September 12, 2014 
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To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. Power to become children! … Born, says John, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
N. T. Wright, Sermon at the Eucharist on Christmas Morning 2007
September 11, 2014 4 Comments
“Where Is Your Sanctuary? Where do you go when you’re hurting? Let’s say it’s been a terrible day at the office. You come home and go — where? To the refrigerator for comfort food like ice cream? To the phone to vent with your most trusted friend? Do you seek escape in novels or movies or video games or pornography? Where do you look for emotional rescue? The Bible tells us that God is our refuge and strength, our help in times of trouble — so much so that we will not fear though the mountains fall into the heart of the sea (Ps. 46:1 – 2). That strikes me as a good place to run. But it’s so easy to forget, so easy for us to run in other directions. Where we go says a lot about who we are. The “high ground” we seek reveals the geography of our values.”
Kyle Idleman, Gods at War: Defeating the Idols that Battle for Your Heart
September 11, 2014 0 Comments
Proverbs 11:22 New International Version – UK
Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout
is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.
September 10, 2014 4 Comments
The story is told of a church that secured a new preacher, and the word spread around town about how well he preached. The church members were abuzz about what an improvement he was over their former preacher, and how much more attention they gave to his sermons. When the town cynic asked what made this new preacher so much better than his predecessor, he was told, “The old preacher told us that we’re all sinners, and that if we didn’t repent, we’d burn in hell forever!” This cynic then asked, “And what does this new one say?” The answer was, “That we’re all sinners, and that if we don’t repent, we’ll burn in hell forever!” When the cynic responded that he didn’t see any difference between the two of them, he was told, “This new preacher says it with tears in his eyes.”
Tony Campolo
September 8, 2014 5 Comments
“Man’s thought is always of the punishment that will come to him if he sins. God’s thought is always of the glory man will miss if he sins. God’s purpose for redemption is glory, glory, glory.”
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life
September 5, 2014 4 Comments
“Don’t believe something just because you want to, and don’t embrace an idea just because you’ve always believed it. Believe what is biblical. Test all your assumptions against the precious words God gave us in the Bible.”
Francis Chan, Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We’ve Made Up
September 2, 2014 11 Comments
“And so seated next to my father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked, “Father, what is sexsin?”
He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case off the floor and set it on the floor.
Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?” he said.
I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
It’s too heavy,” I said.
Yes,” he said, “and it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.”
Corrie ten Boom – The Hiding Place
September 2, 2014 5 Comments
Oh gently lay your head upon my chest
And I will comfort you like a mother while you rest
And the tide can change so fast, but I will stay
The same through past, the same in future, same today
I am constant and I am near
I am peace that shatters all your secret fears
I am holy, I am wise
I’m the only one who knows your heart’s desires
Your heart’s desires
Oh weary, tired and worn, let out your sighs
And drop that heavy load you hold ’cause mine is light
And I know you through and through, there’s no need to hide
I want to show you love that is deep and high and wide
‘Cause I am constant and I am near
I am peace that shatters all your secret fears
I am holy, I am wise
I’m the only one who knows your heart’s desires
Your heart’s desires
I am constant, I am near
I am peace that shatters all your secret fears
I am holy, I am wise
I’m the only one who knows your heart’s desires
Your heart’s desires
Oh gently lay your head upon my chest
And I will comfort you like a mother while you resthttp://www.songlyrics.com/jill-phillips/i-am-lyrics/#mzHRFrV4slW5s9cE.99
September 1, 2014 12 Comments
“You win over people just like you win over a dog. You see a dog passing down the street with an old bone in his mouth. You don’t grab the bone from him and tell him it’s not good for him. He’ll growl at you. It’s the only thing he has. But you throw a big fat lamb chop in front of him, and he’s going to drop that bone and pick up the lamb chop, his tail wagging to beat the band. And you’ve got a friend. Instead of going around grabbing bones from people… I’m going to throw them some lamb chops. Something with real meat and life in it. I’m going to tell them about New Beginnings.”
David Wilkerson, The Cross and the Switchblade
August 28, 2014 4 Comments
“Worry is the darkroom in which negatives can develop.”
Wanda E. Brunstetter
August 27, 2014 3 Comments
“People think of faith as being something that you don’t really believe, a device in helping you believe simply it. Of course that is quite wrong. As Pascal says, faith is a gift of God. It is different from the proof of it. It is the kind of faith God himself places in the heart, of which the proof is often the instrument…
He says of it, too, that it is the heart which is aware of God, and not reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not be reason.”
Malcolm Muggeridge, The End of Christendom
August 25, 2014 2 Comments
“The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time.”
Francis Chan
August 22, 2014 0 Comments
“Faith in the biblical sense is substantive, based on the knowledge that the One in whom that faith is placed has proven that He is worthy of that trust. In its essence, faith is a confidence in the person of Jesus Christ and in His power, so that even when His power does not serve my end, my confidence in Him remains because of who He is.”
Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods
August 20, 2014 0 Comments
“And Grace calls out, ‘You are not just a disillusioned old man who may die soon, a middle-aged woman stuck in a job and desperately wanting to get out, a young person feeling the fire in the belly begin to grow cold. You may be insecure, inadequate, mistaken or potbellied. Death, panic, depression, and disillusionment may be near you. But you are not just that. You are accepted.’ Never confuse your perception of yourself with the mystery that you really are accepted.”
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out
August 19, 2014 5 Comments
Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for me. Without his sacrificial death, without God’s grace, I am powerless to save myself or make myself righteous. Jesus did for me what I could not do and paid off my debt to sin which I could not pay. He did it for me; not because I was good enough to be worthy of his death, but because I couldn’t be worthy without him.
August 18, 2014 5 Comments
“Garden” Lyrics
Won’t you take this cup from me
Cause fear has stolen all my sleep
If tomorrow means my death
I pray you’ll save their souls with it
Let the songs I sing
Bring joy to you
Let the words I say profess my love
Let the notes I choose
Be your favorite tune
Father let my heart be after you
In this hour of doubt I see
But who I am is not just me
So give me strength to die myself
So love can live to tell the tale
Let the songs I sing
Bring joy to you
Let the words I say profess my love
Let the notes I choose
Be your favorite tune
Father let my heart be after you
Father let my heart be…
For you
Let the songs I sing
Bring joy to you
Let the words I say profess my love
Let the notes I choose
Be your favorite tune
Father let my heart be after you
August 16, 2014 2 Comments
“Lord, give me an open heart to find You everywhere, to glimpse the heaven enfolded in a bud, and to experience eternity in the smallest act of love.”
Mother Teresa
August 15, 2014 11 Comments
Once upon a time a man whose ax was missing suspected his neighbor’s son. The boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief. But the man found his ax while digging in the valley, and the next time he saw his neighbor’s son, the boy walked, looked, and spoke like any other child.
Lao Tzu
August 14, 2014 11 Comments
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
Helen Keller
This quote really hits home for me in so many ways. I spent 24 years of being fully sighted just feeling lost, empty, angry and wasting my selfish life, being pulled one way and the other, not caring who i hurt.
Then in 2004 after losing most of my sight, Jesus became the light of my world. “I was blind but now I see”. see my About Steve page…
Now with Jesus as my destination on my “Spiritual Sat Nav” I have Vision, purpose, worth, and directions to follow. 🙂
How is your vision?
August 13, 2014 18 Comments
Every Sunday the ducks waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church. They waddle into the sanctuary and squat in their proper pews. The duck choir waddles in and takes its place, then the duck minister comes forward and opens the duck Bible. He reads to them: “Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fences can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings and you can fly like birds!” All the ducks shouted, “Amen!” And they all waddled home.
Soren Kierkegaard
August 12, 2014 4 Comments
Doeg
1 Samuel 22 The Voice
9 Doeg the Edomite stood among Saul’s servants.
Doeg: I saw the son of Jesse when he came to Nob to speak with the priest, Ahimelech son of Ahitub. 10 Ahimelech asked the Eternal One questions on David’s behalf, gave him provisions, and even gave him the legendary sword of Goliath the Philistine.
Saul (to Doeg): 18 Carry out my orders. Turn around, and kill these priests.
So Doeg the Edomite attacked them. That day he turned and killed 85 men who wore the priestly linen garment. 19 Then he went after Nob, the city of the priests, with his sword and utterly destroyed everything he found there—all the men, women, children, and infants. Doeg even turned his blade against the oxen, donkeys, and sheep. 20 Only Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, son of Ahitub, escaped, and he fled to David for protection. 21 He informed David that Saul had massacred the priests of the Eternal.
Psalm 52 The Voice
Psalm 52 recalls the callous way Doeg and Saul put to death the 85 priests of Nob (1 Samuel 22:6–19). The psalm ends with a memorable image: the one who keeps faith with God is like a lush olive tree cared for in His garden. While those who do not trust in Him are snatched up and torn away, those who do right will flourish under His care.
1 Why do you boast of all the trouble you stir up, O mighty one, when the constant, unfailing love of God is what truly lasts? 2 Have you listened to yourself? Your tongue is like a sharp razor, full of lies that slash and tear right to the soul. 3 You’ve fallen in love with evil and have no interest in what He calls good. You prefer your own lies to speaking what is true.
4 You love words that destroy people, don’t you, lying tongue? 5 You won’t be smiling when the True God brings His justice and destroys you forever. He will come into your home, snatch you away, and pull you from the land of the living.
6 Those who are just will see what happens to you and be afraid. And some of them will laugh and say, 7 “Hey, look! Over there is the one who didn’t take shelter in the True God; Instead, he trusted in his great wealth and got what he wanted by destroying others!”
8 But my life is abundant—like a lush olive tree cared for at the house of the one True God. I put my trust in His kind love forever and ever; it will never fail. 9 Because of all You have done, I will humble myself and thank You forever. With Your faithful people at my side, I will put my hope in our good reputation.
August 11, 2014 5 Comments
You are really and truly and completely free. There is no kicker. There is no if, and, or but. You are free. You can do it right or wrong. You can obey or disobey. You can run from Christ or run to Christ. You can choose to become faithful… or unfaithful. You can cry, cuss, and spit, or laugh, sing, and dance… You’re free… really free.
Steve Brown (A Scandalous Freedom)
August 11, 2014 7 Comments
Father, please lead me today as You see best. Use the gifts You have given me to encourage others on their journey. Help me not to compare myself with others but to be content with who You have made me to be, Amen.
August 8, 2014 0 Comments
In our manner of speech, our plans of living, our dealings with others, our conduct and walk in the church and out of it – all should be done as becomes the gospel.
Albert Barnes
August 7, 2014 2 Comments
I received this fantastic poem via email from my brother in Christ Ben, hope you enjoy!
When God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and skill a man…
When God wants to mould a man to play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart to create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall praise,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects; how He hammers and hurts him,
And with mighty blows coverts him into frail shapes of clay that only God understands.
How his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands….
How He bends but never breaks when His good He undertakes.
How He uses whom He chooses…. with every purpose fuses him;
By every art induces him to try His splendour out
God knows what He’s about!
When God wants to take a man and shake a man and wake a man…
When God wants to make a man to do the Father’s will;
When He yearns with all His soul to create him large and whole…
With what cunning He prepares him… how He goads and never spares him!
How He whets him, He frets him and in poverty, begets him…
How often He disappoints whom He sacredly anoints!
With what wisdom He will hide him; never minding what betide him…
Makes him lonely so that only God’s high messages shall reach him…
So that He may surely teach him what His heavenly Father planned.
When God wants to name a man and tame a man to do His heavenly best….
When He tries the highest test that His reckoning may bring…
How He reins him and restrains him so his body scarce contains him…
When He fires him and inspires him, keeps him yearning,
Ever burning for the tantalizing goal.
Lures and lacerates his soul… sets a challenge for His spirit;
Draws it highest, then he is near it!
Then makes a jungle, then he clears it;
Makes a desert that he fears it, if he can…
So does God make a man!
Then to test His Spirit’s wrath, He throws a mountain in his path,
Puts a bitter choice before him and relentlessly stands o’er him…
Climb or perish, so He says…. But watch His purpose, watch His ways!
God’s plan is wondrously kind… could we understand His mind?
Fools are they who call God blind!
When his feet are torn and bleeding; yet His Spirit mounts unheeding…
Blazing newer paths and finds….
Lo, the crisis, lo, the shouts that would call the leader out…
When the people need salvation does he rise to lead the nation;
Then does God show His plan… and the world has found its man!
August 7, 2014 1 Comment
Unless I understand the Cross, I cannot understand why my commitment to what is right must be precedence over what I prefer.
Ravi Zacharias
August 5, 2014 0 Comments
Loving God, please bless me with character as I resist those who are critical, cynical, and vengeful toward me. Please help me respond in a way that reflects the character and Lordship of Christ. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
August 4, 2014 0 Comments
”God uses everything in our past, however painful. We gain experience through suffering. We can use our pain for someone else’s gain.
August 4, 2014 1 Comment
This powerful poem was read out yesterday at our morning service as we prayed and reflected on the situation in Gaza. It was deeply moving.
Yohanna has written a poem, Cry with us (see below), which he is happy for churches to use as they pray for the situation and cry with them at this difficult time. He believes people in the UK and around the world can help change the situation in Israel-Palestine… read more
Cry With Us
This is a season of weeping and mourning, but it is not void of hope.
Our tears are the bridge between brutality and humanity;
our tears are the salty gates for seeing a different reality;
our tears are facing soulless nations and a parched mentality;
our tears are the dam preventing rivers of animosity.
For the sake of the mourning men, cry with us to reflect your amity.
For the sake of the poor children, cry with us demanding sanity.
For the sake of lamenting mothers, refuse violence and stupidity.
Love your enemies and cry with them is the advice of divinity.
Bless those who curse is the path to genuine spirituality.
Pour tears of mercy; compassion is true piety.
Pray with tears, for the sake of spreading equity.
Followers of Jesus: crying is now our responsibility.
But don’t cry for your friends only;
but also for your Enemy.
Yohanna Kanatacho
August 1, 2014 0 Comments
Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that reared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them we shall find a nest of honey within them.
John Bunyan
August 1, 2014 2 Comments
1 Thessalonians 2:4 The Voice
but as we have been approved by God and entrusted with the good news, that’s how we are telling the world. We aren’t trying to please everybody, but God, the only One who can truly examine our motives.
July 25, 2014 6 Comments
There is a story behind every person, a reason why they are the way they are. Don’t be quick to judge. Be kind, show love and assume the best.
July 24, 2014 5 Comments
Proverbs 15:30 Amplified Bible
The light in the eyes [of him whose heart is joyful] rejoices the hearts of others, and good news nourishes the bones.
July 23, 2014 10 Comments
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke
July 21, 2014 1 Comment
In the midst of winter, I finally learned there was within me an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
July 18, 2014 3 Comments
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
Philo of Alexandria
July 17, 2014 2 Comments
“I remember the time an older man asked me when I was young, “Do you know what you are doing now?” I thought it was some kind of trick question.
Tell me,” I said.
You are building your memories,” he replied, “so make them good ones.”
Ravi Zacharias
July 14, 2014 4 Comments
Love is a fruit, in season at all times and within the reach of every hand. Anyone may gather it and no limit is set. Everyone can reach this love through mediation, the spirit of prayer, and sacrifice.
Mother Teresa
July 14, 2014 10 Comments
“Relic” is this weeks, Weekly Photo Challenge and i just had to post a photo of my original 1960 Gibson J45 sunburst! I love playing chords to the Lord in my private time with this guitar, and thinking of all the memories and lives it could have touched over 54 years. 🙂
July 11, 2014 3 Comments
If a bird is flying for pleasure, it flies with the wind, but if it meets danger it turns and faces the wind, in order that it may rise higher.
Corrie ten Boom
July 2, 2014 2 Comments
God is impressed, not with noise or size or wealth, but with quiet things…things done in secret- the inner motives, the true heart condition.
Charles Swindoll
July 1, 2014 3 Comments
Sarah & i had another lovely weekend with our brothers & sisters (church family). It’s fantastic as we live on the other side of the country to both our families which we miss! We had Vini on our 3rd Saturday sleep over in a row. We watched the Brazil match, played playStation & ate burgers!! 🙂 Also Phil, Sara & Hope came round and we played & sang music!
God has given us another blessed weekend! 🙂
Romans 12:10 Amplified Bible
Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another.
June 26, 2014 2 Comments
Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself.
William Inge
June 17, 2014 0 Comments
Engrave this upon my heart: There isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you’ve heard their story.
Mary Lou Kownacki
June 9, 2014 6 Comments
“Stones Under Rushing Water”
Why don’t we dance anymore
I’m not ok with that
Why don’t we laugh anymore
I’m not ok with that
The years go by like stones under rushing water
We only know when it’s gone
Why don’t we smile anymore
I’m not ok with that
Why don’t we dance slowly
I’m not ok with that
The years go by like stones under rushing water
We only know when it’s gone
Why don’t we dance anymore
I’m not ok with that
June 5, 2014 4 Comments
Each of us leads a secret thought life, an invisible life known only to us- it is not known to others. This secret life is usually very different from the visible you- the you that is known by others. Yet it is the real you, the you that is known by our God.
Patrick Morley
June 4, 2014 5 Comments
“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
June 3, 2014 27 Comments
Well it’s been an emotional (but rewarding) couple of weeks with a wedding sandwiched between 2 funerals. 1st was Sarah’s Grans funeral (see 🌹Beautiful Rosa🌹) then my sisters wedding (see My Sisters Wedding) and today we celebrated Sarah’s Spiritual guide & support Audrey Broderick’s life at a beautiful and moving memorial service. During the service Audrey had requested a poem to be read and i thought i’d share it with you….
You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she has lived.You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back
or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left.Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her
or you can be full of the love you shared.You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.You can remember her and only that she’s gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she’d want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.David Harkins, © 1981
May 31, 2014 3 Comments
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and leave beauty in our hearts, and we’re never, ever the same.
iChristian 
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