[All the articles in this magazine are selected from the last three months’ issues of the Christian Herald weekly newspaper.]
From:-
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Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 9HL, U.K.
Telephone: (01858) 438260, Fax: (01858) 438275, email: info@torchtrust.org
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“I
didn’t feel like I deserved to live”
Services open to all … if you can
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This year I’ve been trying hard to block out all the commercial stuff that surrounds Christmas. I’m in two minds as to whether Christmas cards come into this category, especially when I heard that one charity card consisting of a row of Christmas puddings was voted a best-seller!
The first Christmas card of the season arrived through my letter box in mid-November. How do some people manage to be so organised! As it happens, it was a card produced at Torch and it came from a couple who are dear friends. Since it contained braille, I was able to read it myself.
The verse was the one about the wise men coming from the east. “Well,” I started thinking, “we all know they came some time after Christmas. They just get bundled in with the whole Christmas thing.” But then I read the little comment before the greeting: “Wise men sought Jesus - they still do.”
I smiled. A happy memory of one evening at Torch House, Hallaton, came flooding back. A few of us were gathered round and I was asking for suitable Christmas verses and greetings for a new set of cards we were producing at Torch. And that card was one of ten we put together.
Are you looking for Jesus this Christmas?
God bless you and bring you into a peaceful, Christ-centred new year.
Sheila and the editorial team
by Russ Bravo
My family is unbalanced. It’s a fact - we have two boys and one girl, so my wife and my daughter sometimes feel outnumbered. We didn’t plan it that way, that’s just how things turned out by the grace of God, and we’re not complaining.
But perhaps we should be. Perhaps, were we considering any additions to our family, we should insist on our new procreative rights if current fertility laws are overturned, and apply to choose the sex of any new offspring. To balance things up, you see.
The Government, as you may have picked up, is engaged in a “consultation process” over changing the laws on fertility issues. Now, clearly, things have moved a long way since the laws were last framed in 1990. It sometimes seems like 15 minutes is a long time in genetic research, let alone 15 years. Yet it was less than two years ago (November 2003) that sex selection was outlawed (except for particular medical reasons, such as inherited diseases like muscular dystrophy and haemophilia only passed on to boys), following a ruling by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). They’d consulted the general public, 80% of whom didn’t want sex selection.
So why are we batting it around again? The answer seems to
be that a report from the Commons Science and Technology Committee has said
there’s no reason for sex selection to be banned. Freedom of choice is the
mantra, typified by the view of John Harris, Professor of Bioethics at
It seems to be the consistent argument of the scientific community that once the genie is out of the bottle (ie we discover that something is possible and deliverable), ethical concerns should not get in the way of “progress” (ie increasing control over things that people have up to now been happy to leave to God, if you’re a believer, or “the natural order”, “chance”, “fate” etc if you’re not). So we end up trying to have a reasonable debate about whether something is right, desirable, ethical and welcomed by society often far too late to genuinely affect the outcome. Stable doors and horses come to mind.
One of the Government’s questions in revisiting the fertility laws asks whether the ban on sex selection should be lifted for “family balancing” reasons. No, is my view, for fairly obvious reasons. Selection could very easily lead to an unbalanced society, particularly with some likely to favour boys over girls. And once you start allowing gender selection, how do you stop the process from rolling on to other traits - hair and eye colour, IQ, height, build etc. If the technology isn’t there today, it surely will be tomorrow.
The battle for the sanctity of life is well and truly on, ladies and gentleman, and as Christians who believe every human being is made in the image of God, we’d better speak up now. The Evangelical Alliance and many others are calling for a major consultative body to consider these questions that are key to society’s future, and the Government needs to listen.
Even if we risk sounding unbalanced.
[Russ Bravo is editor of Christian Herald.]
[Baroness Sue Miller looks at how Fairtrade
bananas are changing lives on a recent trip to
Nearly every time I go shopping I buy bananas. We eat a lot of them in our household. Tasty, beautifully packaged in their own skin and very versatile. But buying bananas will never be the same again for me.
It all started when I visited
As I drive south, out of the steamy heat of the
Small villages with just a cluster of wooden houses are spread along the road. The producers in these communities work incredibly long hours and childhood is more about cheap labour than education. The prices small-scale producers get for their bananas from middle-men buying for global corporations is so low that survival is a daily struggle. It’s not surprising that many give up and join the rural exodus which swells the shanty towns along the city boundaries. There is no hope of building up any small capital to purchase basic machinery to make the job easier or more efficient. There is no health cover or first aid training or facilities. Farmers and workers have no access to the social security system. The agrochemicals they use can affect health, including skin and respiratory problems and increased incidence of sterility, and cancer and birth defects. Children from these communities have little opportunity to go to school.
In 1997, a visionary individual named Jorge Ramirez decided things had to change for the people of his communities. He founded and became president of the Association that was to change so many lives. He died in August 2004 but his work is being taken forward, led by Luis Loa and implemented by the Association of Small Banana Producers. It has changed lives. Thousands of them. I was about to see for myself.
We arrive in the town of
The office director, Lianne Zoeteweij, has her work cut out - getting produce from 300 farms which range from small to tiny. Grading, packing and sending the fruit out to be shipped to dozens of buyers in many destinations is a logistical nightmare. And it all happens as the picked banana slowly ripens. It is a race against time. Take too long and the banana is past its sell-by moment. I hear how crucial this moment is - buyers pay £4 per box for good fruit but when fruit is overripe and unsaleable they charge between £8 and £13 to throw it away!
“Why does it cost so much to throw it away?” Juanita, who deals with the paperwork, wanted to know. I couldn’t tell her. Were the supermarkets making a profit on throwing away we wonder.
Pride in the product is the overwhelming sense I have from the producers I meet as we leave the town and drive to a small village - Tenguel - where the producers have built themselves a packing station. Anita Aviles and Cecilia Manzanilla are a two-woman powerhouse of motivation, organisation and co-ordination. The packing station includes a meeting room, an office and a packing area and there are plans for expansion. Juanita Torres gives me a presentation about how they have got this far. Then 30 or more producers join us and explain the difference the Association has made to them and to their workers.
I’m told that now they are guaranteed a fair price for their bananas - only products that carry the Fairtrade Mark have this independent guarantee. This small phrase “Fairtrade” changes lives. Children can now go to school, families can afford healthcare, workers can affiliate to the social security system, those who need them can be issued with food baskets.
I know the term “Fairtrade” includes some environmental standards but in fact it encourages a totally new way of looking at the environment.
“We used to fight against nature and spray everything,” I’m told by Luis. “We would kill the snakes and the birds that invaded our banana plantations. Now we work with nature. We know when we see a snake it is eating pests.”
The health benefits of reducing pesticide use are very
apparent. (I gain an even greater insight into this when, back in
Crippled backs are another feature of life as a banana worker - the result of carrying huge clusters of bananas from tree to packing station. Now the Association has installed some high wire cables that transport the bananas from tree to lorry.
The Association is a model of democracy. It is run by a board which is elected every two years and each producer I meet clearly feels they have a big stake in its success and the personal ability to make a difference to themselves, their children and their community. A proportion of the profits go into community projects, as decided by each community - in Tenguel it’s a school that benefits.
In a country wracked by crises of democracy, unemployment and financial instability, the Association of El Guabo is an oasis of self-help and hope. However El Guabo needs one thing - it needs us, the consumers, to buy the product.
For consumers to buy Fairtrade
bananas we need them to be widely stocked - in cafés, works canteens and corner
shops as well as supermarkets. And the mark up that supermarkets or corner
shops put on fair trade bananas needs to be proportionate to what they paid for
them. The difference between the wholesale price of Fairtrade
and conventional bananas for an 18 kilo box in
Every time I see a wrist wearing a Make Poverty History band reach out over the Fairtrade bananas and grab a bunch of bananas that are not Fairtrade I am reminded of the big gap that still remains between the rhetoric and the action. If you want to make a real difference to farmers and their families on the other side of the world, the next time you go shopping buy Fairtrade bananas. If the shop does not stock them - request that they will.
El Guabo’s bananas are imported into Europe by AgroFair, a Fairtrade fruit company owned by fruit growers in Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, Mexico and Peru. For more details see http://www.Agrofair.com/.
[Baroness Sue Miller lives in the West Country and is Liberal Democrat spokesman in the House of Lords for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.]
[Joni asks why God wants us to get to know him better.]
Benjamin, my friend Bonnie’s young son, waited patiently for his turn to pray. It was family devotional time, and he listened, head bowed, as someone intoned: “Jesus, we just want to know you better.”
When Ben’s turn came up, he put forth his petitions, then closed by saying: “and Jesus, I hope you get to know me better, too.”
I can identify with Benjamin’s concern. Years ago, while still very young in the faith, I too struggled with some things everybody else seemed to take for granted. Before long, I had cultivated a kind of twisted, upside down view of God’s glory.
Sitting in Sunday school, I listened to all of those stories of how Jesus moved among the crowds - how He was always walking here and there with multitudes of people at his heels. I wondered why. And then there were paintings and drawings of Jesus which always made Him look like a sanctimonious saint - someone with his head way up in the clouds. Back then, I felt as though God were on an ego trip, always telling people to follow Him and saying how wonderful He was and that they should get to know Him better. As a youngster, I got the impression that God just had to be worshipped - that somehow He had to have a big crowd of people adoring Him.
Maybe you might never admit it, but have you ever found yourself thinking thoughts like these? Do you ever question exactly why God wants us to get to know Him?
Let me try to answer with this analogy: suppose you, like God, were the most true, just, pure, lovely and praiseworthy being in existence. And what if everything else in the universe that had any of these qualities got them from you? For that matter, suppose that without you, these qualities never existed? If that were the case, then for anyone around you to improve in any way, they would have to become more like you. For you to ask people to think about these good qualities would be to ask them to think about you. Your “ego trip” would be glorious. Indeed, it would be the only hope for mankind, for your so-called ego trip would revolve around perfection.
God knows that the more we get to know Him, the more we will know of life - real life - the life we were created to experience. Because He is life. He understands that by walking with Him, we will better comprehend what genuine love is all about - how it differs from the tawdry imitations the world offers. That’s because He is love. By focusing our thoughts on Him, we will grasp more fully His goodness, and be all the better for it. That’s because He is goodness. Finally, our minds begin to blossom as we feed on the truth of His Word - truth unadulterated by politics or impure motives. For He is truth.
God wants us to get to know Him intimately - not because He needs our worship, but because we need His strength. It has nothing to do with satisfying His ego, but everything to do with our hope of making sense of life today and finding eternity in the future.
Knowing that, He invites us to draw near. Lord Jesus, you already know me better than I know myself. So today, help me get to know You!
[Joni Eareckson Tada is an
internationally acclaimed author, singer and artist. Paralysed for over 35
years, she serves as an advocate for disabled people worldwide. Her
The changing face of belief is highlighted in a new survey
funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, and reinforces the sense
that the religious landscape in the
Findings suggest that even with two “religious” parents, there is only a 50-50 chance that a believing faith will be successfully nurtured in their children. The decline may be slowed by the fact that “religious” parents tend to have more children, but that in itself is no guarantee of the Church’s survival.
It would be all too easy to treat this survey as yet another depressing statistic that seeks to pigeonhole Christian belief, and condemn it - and the Church - to a rapidly approaching grave.
But that would leave God out of the equation. And we know that God specialises in lost causes.
It would also ignore the positives. Despite all appearances to the contrary, children find their parents the biggest influence when it comes to faith. So clearly, our churches need to be working extremely hard to help parents in what is one of the toughest jobs in the world.
Yes, we need to reach, care for and inspire young people - but we also need to recognise that the home is the place where faith is caught.
And parents need all the help they can get.
A library in
People can borrow homosexual people, gipsies and Muslims for an hour and talk to them about their lives, reports Nu.nl.
Jan Krol, director of the public
library, in
He added: “It’s a good way to challenge stereotypes. Clients can lend out a Muslim woman in a head scarf and ask her the questions they wouldn’t dare to if they met on the street.”
The library has contacted ten people from different backgrounds who are willing to have a chat with library visitors in a pub near the library.
PB says: What a great idea! Are there any Christians available to be borrowed? Surely different denominations would like to quiz each other over eschatology, methods of baptism and church leadership styles?
But what happens if you take yours back late? Is there a fine? And are they inspected to make sure they come back in the same condition they were when they left? How many are you allowed out at any one time?
Answers on a postcard ...
by Fran
Hill
Apparently,
if a sheep accidentally rolls onto its back, it can’t get up again. It’s called
a rigged sheep and needs help to get un-rigged otherwise it just lies there
struggling until it expires (at which point I presume rigger mortis sets
in).
Of
course, if sheep were more intelligent, they could help a rigged comrade back
up, but not many sheep are members of MENSA, and they are more likely to stand
around wondering what’s going on. Or, feeling left out of the fun, they’ll flop
onto their sides and attempt to do the same.
Next time
you drive through a rural area and see a whole field of sheep on their backs
waving their legs in the air, you know what’s happened.
You see,
there aren’t many maverick sheep. They have a tendency to do what everyone else
is doing, even if it’s something stupid. Uncomfortably, the animal most often
associated in the Bible with Christians or the Church is the sheep. We tend to
feel all warm and fuzzy about this: Jesus is our shepherd and we are his flock,
etc. How sweet. But when you think about it, it’s not particularly flattering.
I heard a
story recently about a deep well in the countryside which a group of teenagers
planned to abseil down. When they got there, there was an unbearable stink coming
from the well. They peered down it, only to see a pile of decomposing sheep
carcasses at the bottom. Later, a local farmer told them that one sheep had
found the well and decided to see what would happen if she jumped down it, and
rather than learn from their comrade’s experience, 20 others had gaily leaped
in after her.
I’m just
like this and there’s no point pretending otherwise, bearing in mind that God,
in calling me a sheep, has already sussed out this
feature of the human condition. I know that having pots of money has made
many people unhappy, but I still want to be rich. I know that being famous brings more problems than
solutions, but I still want to be world-renowned for something.
I know that people who eat more sweets than salad get
fat, but for some reason, I’m sure that it won’t be the same for me.
I’d
rather have been compared to a dolphin (intelligent), a lion (brave), an ant (organised) or even a hyena (good for a laugh, if nothing
else). But, I have to admit, the sheep thing is more like it.
[Fran Hill is a secondary school teacher and writer
based in
by Christina Rees
[This article was written for the 17th Sep issue of
Less than a month after Hurricane Katrina struck
It seems, thanks to advances in communications technology, that our lives are increasingly punctuated by both natural and human tragedies, and that we live to the erratic beat and dissonant cacophony of wars, rogue winds and waves and human wailing.
As a Christian, I don’t want my life to be measured out in terms of the worst that I encounter: I want to be more aware of the things that bring me joy and for which I am grateful, not those things which grieve me. Yet, if I am honest, last year will always be for me the year a beloved aunt died, even though it also contained many more other good things.
The signposts of our lives are inevitably made up of both tragic and joyous events; births and deaths, divorces and weddings, illness and healing, rejections and acceptances. Even for faithful followers of Christ, there is no alternative: this is part of our human reality. The difference for Christians lies mainly in our attitude towards all that we experience, both those things we play some part in bringing about and those things that just happen to us. Do we feel as if we are soldiering through life all on our own, or are we convinced that every step of the way, through the smooth places as well as through the rough, God is with us? Is life basically a haphazard series of random happenstances, or do we believe that, ultimately, our lives are held in the heart and hand of God?
The Bible is clear-eyed about our condition: many of the Psalms and Proverbs are written with an acute awareness of the vicissitudes of life. Fervent pleas for help in times of trouble, prayers for deliverance from destruction and warnings about complacency are woven into King David’s and his son Solomon’s heartfelt outpourings. Psalm 91, one of my favourites, ends with God’s promises to those who make the Lord their refuge: “Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honour them. With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.”
We know, however, that for some, part of that promise doesn’t come true: some people, even those who “make the Lord their refuge”, are not blessed with long lives. That seems to be part of the risk of existing on our planet. But other aspects of that promise we can trust, most importantly, that wherever and whatever we go through in this life, God is with us.
God is with us in the flood and the storm and the loss and the pain. God is with us in the unhappy marriage and the disabled child. We can also trust that the indwelling presence of God’s Holy Spirit will help to change how we confront and experience our suffering. For those who are “in Christ”, as Paul so often puts it, even as we wrestle with our temporal reality, we can also come to know God’s liberating love in the midst of it.
[Christina Rees is a writer, broadcaster,
and member of the general Synod of the church of
England.]
Tony Anthony was a murderer, a violent man who had been a
kung-fu champion. He became a Christian in
“When I was born, my dad contracted MS and my parents
didn’t have enough money to look after me so they sent me to
“My grandfather hated the fact I was half-Italian and he tried to beat that out of me with a bamboo cane. He never really spoke to me, he just beat me and I hated him. It is not normal for a child to really hate but he had beaten me, and he made me stand naked in a stream of water. I caught pneumonia and nearly died. The only way I could ever get his attention or affection was by listening and learning and I guess that is what gave me the motivation to do well in what I did.”
After becoming the world champion in kung-fu, Tony became a bodyguard and worked for an ambassador. Life was looking up ...
“I was engaged to a girl called Aya,
from
“I became more and more aggressive. When my boss asked me to collect money for him, I said yes. I would go to people’s homes and businesses and if anybody got in my way, I would punch or cut or shoot them until I found the person concerned. I wouldn’t wait a day or an hour - they had to pay me then. I would take them to the place where the money was and once they had paid me, I wouldn’t kill them, but I would smash their face in. I did some horrific things to people. In the line of duty as a bodyguard, I killed people.
“I really wish so much that all the things I did in my
life were written on a blackboard that I could wipe away. But I have since
discovered that I can’t do anything in my own strength to clear away the past -
at best I can sweep it under the carpet or try to forget about it, or live with
it. I moved to
“The police in
“It is a nice island - I don’t recommend the prison. It was a terrible place to be. They put me in a cell with seven bunk beds - I thought there is no way I am going to stay in this cell: everything you can imagine that one man can do to another man was happening. I started smashing everything. All these guards surrounded me, and led me off to the solitary confinement block to calm me down.
“I didn’t get letters from anyone any more. But one day they put a letter under my door and I was a bit excited. It said:
“‘Dear Tony, my name is Michael Wright and I am from
“And then it had this smiley face on the bottom of the letter.
“Nobody would write letters to me with a smiley face on the bottom. I screwed it up and threw it in the bin ...”
But Tony did agree to see Michael ...
“Michael came in and I said: ‘What do you want from me? Tony, I don’t want anything from you. I want to give you the good news that Jesus loves you.’ I said: ‘How can you believe in somebody you can’t see?’ He said: ‘There are so many things in life that we cannot see, we can’t see the air that we breathe. Just because we can’t see God, it doesn’t mean that God is not there.’
“If you are anything like me, if the truth is staring me right in the face but I don’t want to see it, I won’t see it. I came up with argument after argument ... but that was the night when I prayed to Jesus - I thought about my life and I said: ‘God, if you are here, you have to show yourself to me.’ I thought that was a bit rude, so I started to say I was sorry and then I started to cry my heart out. I was crying, begging Him to forgive me. In fact, I asked Him to kill me, because I didn’t feel that I deserved to live. That was the night God changed my life.”
But Tony’s story doesn’t end there ...
“I came out of prison and came to
And then - disaster ...
“I was in my car going home and I saw a stop sign too late. I slammed the brakes on and my wheels locked, and I hit something that I thought was an animal. I panicked and went home, and I later found out that I had hit the back end of a lady’s bicycle and she died - and the police were looking for me. This policeman came and asked me: ‘Were you involved?’ and I lied and said no.
“Eventually I was sentenced to a 15-month prison sentence. I felt that I had failed God so much, and while I would never stop believing in God, I didn’t believe He would ever use me again. I made a promise to God that because of my failures, I would become a closet Christian - I would never show my faith or talk about it again.
“I was in my cell one day, reading my Bible, and reading my favourite verse - John 8:36 - and as I was reading, a man called Darren Brown walked into my cell. I put my Bible under my pillow. He said: ‘What is that you were hiding - is it a dirty magazine?’ I said: ‘No, just a book.’ He said: ‘It looks like a Bible to me. You’re a Christian, then?’ I said: ‘I’m not much of a Christian, am I ?’ He said: ‘Everybody makes mistakes’, and he kept on prodding.
“He left my cell after my being so rude to him and came back after three days and he said: ‘Tony, when I was in your cell the other day, you were so cagey about the verses of the Bible that you were reading that I thought I would get my own Bible and make my own mind up about it. So I went to the chapel to see the chaplain to get a Bible, but he wouldn’t give me one so I stole a Bible and shoved it under my sweatshirt. I went out and got searched and they found the Bible and they put me in solitary confinement for 24 hours, but I stole two Bibles and I shoved the other one down my pants. So there I was in this empty cell, reading the Bible.’
“Darren found the Gospel of John and he read the whole thing, and he said to me: ‘Tony, this Jesus was a good bloke. I prayed to him last night, and I have become a Christian.’
“God spoke to me in such a big way. I tried to stop this man hearing about Jesus, but Jesus’ arms were a bit too long to stop me. I realised that God is a God of second chances and in a strange way God had used me to reach Darren, and from that point I wore my faith on my sleeve and I told as many men as I could in that prison about Jesus. There must have been 30 men in that prison who were won for Christ.”
[Taming the Tiger by Tony Anthony is published by Authentic at £6.99. This title will be available from the Torch library - in braille and audio - in due course.]
As I look
back over the years I cannot understand why, when tragedy has happened in a
family, or a world-shaking catastrophe has caused much death and destruction,
so many people say: “I lost my faith when that happened”, or other comments
blaming God.
If we
read, understand and believe our Bibles properly, we know that from the minute
Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord in the Garden of Eden, sin came into the world
and every generation has suffered as a consequence of not obeying the Lord. The
Bible is full of warnings from the Lord for anyone who disobeyed Him - and they
were fulfilled some time later as each one of them sinned in some way.
Through
Jesus, I trust in the Lord implicitly and whenever trouble strikes I feel His
presence with me, helping and guiding me through it. That is what He is there
for - a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1). It strengthens my faith to
see Him at work through it all.
Our lives
will not be free from pain and trouble until we are with Him in glory - sorry,
but he never said it would be all “happy clappy” here
- and the world will get even worse before Jesus comes again.
P A Ounsworth, Brough
The Lord
Jesus promised He would never leave us or forsake us. When He returned to his
Father, He promised his Holy Spirit to us. The Holy Spirit of God came to the
church at that first Pentecost. We don’t need to ask God to send His Holy
Spirit, He has never left us!
But we do
need to learn to spend more time silently with God on a personal daily basis.
This takes determination, time and perseverance.
Cultivate
holiness, listen to God, read His Word, seek Him humbly with all your heart,
mind, body and spirit, and then maybe our churches will stop running around
with endless programs and agendas and start being filled with people who know
and follow Jesus.
Churches
full of Christians who reflect Jesus are attractive to non-believers.
Stop
clock-watching and rushing from meeting to meeting. Try replacing that clock on
your mantelpiece with a cross and your Bible.
Re-focus.
Pursue God
Catherine
Davies, Minehead, www.echurch-uk.org, (via e-mail)
by Fran
Hill
The doors
to our church building are so heavy and stiff that you need bulging biceps to
push them open. The logic behind hanging such stiff doors was that toddlers
wouldn’t be able to escape into the road while their parents were having coffee
and ignoring them.
But
people often complain about how stiff the doors are, and recently a visitor got
stuck in them. She’d had no trouble getting in, but after two hours with us she
obviously didn’t quite have the strength to get out again. Half of her was
still in the building and half of her was outside until someone rescued
her.
While she
was being extracted, someone else took the opportunity to hand her top half an invitation to a healing service, just in case. She didn’t
come.
So it’s
been decided that we need new doors. Squashing visitors isn’t the best form of
evangelism. But what kind of doors? I’m submitting a
list of suggestions to the minister which I copy here for your perusal.
1.
Revolving doors, so that if people arrived that we didn’t like the look of, the
welcomers could just give the doors a shove and send
them back outside.
2. Rubber
hospital doors, useful for healing meetings if people are brought in on
stretchers and for services in which elderly people are forced to perform
boisterous action songs and need to be rushed out on them.
3. Flappy strips of coloured
plastic, to give an informal, café-type feel which would attract visitors. Once
in, they may be mightily disappointed with the stale digestives and cheap
coffee, but hey, it’s a start.
4. Saloon
doors would add a stylish, Wild West feel. We could run themed services in
which the minister dresses up as Buffalo Bill and everyone shouts: ‘Yee-ha’ at
good bits in the sermon. Then we could sing Shine Jesus Shine to a Country and Western rhythm.
We can always pray for those who start feeling queasy.
5. Glass
doors. These would make us accessible, to be sure, but do we want to be
accessible to the local population of bored 10-year-olds who would press their
noses to the glass for a good laugh? We may be weird and wonderful, but we need
to keep our dignity somehow.
In the
end, we should perhaps leave things as they are, and visitors who get stuck can
be told: “We’ll let you out if you agree to go on a rota”.
Recruitment problem solved, at least.
by Pete Greig
Mostly
it’s my glasses, car keys or wallet, but I’m continually losing things.
And while
I rant and stomp around the house in ritual despair, my wife simply switches on
the satellite tracking system implanted in 80% of women at birth and then with
a weary sigh divulges the fact that my wallet is under the left leg of the
guinea pig hutch, my car-keys are (confusingly) hanging by the front door -
where they belong - or that my spectacles have in fact been cunningly concealed
for the last three hours on the end of my nose.
Samie’s
ability to track down stuff I lose really is remarkable - especially in a woman
who can lose entire streets, towns and cities with a perfectly decent map lying
open on her lap.
It’s easy
to miss the blindingly obvious things in life. Jesus sought those with “ears to
hear” His message and “eyes to see” the signs of the times. In
Another
great encouragement is the clear, national upsurge in prayer. Thousands of
people are gathering regularly at the NEC in
The
Salvation Army has invested massively over recent years into youth ministry and
into 24-7 prayer. It is thrilling, therefore, to learn that the tide is
turning; young people are coming to know Jesus once again through the ranks of
the Salvation Army and their youth ministry is growing after years of decline.
There are
many encouragements like these, both nationally and locally, for all those with
the eyes to see. I’m not saying we’re anywhere near revival and I’m still
looking for so much more. But let’s not lose sight of God’s purposes down the
back of some cosmic sofa. Anyone seen my car keys?
[Pete Greig’s new book, The Vision & The Vow - a call to discipleship is out now.]
Braille Book B2087 Proverbs by Graeme Goldsworthy - Category: Commentaries: Proverbs
Braille Book B2116 Zephaniah by David Hewetson - Category: Commentaries: Zephaniah
Braille Book B2167 Jesus and the Earth by James Jones - Category: Doctrinal: Christ (His person & work)
Braille Book B2246 Heaven My Father's House by Anne Graham Lotz - Category: Doctrinal: Heaven
Braille Book B2624 God's Front Door by Jill Briscoe - Category: DEVOTIONAL: General
Braille Book B2173 People Of The Blessing by James Jones - Category: Devotional: Daily Portions - General (Review below)
Braille Book B2094 Rainbows Through The Rain by Fiona Castle - Category: Devotional: Comfort in Affliction
Braille Book B2647 What Me - A House Group Leader? by Patsy Evans - Category: Church Work & Polity: Housegroups
Braille Book B2146 Honourably Wounded by Marjory Foyle - Category: CHRISTIAN ETHICS: General (Review below)
Braille Book B2625 Heroes
& Heretics by Iain D.
Braille Book B2099 Man Of Compassion - Man Of Prayer by Doreen Sharp - Category: MISSIONS: General
Braille Book B2523 Children On The Edge by Christine Leonard - Category: Missions: Worldwide missions and societies
Braille Book B1730 Voice
Of Hope by George Otis - Category:
MISSIONS:
Braille Book B2059 Arksearch by Allen Roberts - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Braille Book B2154 Don't Let The Goats Eat The Loquat Trees by Thomas Hale - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Braille Book B1384 Give Us This Day by Fiona Castle - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Braille Book B2606 Mary Slessor by Geoff Benge - Category: Biography: Individual
Braille Book B1350 Heroes by Charles Turner - Category: Biography: Groups
Braille Book B2649 The Best Decision I Ever Made by Lesley Bilinda - Category: Biography: Groups
Braille Book B2109 Nobody's Dog by Eleanor Watkins - Category: Fiction: General
Braille Book B2643 Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Braille Book B2517 The Case Of The Vanishing Corpse by Kel Richards - Category: Fiction: General
Braille Book B2641 The Horse And His Boy by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Braille Book B2645 The Last
Braille Book B1865 The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Braille Book B2634 The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Braille Book B1867 The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Braille Book B2653 The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Braille Book B2104 The Vicarage Rats by Eleanor Watkins - Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Cassette Book C2094 Great Is Your Faithfulness by Richard Brooks - Category: Commentaries: Lamentations (Review below)
Cassette Book C2329 Haggai, Zechariah And Malachi: Crossway Bible Guide by John James - Category: COMMENTARIES: MINOR PROPHETS
Cassette Book C2330 Timothy And Titus: Crossway Bible Guide by Michael Griffiths - Category: Commentaries: Timothy
Cassette Book C2395 Why Believe the Bible? by John Blanchard - Category: APOLOGETICS: General
Cassette Book C2322 God's Passion for You by Sam Storms - Category: DEVOTIONAL: General
Cassette Book C2386 Why? by Anne Graham Lotz - Category: Devotional: Comfort in Affliction
Cassette Book C2312 How To Get Really Rich by Brian Rosner - Category: CHRISTIAN ETHICS: General
Cassette Book C2281 Body and Cell by Howard Astin - Category: Churches & Sects: Cell Group Movement
Cassette Book C2396 Back
To
Cassette Book C2307 Edge Of Daylight by Eddie Askew - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Cassette Book C2246 In Trouble And In Joy by Joyce Owens - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Cassette Book C2424 Serving the Good and the Great by Violet Liddle - Category: Biography: Auto Biography (Review below)
Cassette Book C2361 The God I Love by Joni Eareckson Tada - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Cassette Book C2368 John G. Paton by Kay Walsh - Category: Biography: Individual
Cassette Book C2385 Soon by Jerry B. Jenkins - Category: Fiction: General
Cassette Book C1944 A Bride For Donnigan by Janette Oke - Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Cassette Book C2331 Dawn Of The Golden Promise by B. J. Hoff - Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Cassette Book C2333 Land Of A Thousand Dreams by B. J. Hoff - Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Cassette Book C2334 The Puritans by Jack Cavanaugh - Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Cassette Book C2437 Thanksgiving
2005 (
Daisy Book D2329 Haggai, Zechariah And Malachi: Crossway Bible Guide by John James - Category: COMMENTARIES: MINOR PROPHETS
Daisy Book D2272 Bible Reading For Amateurs by Michael Green - Category: BIBLICAL STUDY
Daisy Book D2104 Reflections Of God's Glory by Corrie ten Boom - Category: DEVOTIONAL: FOLLOWING THE WAY
Daisy Book D2098 Held By The Watchtower by Susan Thorne - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Daisy Book D2267 Lessons I Learned In The Dark by Jennifer Rothschild - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Daisy Book D2373 Let's Roll! by Lisa Beamer - Category: Biography: Auto Biography (Review below)
Daisy Book D2321 Rebel With A Cause by Franklin Graham - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Daisy Book D2424 Serving the Good and the Great by Violet Liddle - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Giant Print Book G2134 Joel by David Hewetson - Category: Commentaries: Joel
Giant Print Book G2141 Malachi by Alan Nichols - Category: Commentaries: Malachi
Giant Print Book G2097 Upon High Places by Mike Perrin - Category: DEVOTIONAL: General
Giant Print Book G2026 Healing At the Well by Mike Endicott - Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Giant Print Book G2159 Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Giant Print Book G2153 The Horse And His Boy by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Giant Print Book G2161 The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Giant Print Book G2151 The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Giant Print Book G2149 The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Giant Print Book G2157 The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
Giant Print Book G2155 The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis - Category: Fiction: General
What was Jesus’ attitude to the earth? What, if anything, did he say about the environment? Is there a divine “earth-ethic” to be found in the Gospels? As the ecological threats to the earth multiply and intensify, Christians are turning to the pages of the Old Testament for guidance on environmental ethics. But is wisdom about this critical issue to be found only there? James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, set out to discover if his own concern for creation found any sympathy in the teaching and example of Jesus. This book is the result of his search. Here he argues clearly and passionately that Jesus is the saviour not only of humanity, but also the saviour of the planet and of the whole cosmos, which came into being through him and for him.
A series of questions is provided at the end of each chapter to stimulate individual reflection and group discussion.
Should Christians feel stress? “Honourably Wounded” is
written in the first instance for workers overseas, but it also tackles
problems only too familiar to Christian staff at home. Stress affects every
area of life. Dr Foyle covers - among other topics - singleness, missionary
marriages, children, adolescents, staff selection, culture shock, interpersonal
relationships, and resources. Recipient of the Stanley Jones Award for medical
services to
Lamentations is not familiar territory for many
Christians, yet it deals searchingly with abiding themes such as the spiritual
glory of the church & the tragedy when this is lost. It is a book that
speaks directly to the confused Christianity & evangelicalism of our
present day. Richard Brooks’s warm & pastoral
exposition applies the great theme of God's just dealing with a back-sliding
N the daily life of Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw, during visits from Lady Astor, Dwight Eisenhower and other public figures - Violet Liddle was there.
In the evening, while we were serving dinner, we could
hear the crowds chanting over and over, “We want Churchill! We want Churchill!”
and I’d think, Well, you can’t - he's having his
dinner! When Violet Liddle started out in domestic
service, she never imagined the surprises her life would hold. She hoped to
become a missionary in
9-11. United Flight 93. You read all about it. You heard American hero Todd Beamer’s last words. But is that the end of the story? In Let’s Roll! Todd's wife, Lisa, reveals what really happened on that ill-fated flight, as well as poignant glimpses of a genuine hero. She talks candidly about Todd's growing up years, their marriage and last week together, and then family moments without him - the devastating day their children learned their father had died, how they celebrated his first birthday without him, the mix of grief and joy when she gave birth to their third child, and how she's found the confidence to go on in the face of such tragedy and loss.
It's no wonder that, through this unpretentious homemaker and mother, we all can ... Find hope. Find inspiration. Find strength. Let’s Roll!
This is the first book in the Narnia Chronicles and with The Lion, The Witch And the Wardrobe due to premier in cinemas in December, why not set the scene.