … Read more

Have you ever been caught in a summer storm?  The sensation of being drenched by warm rain is something extraordinary to experience.  Over the years I’ve been caught in a few such deluges, and if you’re lucky or unlucky (take your pick) to be caught in one, you’ll have some measure of the true sense … Read more

Every year or two I go on a pilgrimage.  Not the usual kind of pilgrimage, I must confess. Mine is to the Rembrandt rooms at the National Gallery in London.  Mostly I go to gaze at the two self-portraits: one painted when Rembrandt was 34 and at the peak of his powers; the other a … Read more

How does a person become good?  This fundamental question has been exercising humanity since time began.  We are moral beings; we understand concepts of goodness and badness, we know that some lives are better than others, and some actions are better than others.  But knowing something is one thing: doing it is a different matter! Many huge … Read more

A 30-year-old man arrives for weekly worship in his home town. He’s lived there since he was a child, worked in the town with his father, and no doubt most of his family are sat with him that morning.  It’s his turn to read from the scriptures, and when the time comes he gets up … Read more