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Hope.  It’s a tricky word, isn’t it?  I must confess I used to be suspicious of it.  I found the word too vague, too intangible.  I used to see it as little more than wishful thinking, as do many people. And yet, as I came to see, this is not the view of the New … Read more

I confess to being someone who builds their life around words.  I love to read, to write, to communicate in words.  And we live in a content-rich culture.  Wherever we go, whatever we see, on billboards in the streets or screens in our homes, there are words, words, words. But sometimes there are no words.  Sometimes … Read more

A few years ago, there was a period drama on TV called ‘Belgravia’.  The central character of the story was a young man called Charles Pope.  Originally given up by his grandparents to be adopted, ashamed that he was (so it was thought) born out of wedlock, it turns out that Charles was in fact … Read more

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the crown jewels at the Tower of London.  It’s a long time since I went, but I still recall the sense of wonder at seeing the breathtaking, dazzling display for the first time as a child.  One of the highlights is the Queen Mother’s Crown.  Worn at her … Read more

It’s always fascinating watching how people eat a plate of food.  You can learn a lot about someone’s personality from how they eat: in particular, when they choose to eat their favourite mouthfuls.  Some can’t wait, and have to munch their favourite things first.  Others like to space them throughout their meal.  When I was … Read more

All human institutions rely on rules to function.  It’s just the way of things.  Even those things that start as dynamic movements end up needing protocols and procedures, strategies and systems. It’s no less true in the Church.  As soon as any community grows to any size, it needs some sort of organisation to keep … Read more

A few years ago I read a superb little book called ‘The 10-Second Rule’ by Clare de Graaf.  The rule, as the writer describes it, is very simple: ‘Within ten seconds, do the next thing you’re reasonably sure Jesus wants you to do, and you could change a life forever.’ The point is that (like … Read more

The spiritual life is often thought to exist ‘in another dimension’.  And sometimes, it does.  Miracles, prophetic words of knowledge, angelic languages – these are not ‘worldly’ things.  But sometimes, we can fall into the trap of believing that unless it’s a bit weird or quite obviously ‘supernatural’, that the Spirit of God isn’t in … Read more

True goodness unsettles people.  It might seem a strange thing to say, but time and again it has been demonstrated in the history of the church.  Jesus himself was of course the perfect example of this: but it didn’t take long for his followers to discover the same reality.  Opposition to the early Christians began … Read more

You knew we’d get there eventually.  Day 29 on our journey through the Spirit in the Bible and, yes, we’ve finally got to the passage that you might have thought we’d cover on Day 1: Pentecost, the pouring out of the Spirit in a new and glorious way: on all people, for all time. There’s … Read more