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Showing posts from March 23, 2020

Are you having user problems?

A few people have contacted me to say they are having trouble leaving comments and 'following' the blog. As far as I can see the settings should allow you to do both. Looking for help online, there is some suggestion that this may be difficult if you use older web browsers and some Apple systems. They suggest downloading Google Chrome or making sure your browser is up to date. The 'subscribe' button does seem to work - at least it did for me when I tested it last night! If you click 'subscribe' at the top of the page and fill in your email details you will be sent an alert each time there is a new post. Those of you who have my personal contact, please let me know if this still doesn't work! Thanks!

Self-Isolation (3)

Dear friends of our have been locked in their flat for several days. We do not think it is coronavirus but because one member of the family has the symptoms of a bad cold, the whole family has been asked to quarantine themselves. The closeness of their relationships mean that it is more than likely they all have the illness, even if they are not all showing symptoms yet. Perhaps this can help us understand how, through Adam and Eve's sin, all human beings have become sinful. " Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned" (Romans 5:12) Adam and Eve 'caught' sin. Sin spread like a disease to all their close relatives, and with sin came death. In self-isolating themselves from God, they also quarantined their descendants from God. Tragically, as human beings we are born into this tragic condition - like being born in the home of a quarantined family. Babies and young...

Serving in the Shadow of Death

The fourth verse of the twenty third Psalm says: Even though I walk  through  the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,      for you are with me; your rod and your staff,      they comfort me. The image is something like this. A Middle Eastern shepherd is leading his sheep through the wilderness in search of green pastures. Their route must take them through a wadi: a dry river valley, quite narrow, and deep enough that it is in continuous shadow. An ideal place for hungry predators to set an ambush! This is the Valley of the Shadow or Death! In the Psalm, the sheep know they are safe. The  shepherd goes in first, with his club and staff. If there is a hungry lion hiding there it will have to face the shepherd before it can sink it’s teeth into any lamb steaks! The shepherd is effectively saying “Over my dead body” to any hostile creature that might attack his flock. Jesus once said “ I am ...