Small Ways in Small Places.. No doubt like yourselves, I often meet with people who serve in what they think are seemingly small, insignificant ways, in small insignificant places. They are frequently discouraged by loneliness, feeling that their acts of service are really very inadequate. I once met a person many years ago who was “Big Time” the type of person that on remembering the first time that you met him you made a mental note to avoid at all…
Whilst living in Bristol I played in a Brass Band. Upon enquiring from a fellow player his occupation, I learnt that he worked as a Commercial Author. I enquired what on earth was that?! It was explained that he was employed to draw the little instructions and diagrams which are provided with most ‘kit-sets’ and items that the purchaser assembles for themselves. I jokingly said that I thought he would be the author of much scratching of heads and voiced…
More to the point how are those ‘New Year’s Resolutions coming along? It is now 2 weeks since we first promised ourselves to break the habit. We have always craved to change things in a new year. This is why we start diets, exercise programmes, and new hobbies. Many like me no doubt take up particular Bible challenges which shall enable us to read the whole Bible through the year. Of course, in a month’s time we can quite easily…
Today I have passed another milestone during my life’s journey. This day 55 years ago, I was a young 21-year old starting his first job in banking. Lloyds Bank, Northampton , England. 7th January 1963. As I have travelled on along “life’s pathway” I have accumulated many more “Milestones”. I am gifted with quite a wonderful memory for dates and occasions (now names are a different matter!!). I am able to reflect on my memories back to when I was…
One of my favourite reads is anything from the pen of longtime California pastor Ray Stedman. Ray once told his congregation: ” On New Year’s Eve we realise more than any other time in our lives that we can never go back in time…… We can look back and remember, but we cannot retrace a single moment of the year that is past.” Stedman then referred to the Israelites as they stood on the edge of a new opportunity. After…
For many years I have been associated with Prison Ministry. At times not the easiest place to share The Gospel message! Several years ago in a prison just outside Christchurch, I spoke to a group of inmates on a theme “Salvation — The Best of all gifts”. I hadn’t planned to use that subject, but it came to mind when I looked into the faces of the men before me. There I saw a mixture of cynicism, indifference, sadness, and…
Have you ever thought of how some of these household names came into being? I do. I came across this “ wonderful” story the other day. Elmer Kline, a bakery manager in 1921, was given the task of naming the company’s new loaf of bread. As he struggled to come up with something ‘catchy’, he found his answer in an unlikely place. Whilst visiting the grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he stopped to watch the International Balloon Festival. Later he described…
Most of us have experienced loneliness in some form or another. I remember the deep sense of aloneness that swept over me during my first Christmas in New Zealand. Coming from the Northern hemisphere , being use to ‘White Christmases” was so totally different than spending Christmas Day on a beach in Auckland, half way across the world from all our family and friends . It was quite bewildering at times. People with physical disabilities have said that their greatest…
What does the Bible Say? Matthew 25:35 ESV For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, Isaiah 58:10 ESV If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. James 2:14-18 ESV What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has…
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