Category: Uncategorized
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30 Years Old: What Lies Ahead?
This week I turn 30. I’m not really one for birthdays. Dee and I have been together for 15 years (yes, I know, too young… moving on). The first year of our childhood romance we enthusiastically bought each other presents… and that was the last time. We are both terrible present buyers, poor celebrators in…
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Soul Ceol
Almost 3 years ago, I teared up one night, when, after our Friday evening church meeting, my then 4-year old daughter came out of her kid’s club and told me about the cycle of the book of Judges; Sin, Enemy, Repentance, Deliverer, Sin, Enemy, Repentance, Deliverer, etc., etc. I teared up because I remember the…
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Who Are You?
Slowly, he approached his father’s tent. Heart beating, skin itching, mind whirring. Determination etched on his face; today he would finally steal grace. “Did my brother’s clothes always weigh so heavy?” he wondered. Maybe the weight lay elsewhere. Did he pause for a minute outside the tent door? Did he fortify his resolve with reasoning,…
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Fat and Forgetful
Yesterday a friend back home in Ireland shared with me about the heaviness of heart that accompanies opportunities to share the Gospel. He described how friends, neighbours and co-workers could sit, happy to attend a Christian event, and yet remain completely unmoved by the Gospel call. He wondered if it was fair to compare the…
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A Call for the Long, Hard & Slow Work
I recently attended a conference for workers in our area of the world. There was some really wonderful teaching, encouraging reports, and thought-provoking break-out sessions. Overall, it was a blessing. However, one session in particular gave me a new way of framing my own story; and not in a positive way. In the early 1970s…
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Moses’ First Christmas
Did Moses look on that first Christmas night? A man who knew what it was to live in the tension of the come-yet-stay-away God, he wandered the wilderness, beckoned by God from the bush, yet immediately warned, “do not come near“. He learned early to hide his face, afraid to look at the God he…
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The Darkness of Doubt
Darkness. Utter darkness. The anguish of a completely unsettled spirit compunded by the weighty shame of unwillingly facing doubt. I hadn’t chosen this. I’ve had other friends who walked into doubt over the faith because of deep-rooted sin in their lives that they just didn’t want to let go of. This wasn’t that. This had…
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A Striking Example of Patience
“For who ever dwelt even for a short time among you, and did not find your faith to be as fruitful of virtue as it was firmly established? Who did not admire the sobriety and moderation of your godliness in Christ? Who did not proclaim the magnificence of your habitual hospitality? And who did not rejoice over your perfect and well-grounded knowledge?…
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There Are Stars That Sing In Outer Space
A sister in our church informed me once of the fact that the stars “sing”. We know this apparently from a discipline called “Asteroseismology”. What struck me was how this reflected the “forgotten” Christian life. That is, the life lived not at the front but faithfully to God nonetheless, which he takes pleasure in. Funny…
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To Proclaim the Excellencies
A foretaste of resurrection. I suppose that’s what you could call an alarm at 3:15am, designed to waken those with just about as much mobility as a corpse. Though I imagine the actual resurrection will be a much more joyous affair, with a tad fewer annoyed tones from disgruntled spouses. Regardless, the trumpet pre-cursor soon…
Imitators of Those 