In this, our newest Guest Post, Christian Statistician Dr Peter Brierley discusses his journey to Christianity and a God-given love of numbers that has led to a 60-year-long career. When I took my O Levels in the mid -1950s I wasn’t a Christian, although I went to church. I was very worried approaching the exams […]
Ways to show the love of Christ Exploring how to show the love of Christ… You cannot be something that you are not! You cannot stop being the person you really are! This is all to do with being authentic. ‘Authenticity means erasing the gap between what you firmly believe inside and what you reveal […]
If you know anything about God, you know that he is faithful, that he is for you and wants you to share your life with him in the deepest possible ways.
Whether or not you are into fishing, you might be interested to know who many would say is the greatest fisherman of all time. Certainly he holds some amazing records that have been widely reported but first of all what is he up against in terms of the competition? The largest fish ever caught was a great white shark that weighed an unbelievable 2,664 pounds (1,208.389 kg). Caught off the coast of Australia in 1959, it took angler Alfred Dean just 50 minutes to win the fight against this one-ton shark.
Nowhere Nothing No sense Nonsense. ONLY EVER … Reflections (connect4life.org.uk) IN CHRIST … Reflections (connect4life.org.uk)
Could be Would be Will be Complete in You. OUTSIDE OF YOU … Reflections (connect4life.org.uk) IN CHRIST … Reflections (connect4life.org.uk) Only JESUS (connect4life.org.uk) TAGS – future, meaning, fulfilment, purpose, perfection, certainty
What did Brian Cox, Brian May and Sir Patrick Moore have in common? It’s true that they loved music – Brian Cox being an accomplished keyboard player with two bands, Brian May being the legendary guitarist with Queen whilst Sir Patrick was a keen pianist and player of the xylophone. However, their main bond was in their love of the night skies! Brian May is an astrophysicist and generously bought Sir Patrick’s house in Selsey allowing him to live there for a peppercorn rent when finances became tight. Patrick wore a monocle from the age of 16, becoming a specialist on the moon and an eccentric TV presenter who built an observatory in his back garden housing a 12 ½ inch reflector telescope. The fascination of these three astronomers is shared by many, not least the mysterious astrologers from lands afar who followed a star. We all want to know more about what is up there in the heavens above, whether it holds solutions for the problems of the earth and where the location is of Heaven itself.
There are two things that no one reading this can avoid – birth and death! It has been said that Christians die well! Why and how? It is reported that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world – the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity says that 900,000 Christians have been ‘martyred’ in the last decade, equating to 90,000 a year and one every six minutes. Three hundred thousand Christians in North Korea live in fear for their lives with incentives being offered for information leading to their arrest. Many other countries have strong opposition and persecution for Christians. When the church was young, the Roman Empire persecuted Christians for fun. Stephen was the first martyr and died well because he was filled with the Holy Spirit, walked closely with God and at the end he caught glimpses of heaven, crying out as they stoned him, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’ (Acts 7:59). Although we can see no stairway to heaven, there are steps leading there. Christ Jesus came from heaven so we could eventually join him there and he promises to be with each one who follows him.
Have you ever heard a comforting book of fiction or poetry described as being like a hammer? It doesn’t happen! Then come before the Word of God and you’ll discover what the prophet Jeremiah meant: ‘”Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’ – Jeremiah 23:29. Christians regard the Bible as the authoritative Word of the Living God full of Absolute Truth – if they are wrong, the Bible is ‘absolutely irrelevant’ and people should revert to living based on their ‘relative suppositions’. Presidents, Royalty, scientists, brilliant legal minds and ordinary people have been convinced that it is God’s Word for life – how about you?
• ‘Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face’ – Ronald Reagan
Do you have a ‘tree of peace’? It might be a ‘metaphorical tree of peace’ or a real one as in the picture where you can shelter in the ‘heat of the day’. To have both ‘outer’ and ‘inner’ peace is something most precious but they are in short supply these days. The pace of life exhausts us while the noise of life means silence can be hard to find. John Lennon asked us to ‘imagine all the people living life in peace’ and yet his son told another story:
