asadmin OK, I admit it – this was probably quite a turgid read today! A long list of who built what along the length of the wall. There are some fascinating titbits along the way, though: the fact that some of the upper classes felt that the work was beneath them (v5); on the other hand, … Read more
‘Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, “This person began to build and … Read more
Being miserable at work is a risky business. Nowadays, those risks are probably more to do with our wellbeing and likelihood of promotion (the PIE method attributes 30% of your promotion prospects down to projecting a positive persona); in the court of King Artaxerxes is would have been downright dangerous. Bear in mind that Artaxerxes … Read more
The famous 19th-century evangelist Dwight L Moody was once asked: ‘if you knew that the Lord was coming back in 25 years, how would you spend it?’ Moody replied: ‘I’d spend the first 20 years of that time in prayer.’ When I first read that a few years ago, I found it profoundly challenging. I … Read more
In the winter of 2010, I was living in Bristol and was asked to lead a group from church to organise the weekly Saturday lunchtime soup run for the city’s homeless. I was co-leader of a 20s group at the time, and our group duly turned up one cold day in December at the gathering … Read more
And so to the final reference to the Spirit of God in the bible – we got there eventually! And fittingly, the Spirit’s gaze is directed towards Jesus – as it always is. The grand story of Scripture causes the Spirit to cry out a final encouragement, the only encouragement in a sense that the … Read more
It is often said that the joy of travel is not so much about the destination as the journey. And sometimes that’s true. We can probably all think of memorable journeys, ones that perhaps even eclipse wherever it was we were heading to. The nature writer J.A. Baker describes his own love of journeying in … Read more
‘Whoever has ears, let them hear….’ Jesus uses this famous phrase repeatedly in the gospels whenever he tells stories to his listeners. The stories Jesus tells are called parables – which means there’s a point to them, maybe even a sting in the tail. Jesus’ parables tease us, touch us, sometimes torment us. They speak … Read more
I originally wrote this reflection in the week before the 2020 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. As was usual in that season, the two Mercedes cars dominated qualifying for the race. Many would agree that in Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes had the best driver at that time – and one of the greatest drivers of all-time. … Read more
Inspiration is a curious thing. Any of us who try to communicate creatively in any medium, whether through words or the visual arts, know what that means – and what it costs. Sometimes it just ‘flows’ – at other times, it’s like pulling teeth. We scratch around in the dust, so to speak, looking for … Read more