Category: Prayer
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70. The Lords Prayer
July 2019 The Gospels have two versions of the Lords Prayer, one in Luke and the other in Matthew. It is interesting to see them together, when it becomes clear that Luke’s version is shorter than Matthew’s. Luke 11:2-4 Father Hallowed be your name Your kingdom come Give us each day our daily bread And…
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65 Lost and Found
June 2019 Sylvia, my wife, is assiduous in putting food out for the birds in our back garden. In the winter, when its cold and food is scarce, its like Heathrow outside our back door as our feathered friends fly in from all directions, to take on nourishment from a reliable source. Sitting in the…
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58. Prayer Is…
May 2018 Prayer is anything that nurtures the relationship between us and God God in creating us and giving us the gift of life, has initiated and continues to nurture that relationship God is the primary pray-er, not us. Prayer is time consciously spent in God’s presence. All time is spent in God’s presence, whether…
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55. In praise of Christmas cards
January 2018 We shall soon be taking down out Christmas cards. I send a lot of Christmas cards, and we receive a lot too. We noticed this year that most of the cards we received and just about all the cards we sent had an explicitly Biblical reference. Visiting other homes during the season and seeing other peoples’…
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36. God’s candles
November 2016 I have four daughters, mature women, three of whom are dotty about small furry animals. One of them will cross a crowded street in order to fix an innocent passer-by with a winning smile and ask ‘Please may I say Hallo to your dog?’ Another, who lives alone, adopted a house cat called ‘Ash’…
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23. God speaks in many languages too
April 2016 God of course addresses us in an astonishing range of languages, but most of us only hear a few of them. Let us start by going back to the five ‘love languages’ we humans use. It is an obvious but often not recognised truth, that God speaks most obviously and often through the…
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22. Languages of Love
April 1916 Some years ago I read a book that suggested that there are five different ‘languages of love’ that human beings use: five different ways of our expressing love towards another. I guess that others might come up with a different list, but it named the five as: 1] physical touch: ranging from a…
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15. When do I worship?
May 2015 I was recently in a church for an act of worship with a small congregation, and I found myself wondering ‘At what point does this act of worship begin? And when does it end?’ Does it begin with the words of the opening prayer? Does it end with the Blessing? I wonder. Is worship…
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14. Fatherhood
April 2015 A little over a year ago my wife and I were blessed with twins. Now we have four daughters, and I am surprised at the depth of emotion each of them evokes in me. Whereas once I scarcely felt I had enough love for just me, I now have love for five. I…
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13. Meeting Eve
April 2015 Last week my step son, his wife and their two children came to stay with us. Their eldest child is a little boy of rising three who talks incessantly and bustles about with great energy and curiosity. His sister is only a couple of months old, so she sleeps a lot, waking to…
A CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY 