DOES PRAYER REALLY HELP? The question springs unbidden to the mind of most people at some point in life – does it really help to pray? In a time of crisis, a person who does not believe in God may think it’s worth a shot, maybe as a last resort, but doesn’t believe that it is likely to do much good. Prayer is an act of faith, of belief and trust in God, and is a beautiful avenue for all requests

Peace and joy. Ideal states of being that are brought out and celebrated at Christmas and then like the lights and decorations of the season, it seems we put them away for the rest of the year. Much more than seasonal or even circumstantial states of being, peace and joy are to be the very hallmark of our belief in the Lord Christ that God sent as evidence of His love for us. (see John 3:16-17) And yet it seems

Forgiveness. The hallmark of devout worship and what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer. The question is, how can we come to that condition of heart and mind that is truly forgiveness? In the Lord’s Prayer we pray both that God would forgive us and that we would forgive those who are indebted to us. This forgiveness does not depend on our attitude toward God, but rather hinges on our attitude toward ‘those who are in debt to us’. At

We often mistake the things that God wants from us for what we want to give to God. It seems that as humans we find it difficult to believe that in order to love God, we are not responsible for anything but to follow His leading and trust in His providence (John 3:16). And the Accuser stands ready to make sure we do neither. It seems that in our attempts at justification, we try to produce something that we think

“And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”! Taken at face value, an unambiguous, ringing and powerful statement of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in John’s Gospel. This freedom is taken (and mis-taken) in many ways. A contemporary reading would have us free to do what we want, when we want and that without inhibition, which is pretty much the standard dictionary definition. And yet when we look at the complete passage, Jesus’ statement is conditional

We all have multiple lives on the go at the same time. We have family life, work life, spiritual life, prayer life, friendship life and probably a few others. And then we have our thought life, which is interwoven with all the others. Thought life is what occupies our mind through day and night; it is the things we think about. God has a thought life too – In Jeremiah 29 He says, “For I know the thoughts that I

I am terrible at board and card games.  I rarely play them, and generally lose when I do. It is not because I don’t understand the object, which is to win the game, but I think it is because I am simply not determined to win, so I play casually, sometimes negligently. Thankfully, in those games, that approach is entirely acceptable and fun as I enjoy good laughs and some ridicule from family and friends. The “game” of life and the

“We’re all in this together”. We see or hear this statement on billboards and in various advertising in these pandemically conscious days. However, this is not just the latest buzz word or catchy advertising phrase, it encapsulates a mindset, a way of living, the very ethos of community.   Jesus’ injunction to his disciples was to ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, words that we refer to as The Golden Rule. If we want to go further

  KCCO, the abbreviation for ‘keep calm and carry on’ a phrase from posters used in England during WWII to help keep morale up and more recently amended with the putative ‘chive on’. A sign for our times. In the face of uncertainty and bad news, let alone the worrying and unfortunate ‘social distancing’, we do need to be reminded of the importance of resilience, perseverance, hope and above all, as Apostle Paul reminds us in the conclusion to 1 Corinthians 13