Letter from the Manse

I spend much of my life on the telephone. It’s a wonderful invention. But it’s also a very dangerous device. Let me list some of the problems.

1) The telephone can divert the flow of prayer. God wants his people to talk to him. That’s one reason why he sends all sorts of experiences into our lives – so that we’ll talk to him about them. That should be the automatic reaction of the believer when joys or troubles come: …

“I will come to your temple with burnt offerings and fulfil my vows to you, vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble”.. “I will fulfil my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people” (Psalms 66:13, 116:14).

The psalmists often made vows to God. And then they reminded themselves that they must fulfil their vows. The writer of Ecclesiastes warns us, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay in …

Twenty-five shopping days to Christmas…

Christmas is a dilemma for us all. For years, Scrooge-like, I muttered and groaned about Christmas. I said that I’d like to abolish it completely. I refused to put up any decorations in my home. I sent as few cards as I could decently get away with. I never managed to escape Christmas entirely. But some Christians do. They simply ignore the Christmas season. They send no cards, accept no presents, sing no …

I hope you can read this! We take it for granted that most people can read. But that was not true in Bible times. In the Greek and Roman world, only a small minority of people ever learned to read. The proportion of Jewish men who could read was certainly higher, but there were still many who never learned – and of course, it was almost unknown for a Jewish woman to read or write. Another fact we tend to …

Albania… a wonderful, tragic, beautiful, confusing country. Perhaps the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen. The astonishing blue of the Adriatic sea, the towering mountains, the rivers and lakes, clear as crystal.. there are times when you catch your breath in awe. But oh, the mess. A giant demolition site – broken roads, rusted bridges, crumbling concrete bunkers, piles of rubble everywhere. Hardly a building standing intact. Did it all just fall apart, ruined by the ravages of time …