To my shame, it has taken me almost a year to get round to reading Paul Miller’s book, A Praying Life. It’s really good! It’s so good, I wish I’d read it much sooner – still, better late than never. So, if you haven’t yet discovered this treasure, I hope you will soon. In a
Read moreI believe in sacrifice. After all, right at the centre of my life and faith as a Christian is the glorious truth that “the Son of God … loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). What could be more natural, then, for me to sacrifice myself for him out of sheer gratitude, and
Read moreDo you know which countries in the world send the most missionaries? I expect few of us would be surprised to learn that the United States sends more missionaries than any other country. But how many of us would be able to name the other big senders? A study by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary found that
Read moreThe French railway company SNCF has recently taken delivery of 2,000 new trains. There is just one problem: they are too wide to fit into many of the country’s stations. Apparently they were given the wrong platform measurements. As you can imagine, this is a costly mistake (it will cost the equivalent of £12 billion),
Read moreI couldn’t quite believe the headline, yet it turned out to be absolutely genuine. In The Week Douglas Preston gave an hilarious account of the week in 1991 when he hosted the Dalai Lama in Santa Fe, New Mexico. One day the Dalai Lama said he would like to see skiing – and that is
Read moreThe Eurovision Song Contest may be one of those shows watched by more people than will admit to watching it. The runaway winner last weekend was Conchita Wurst, the bearded Austrian drag queen. As she accepted her trophy, she tearfully said, “This is dedicated to everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom.
Read moreOswald Smith was pastor of the People’s Church in Toronto, Canada from 1928 until 1959. When he first went there, the church was tiny and in danger of closing. On his first Sunday he preached twice on the subject of mission. He spoke again about mission at the midweek church prayer meeting, attended by just
Read moreThere are some notorious rivalries in football, especially between clubs in the same city. So it is hard for, say, an Everton fan to imagine anything good coming from Liverpool just across the city – at least he’s not going to admit it. Such attitudes can be amusing, until we realise that they reflect something
Read moreMost of us are familiar enough with these words from the marriage service: “Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder.” The same principle also applies to many other things, where we may be tempted to separate what God has put together. It applies, for example, to the death and resurrection of
Read moreIt is now five weeks since Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8th March. Since then, there has been some news and plenty of speculation about what happened. The truth is, we know frustratingly little – and if we feel frustrated, imagine what it feels like for
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